Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Population loss in Mississippi: Coahoma County/Clarksdale


It all started here.

Population loss as in major -- 50% or more.

Source:  Wikipedia (Coahoma County, Clarksdale)


Clarksdale is the county seat of Coahoma County.

Population loss by degrees:  80-90%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.


Source:  U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:
  • 16.9% - Coahoma County
  • 21.3% - Mississippi
  • 30.9% - U.S.
Percentage of population 65 and older:
  • 15.4% - Coahoma County
  • 15.9% - Mississippi
  • 16.0% - U.S.
% of population living in poverty:
  • 34.8% - Coahoma County
  • 19.7% - Mississippi
  • 11.8% - U.S.

The last time Coahoma County voted for a Republican candidate for president was in 1972.  Clinton received 71.6% of the vote in 2016.  George Wallace received 33.7% of the vote in 1968.
Related reading:
Driving the Juke Joint Trail.  (The New York Times, 5/17/2013)
I expected my juke joint pilgrimage to feel like a peripatetic wake. Decades ago, blues luminaries like Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson traveled across the South, guitar or harmonica in hand, from joint to joint for just enough money and food to get to the next one. In doing so they laid the foundation for nearly every form of popular American music that would follow.\ 
But today, juke joints, once too numerous to count, have slipped away as their owners pass on. When I asked Roger Stolle, a founder of the Juke Joint Festival, held annually in Clarksdale, Miss., how many such places still exist, he replied: “With actual real, live blues music at least sporadically? Maybe five.”

Other Mississippi population loss posts:
Tunica County/Tunica.  (10/2/2019)

Population loss series:
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