Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in Mississippi: Tallahatchie County/Charleston

Monday, October 7, 2019

Population loss in Mississippi: Tallahatchie County/Charleston

It all started here.

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

Source: Wikipedia (Tallahatchie County, Charleston)

Charleston is the larger of two county seats in Tallahatchie 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:

10.1% - Tallahatchie County
21.3% - Mississippi
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

14.9% - Tallahatchie County
15.9% - Mississippi
16.0% - U.S.

% of population living in poverty:

35.2% - Tallahatchie County
19.7% - Mississippi
11.8% - U.S.

The last time Tallahatchie County voted for a Republican candidate for president was in 1984. Clinton received 56.9% of the vote in 2016. George Wallace received 60% of the vote in 1968.

Tallahatchie County Library, Charleston

Related reading:
Emmett Till Sign Is Hit With Bullets Again, 35 Days After Being Replaced. (The New York Times, 8/6/2018)

That changed in 2007. Eight signs were erected in northwest Mississippi, including at the spot on the river where fishermen in 1955 discovered Emmett’s mutilated corpse tethered to a cotton-gin fan. But a year later, vandals tore down the sign on the riverbed. It was replaced.

But then bullets were fired into that marker — more than 100 rounds over several years. A new sign was installed in June. Thirty-five days later, on July 26, it was shot up again.

“To drive up and see it like that, I was sad,” said Patrick Weems, a founder of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Miss. “When we finally replaced it, it was an amazing feeling that this sign that had been obliterated was finally restored.”