De Kalb is a town in and the county seat of Kemper County,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, United States. The population was 1,164 at the 2010 census. De Kalb is named after General

Johann de Kalb Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb (June 19, 1721 – August 19, 1780), born Johann Kalb, was a Franconian-born French military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was mortal ...

, a Franconian-French military officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

Geography

De Kalb is located in central Kemper County at (32.769751, -88.650407).

Mississippi Highway 16 Mississippi Highway 16 (MS 16) is a state highway in central Mississippi. It runs east–west for , from the Mississippi Delta region to the Alabama state line. MS 16 serves 8 counties: Issaquena, Sharkey, Yazoo, Humphreys, Madison, Leake ...

passes through the north side of the town, leading east to Scooba and west to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Mississippi Highway 39 Mississippi Highway 39 (MS 39) is a major south to north highway in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Spanning , it connects Meridian and NAS Meridian with DeKalb and Shuqualak. Route description MS 39 begins in Lauderdale County in the city of ...

(Main Avenue) passes through the center of De Kalb, leading north to Shuqualak and south to

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, De Kalb has a total area of , of which , or 0.22%, are water.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States Census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 877 people, 480 households, and 292 families residing in the town.

2000 census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 972 people, 388 households, and 233 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 444 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 70.31%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 18.56%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.21% Native American, and 0.93% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 0.93% of the population. There were 388 households, out of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.8% were married couples living together, 20.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.7% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 3.03. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 23.0% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 25.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.3 males. The median income for a household in the town was $21,000, and the median income for a family was $24,886. Males had a median income of $26,477 versus $16,964 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $11,171. About 23.3% of families and 28.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 38.9% of those under age 18 and 21.0% of those age 65 or over.

Education

De Kalb is served by the Kemper County School District.

Notable people

Eddie Briggs Eddie Jerome Briggs (born October 14, 1949) is an American politician and lawyer. After service in the Mississippi State Senate, Briggs was the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, a position which he held from 1992 to 1996. He was the first ...

, former

Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi The lieutenant governor of Mississippi is the second-highest ranking executive officer in Mississippi, below the governor of Mississippi. The office of lieutenant governor was established when Mississippi became a state, abolished for a few decade ...

* Bud Brown, former

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly dif ...

for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

Cleo Brown Cleopatra Brown (December 8, 1907 or 1909 – April 15, 1995), known as Cleo Brown, C. Patra Brown or Cleo Patra Brown, was an American blues and jazz vocalist and pianist. She was the first woman instrumentalist to receive the NEA Jazz Masters ...

, blues and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

vocalist and pianist * John A. Clark, member of the Mississippi State Senate from 1916 to 1920 * Lyscum Elbert Crowson,

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

minister * J. H. Rush, physician * John H. Stennis, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1969 to 1984 * Louis Westerfield, lawyer and former dean of the

University of Mississippi School of Law The University of Mississippi School of Law, also known as Ole Miss Law, is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The School of Law offers the only dedicated aerospace law curr ...

References

{{authority control Towns in Kemper County, Mississippi Towns in Mississippi County seats in Mississippi Meridian micropolitan area