Ebenezer is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located in Holmes 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 ...

. Ebenezer is located at the west end of the eastern segment of

Mississippi Highway 14 Mississippi Highway 14 (MS 14) is a state highway that runs from west to east in the U.S. State of Mississippi. MS 14 serves the counties of Issaquena, Sharkey, Humphreys, Holmes, Attala, Winston, and Noxubee. MS 14 exists in two sections. T ...

, approximately south of the county seat of Lexington and approximately west of

Goodman Goodman or Goodmans may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Goodman Games, American publisher. * Goodman Global, an American HVAC manufacturer. * Goodman Group, an Australian property company. * Goodmans Industries, a British electronic co ...

. According to a 1905 source, Ebenezer was named by settlers from "the old Jewish city". It may have been a destination of some German-Jewish immigrants, who settled mostly in Lexington in the county beginning in the 1830s. They were joined later in the century by Russian Jewish immigrants. The community built Temple Beth El in Lexington in 1905; it closed in 2009 because of declining population."A Final Yom Kippur in the Delta for Mississippi Community Begun in 1830s"
''

The Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, '' ...

'' Perry Wilbon Howard was born in Ebenezer in 1877 to African-American parents who had been enslaved. He became an attorney among the second generation of African-American lawyers in the state, with a practice in the state capital of Jackson. Even after the state legislature disfranchised most blacks through provisions of the 1890 constitution, Howard continued to be active as a member of the Republican Party. He served as a national committeeman from the state, and a

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

activist. Appointed as an aide in the office of the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

in the administration of President

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

, Howard was the highest-ranking African American in government at the time. Robert G. Clark Jr. was born October 3, 1928 in Ebenezer and presently resides there. In 1967 he was the first African American elected to the Mississippi State Legislature since the Reconstruction era. Until 1976 he was the only African-American representative in the state house, having been repeatedly returned to office. In 1992 he was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the Mississippi House of Representatives and he continued to serve in that position until retired in 2003.

References

Unincorporated communities in Holmes County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi {{HolmesCountyMS-geo-stub