Greenwood is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Leflore 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, located at the eastern edge of the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

region, approximately 96 miles north of the state capital,

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

, and 130 miles south of the riverport of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. It was a center of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

planter culture in the 19th century. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area. Greenwood developed at the confluence of the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers, which form the

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before th ...

History

Native Americans

The flood plain of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

has long been an area rich in vegetation and wildlife, fed by the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries. Long before Europeans migrated to America, the

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

and

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...

Indian nations settled in the Delta's bottomlands and throughout what is now central Mississippi. They were descended from

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

who had lived in the area for thousands of years. The

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern United States, Midwestern, Eastern United States, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from appr ...

had built earthwork mounds in this area and throughout the Mississippi Valley, beginning about 950 CE. Their culture thrived for hundreds of years. In the nineteenth century, the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...

in the Southeast suffered increasing encroachment on their territory by European-American settlers from the United States. Under pressure from the United States government, in 1830 the

principal chief

Greenwood LeFlore Greenwood LeFlore or Greenwood Le Fleur (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) served as the elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw in 1830 before removal. Before that, the nation was governed by three district chiefs and a council of chiefs. A wea ...

and other Choctaw leaders signed the

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty which was signed on September 27, 1830, and proclaimed on February 24, 1831, between the Choctaw American Indian tribe and the United States Government. This treaty was the first removal treaty wh ...

, ceding most of their remaining land to the United States in exchange for land in

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

, what is now southeastern Oklahoma. The government opened the land for sale and settlement by European Americans. LeFlore came to regret his decision on land cession, saying in 1843 that he was "sorry to say that the benefits realized from

he treaty He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

by my people were by no means equal to what I had a right to expect, nor to what they were justly entitled."

European settlement

The first Euro-American settlement on the banks of the

was a trading post founded in 1834 by Colonel Dr. John J. Dilliard and known as Dilliard's Landing. The settlement had competition from Greenwood Leflore's rival landing called Point Leflore, located three miles up the Yazoo River. The rivalry ended when Captain James Dilliard donated parcels in exchange for a commitment from the townsmen to maintain an all-weather turnpike to the hill section to the east, along with a stagecoach road to the more established settlements to the northwest. The settlement was incorporated as "Greenwood" in 1844, named after Chief Greenwood LeFlore. The success of the city, founded during a strong international demand for

, was based on its strategic location in the heart of the Delta: on the easternmost point of the

alluvial plain An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the sma ...

, and astride the Tallahatchie and Yazoo rivers. The city served as a shipping point for cotton to major markets in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vic ...

, and

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. The construction of railroads through the area in the 1880s revitalized the city; two rail lines ran to downtown Greenwood close to the Yazoo River, and shortened transportation to markets. Greenwood again emerged as a prime shipping point for cotton. Downtown's Front Street, bordering the Yazoo, was dominated by cotton

factors Factor, a Latin word meaning "who/which acts", may refer to: Commerce * Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent * Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate * Factors of production, su ...

and related businesses, earning that section the name "Cotton Row".

20th century

The city continued to prosper well into the 1940s. Cotton production suffered in Mississippi during the infestation of the

boll weevil The boll weevil (''Anthonomus grandis'') is a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central Mexico, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growin ...

in the early 20th century; however, for many years the bridge over the Yazoo displayed the sign "World's Largest Inland Long Staple Cotton Market". Cotton cultivation and processing became largely mechanized in the first half of the 20th century, displacing thousands of

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

and tenant farmers. Since the late 20th century, some Mississippi farmers have begun to replace cotton with

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...

s as commodity crops; with the textile manufacturing industry having shifted overseas, farmers can gain stronger prices for the newer crops, used mostly as animal feed. Greenwood's Grand Boulevard was once named one of America's 10 most beautiful streets by the U.S. Chambers of Commerce and the Garden Clubs of America. Sally Humphreys Gwin, a charter member of the Greenwood Garden Club, planted the 1,000

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

trees that line Grand Boulevard. In 1950, Gwin received a citation from the National Congress of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...

in recognition of her work in the conservation of trees.

Geography

Greenwood is located at (33.518719, -90.183883). 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 the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Climate

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 14,490 people, 4,924 households, and 2,793 families residing in the city.

2010 census

At the 2010 census, there were 15,205 people and 6,022 households in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was 1,237.7 per square mile (771.6/km). There were 6,759 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 30.4%

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 on ...

, 67.0%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

, 0.1% Native American, 0.9%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, <0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, <0.1% from other races, and 0.5% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, 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 Vic ...

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 1.1% of the population. Among the 6,022 households, 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.8% were married couples living together, 29.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.6% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals living alone and 10.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.16.

Mississippi Blues Trail markers

Radio station WGRM on Howard Street was the location of

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

's first live broadcast in 1940. On Sunday nights, King performed live

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

as part of a quartet. In memory of this event, the

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) ...

has placed its third historic marker in this town at the site of the former radio station. Another Mississippi Blues Trail marker is placed near the grave of the blues singer

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

. A third Blues Trail marker notes the

Elks Lodge The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an American fraternal order founded in 1868, originally as a social club in New York City. History The Elks began in 1868 as a so ...

in the city, which was an important black organization. A fourth Blues Trail marker was dedicated to

Hubert Sumlin Hubert Charles Sumlin (November 16, 1931 – December 4, 2011) was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer, best known for his "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions" as a member of Howlin ...

that is located along the Yazoo River on River Road.

Gallery of Mississippi Blues Trail markers in Greenwood

File:ElksHartLodgeNo640BluesTrailMarker.jpg, Elks Hart Lodge No. 640 Blues Trail marker File:BaptistTownBluesTrailMarker.jpg, Baptist Town Blues Trail marker File:RobertJohnsonMississippiBluesTrailMarker.jpg,

Blues trail marker located north of Greenwood on Money Road File:WGRMRadioStudioBluesTrailMarker.jpg, WGRM Radio Studio Blues Trail marker File:HubertSumlinBluesTrailMarker.jpg,

Blues Trail marker

Government and infrastructure

Local government

Greenwood is governed under a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

form of government, composed of council members elected from seven

single-member A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

wards and headed by a

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, who is elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

State and federal representation

The

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

operates two post offices in Greenwood: Greenwood and Leflore.

Media and publishing

Newspapers, magazines and journals

* ''

The Greenwood Commonwealth ''The Greenwood Commonwealth'' is a newspaper serving in and operating out of Greenwood, Mississippi Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta ...

Television

WABG-TV WABG-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Greenwood, Mississippi, United States, serving the Delta area as an affiliate of ABC and Fox. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside two low-power stations: Grenada-licensed N ...

- ABC/Fox affiliate * WMAO-TV - PBS affiliate

AM/FM radio

* WABG,

960 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 960 kHz: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) classifies 960 AM as a regional frequency. CFAC is the only station in Canada and the United States on 960 AM which broadcasts ...

(

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

) * WGNG, 106.3 FM ( hip-hop/

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

) * WGNL,

104.3 FM The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 104.3 MHz: Argentina * La Hormiga in Rosario, Santa Fe * Liverpool in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires * LRM424 Platino in Las Rosas, Santa Fe * LRP759 Ciudad in San Javier, Santa Fe * LRS341 ...

(

urban adult contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music ...

/blues) * WGRM, 1240 AM (

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

) *

WGRM-FM WGRM-FM (93.9 FM broadcasting, FM) was an American radio station city of license, licensed to serve the community of Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. The station, established in 1989 by Clay Ewing, was last owned and operated by Christian Br ...

, 93.9 FM (gospel) * WMAO-FM,

90.9 FM The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 90.9 MHz: Argentina * BT in Rosario, Santa Fe * Boing in Rojas, Buenos Aires * Chascomús in Chascomús, Buenos Aires * Extremo in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires * La Plata in La Plata, ...

(

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

broadcasting) * WKXG, 92.7 FM (

Country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

) KIX-92.7 *

WYMX WYMX (99.1 FM, "Max 99") is a classic hits formatted radio station licensed to Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. The station is currently owned by Telesouth Communications.http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/st ...

, 99.1 FM (

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

)

Transportation

Railroads

Greenwood is served by two major rail lines.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Greenwood, connecting New Orleans to Chicago from Greenwood station.

Air transportation

Greenwood is served by Greenwood–Leflore Airport (GWO) to the east, and is located midway between

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

, and

. It is about halfway between

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, and

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Highways

U.S. Route 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a 1,625-mile (2,615 km) route extending from ...

runs through Greenwood on its way from Georgia's Atlantic coast (

Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick () is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-largest urban area on the Georgia coastline after Sa ...

) to the White Sands of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

(east of Las Cruces). * U.S. Route 49 passes through Greenwood as it stretches between

Piggott, Arkansas Piggott is a city in Clay County, Arkansas, United States. It is one of the two county seats of Clay County, along with Corning. It is the northern terminus of the Arkansas segment of the Crowley's Ridge Parkway, a National Scenic Byway. As of t ...

, south to Gulfport. * Other Greenwood highways include

Mississippi Highway 7 Mississippi Highway 7 (MS 7) runs generally north–south from the Tennessee state line in Benton County to Belzoni, Mississippi. It travels approximately , serving Humphreys, Leflore, Carroll, Grenada, Yalobusha, Lafayette, Marshal ...

Education

Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District (GLCSD) operates public schools. Previously the majority of the city was in Greenwood Public School District while small portions were in the

Leflore County School District The Leflore County School District (LCSD) was a public school district headquartered in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. The district served areas in Leflore County outside of the City of Greenwood, including the city of Itta Bena, the town ...

. These two districts consolidated into GLCSD on July 1, 2019. Greenwood High School is the only public high school in Greenwood. As of 2014, the student body is 99% black.

Amanda Elzy High School Amanda Elzy High School (AEHS) is a high school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, south of Greenwood, and part of the Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District. , it had 488 students in grades 9–12 and 36.37 teachers (fu ...

was formerly of the Leflore County district. It was recently taken over by the State of Mississippi for poor performance as a result of deficient leadership.

Pillow Academy Pillow Academy (PA) is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in unincorporated Leflore County, Mississippi, near Greenwood.unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Leflore County, near Greenwood. Delta Streets Academy, a newly founded private school located in downtown Greenwood, has an enrollment of nearly 50 students. It has continued to increase enrollment. St. Francis Catholic School, run by the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, in the southern United States of America. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes the northern and central parts of the state of Mississippi, an a ...

, provides classes from kindergarten through sixth grade. In addition, North New Summit School provides educational services for special-needs and at-risk children from kindergarten through high school.

In popular culture

Nightmare in Badham County ''Nightmare in Badham County'' is a 1976 American women-in-prison television film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Chuck Connors, Deborah Raffin, and Lynne Moody. Its plot follows two female college students from California who, w ...

'' (1976), ''

Ode to Billy Joe "Ode to Billie Joe" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry released by Capitol Records in July 1967, and later used as the title-track of her debut album. Five weeks after its release, the song topped ''Billboard's'' Pop singl ...

'' (1976), and ''

The Help ''The Help'' is a historical fiction novel by American author Kathryn Stockett and published by Penguin Books in 2009. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s. A ''USA To ...

'' (2011) were filmed in Greenwood. The 1991 movie ''

Mississippi Masala ''Mississippi Masala'' is a 1991 romantic drama film directed by Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, and Roshan Seth. Set primarily in rural Mississippi, the film explores ...

'' was also set and filmed in Greenwood.

Notable people

Valerie Brisco-Hooks Valerie Ann Brisco-Hooks (born July 6, 1960, in Greenwood, Mississippi) is an Olympian who won three gold medals as an Olympic track and field athlete at the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles, California, making her the first Olympian to win gold ...

, Olympic athlete * Nora Jean Bruso, blues singer and songwriter *

Louis Coleman Harold Louis Coleman III (born April 4, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers. Early life Coleman was born in Green ...

, Major League Baseball pitcher * Byron De La Beckwith, white supremacist, assassin of civil rights leader

Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...

* Carlos Emmons, professional football player *

Betty Everett Betty Jean Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001) was an American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling " Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", and her duet " Let It Be Me" with Jerry Butler ...

, R&B vocalist and pianist *

James L. Flanagan James Loton Flanagan (August 26, 1925 – August 25, 2015) was an American electrical engineer. He was Rutgers University's vice president for research until 2004. He was also director of Rutgers' Center for Advanced Information Processing and t ...

, electrical engineer and speech scientist *

Alphonso Ford Alphonso Gene Ford (October 31, 1971 – September 4, 2004) was an American professional basketball player. A 1.92 m (6 ft 3 in) tall, 98 kg (216 lbs.) shooting guard, he was one of the greatest scorers in college basketball histo ...

, professional basketball player *

Webb Franklin William Webster Franklin (born December 13, 1941) is an American lawyer, politician, and jurist from Mississippi. As a Republican, he served in the United States House of Representatives representing Mississippi's 2nd congressional district fr ...

, United States congressman *

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...

, actor * Jim Gallagher, Jr., professional golfer *

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is a retired American singer-songwriter, who was one of the first female artists in America to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 with her Sou ...

, singer/songwriter * Sherrod Gideon, professional football player *

Gerald Glass Gerald Damon Glass (born November 12, 1967) is a retired American professional basketball player. Graduating from Amanda Elzy High School in Greenwood at the age of sixteen, Glass went to Delta State University. Alcorn State University coach Da ...

, professional basketball player *

Guitar Slim Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song " The Things That I Used to Do", for Specialty Records. It is listed in t ...

, blues musician *

Lusia Harris Lusia Mae Harris (February 10, 1955 – January 18, 2022) was an American professional basketball player. Harris is considered to be one of the pioneers of women's basketball. She played for Delta State University and won three consecutive Ass ...

, basketball player * Endesha Ida Mae Holland, American scholar, playwright, and civil rights activist * Dave Hoskins, professional baseball player *

Kent Hull James Kent Hull (January 13, 1961 – October 18, 2011) was an American football offensive lineman in the National Football League and United States Football League, more precisely a center for the New Jersey Generals of the USFL and Buffalo Bi ...

, professional football player * Tom Hunley, ex-slave and the inspiration for the character "Hambone" in J. P. Alley's syndicated cartoon feature, ''Hambone's Meditations'' *

, blues musician *

Jermaine Jones Jermaine Junior Jones (born November 3, 1981) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a defensive midfielder. Born in Germany to an American father and German mother, he came up through the German club system and represe ...

, soccer player for the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

and United States national team *

Cleo Lemon Cleo Lemon Jr. (born August 16, 1979) is a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and former American football quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League. He most recently played for the Toronto Arg ...

, Toronto Argonauts quarterback * Walter "Furry" Lewis, blues musician * Bernie Machen, president of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

* Della Campbell MacLeod (ca. 1884 – ?), author and journalist *

Paul Maholm Paul Gurner Maholm (pronounced Mah-HALL-uhm; born June 25, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. Earl ...

, baseball pitcher * Matt Miller, baseball pitcher *

Mulgrew Miller Mulgrew Miller (August 13, 1955 – May 29, 2013) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson. Aspects of their styles remained in ...

, jazz pianist * Carrie Nye, actress *

W. Allen Pepper Jr. William Allen Pepper Jr. (July 20, 1941 – January 24, 2012) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Education and career Born in Greenwood, ...

, US federal judge * Fenton Robinson, blues singer/guitarist *

Laverne Smith Laverne Smith (born September 12, 1954) is a former American football running back who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round of the 1977 NFL Draft ...

, NFL player *

Tonea Stewart Tonea Stewart (born February 3, 1947), also Tommie Stewart, is an American actress and university professor. She is the former dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts of Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama.Catherine Bullo ...

, actress *

, blues guitarist *

Donna Tartt Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist. Early life Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...

, novelist * James K. Vardaman, Mississippi governor and senator * Charlie Wells, hardboiled mystery writer, author of ''Let the Night Fall'' (1953) and ''The Last Kill'' (1955) * Willye B. White, Olympic athlete

References

External links

City of Greenwood
{{authority control Cities in Mississippi County seats in Mississippi Cities in Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area Cities in Leflore County, Mississippi Mississippi Blues Trail Populated places established in 1830 1830 establishments in Mississippi

History

Native Americans

European settlement

20th century

Geography

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

2010 census

Mississippi Blues Trail markers

Gallery of Mississippi Blues Trail markers in Greenwood

Government and infrastructure

Local government

State and federal representation

Media and publishing

Newspapers, magazines and journals

Television

AM/FM radio

Transportation

Railroads

Air transportation

Highways

Education

In popular culture

Notable people

See also

References

External links