Letohatchee is an unincorporated community in Lowndes County,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, United States. It has a very small population and four businesses. The community is part of the Montgomery

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

. In 1900 and 1917, whites committed a total of seven

lynchings Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

of blacks, half of the total 14 in Lowndes County from 1877 to 1950."Supplement: Lynchings by County/ Louisiana: Ouachita ", 2nd edition
, from ''Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror'', 2015, Equal Justice Institute, Montgomery, Alabama In 1900 they killed all four members of the Jim Cross family.

Location

Letohatchee is located just south of Montgomery in Lowndes County. In the 21st century, much of Letohatchee is uninhabited, with large pastures and uncut woods. Its area is estimated at 18 miles across. This was an area of extensive cotton cultivation into the early decades of the 20th century, and Lowndes County was majority black. Whites' efforts to maintain

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

raised tensions in the black-majority county. The Democrat-dominated legislature disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites by provisions of a new constitution in 1901. Whites also resorted to racial terrorism in the form of

. In 1900 a mob killed a black man accused of killing a white man. When local black resident Jim Cross objected, he was killed, too, at his house; whites then shot and killed his wife, son and daughter. In 1917 William Powell and his brother (recorded as Samuel or Jesse) were both lynched for alleged insolence to a white farmer on the road."EJI Dedicates Marker to Commemorate Lynchings in Letohatchee, Alabama"
, Equal Justice Initiative, 1 August 2016 No whites were prosecuted in these cases. On July 31, 2016, a historical marker was erected by the

Equal Justice Initiative The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and othe ...

to commemorate these extrajudicial executions.

Demographics

Letohatchee was listed on the 1880 and 1890 U.S. Census as a separate community; these were the only years when it was listed separately. It is now included in Montgomery. The zip code for Letohatchee is 36047 and the population for the entire code (of which Letohatchee is a part) was 1,396 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Of that, it is 71% black and 29% white (with less than 1% for other races).

Industry

Letohatchee has two industrial plants, four convenience stores and one restaurant/cattle yard and a post office. The American Colloid Company operates a

Bentonite Bentonite () is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelling capacity than Ca-mon ...

clay mining operation here.

Education

Doug Jones at a Calhoun Tigers and Pike Road Patriots football game

Calhoun High School is the secondary school for the community.

Gallery

File:Letohatchee, Alabama Post Office 36047.JPG, Letohatchee Post Office ( ZIP Code: 36047 File:Calhoun Colored School Principal's House 2012.JPG,

Calhoun Colored School The Calhoun Colored School (1892–1945) was a private boarding and day school in Calhoun, Lowndes County, Alabama, about southwest of the capital of Montgomery. It was founded in 1892 by Charlotte Thorn and Mabel Dillingham, from New England, in ...

(1892-1945) was located near Letohatchee. The principal's house, the only surviving original building, was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 26, 1976.

References

External links

{{Coord, 32, 07, 47, N, 86, 29, 09, W, type:city_region:US-AL, display=title Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Lowndes County, Alabama Montgomery metropolitan area Alabama placenames of Native American origin