Mileston 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 ...

. Mileston is located on

U.S. Highway 49E U.S. Route 49E (US 49E) is an United States Numbered Highways, U.S. Highway in the Mississippi Delta, Delta region of Mississippi. It travels through Yazoo County, Mississippi, Yazoo, Holmes County, Mississippi, Holmes, Leflore County, Mississip ...

and Highway 12,Mission
" Mileston Elementary School. May 4, 2006. Retrieved on July 9, 2017. approximately south of Tchula, approximately north of Thornton and approximately southeast of

Marcella Marcella is a Roman cognomen and Italian given name, the feminine version of Marcello (Mark in English). Marcella means warlike, martial, and strong. It could also mean 'young warrior'. The origin of the name Marcella is Latin. Marcella may refer ...

. It is about north of

Yazoo City Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's m ...

. Mileston is located on the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

History

Mileston is named for a former plantation. In 1940, the United States government purchased approximately ten-thousand acres of the former W. E. Jones estate as part of the

Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm Se ...

. The land was split into seventy individual plots with an additional cooperative farm that included thirty plots. The community was home to a cotton gin, school, store, blacksmith shop, and medical clinic. W. Ralph Eubanks' father taught

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

at the Mileston school. A post office operated under the name Mileston from 1888 to 1953. Much of the land in Mileston is owned by descendants of the original African American sharecroppers. In 2000, the West Holmes Community Development Organization and the state of Mississippi began operating a

farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

in Mileston.

Marion Post Wolcott Marion Post Wolcott (June 7, 1910 – November 24, 1990) was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty, the Jim Crow South, and deprivation. Early life Marion Post ...

documented people and scenes from the Mileston plantation in 1939 as part of her work with the

Farm Security Administration The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937). The FSA is famous for its small but ...

Civil Rights Movement

Mileston was the epicenter of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

in Holmes County. In March 1963, the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...

began work in Holmes County after being contacted by residents of Mileston. The next month, fourteen African Americans from Mileston (known as the First Fourteen) traveled to Lexington and unsuccessfully registered to vote. One of the first citizenship schools in Mississippi was held at the Mileston community center and many attendees became members of the

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), also referred to as the Freedom Democratic Party, was an American political party created in 1964 as a branch of the populist Freedom Democratic organization in the state of Mississippi during the ...

Education

Residents are in the Holmes County School District, and are assigned to

Holmes County Central High School Holmes County Central High School is a senior high school in unincorporated Holmes County, Mississippi, United States, about south of Lexington.Hartman Turnbow Hartman Turnbow (March 20, 1905 – August 15, 1988) was a Mississippi farmer, orator, and activist during the Civil Rights Movement. On April 9, 1963, Turnbow was one of the first African Americans to attempt to register to vote in Mississipp ...

, activist during the

Images

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Holmes County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi