Minter City is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Leflore County and Tallahatchie County,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, United States. It is part of the

Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area The Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area is a micropolitan area in the northwestern Delta region of Mississippi that covers two counties - Leflore and Carroll. As of the 2000 census, the USA had a population of 48,716 (though a July 1, 200 ...

, and is within 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 Yazo ...

. Mississippi Highway 8 intersects U.S. Route 49E southwest of Minter City, and the Tallahatchie River flows to the east. The post office on U.S. Route 49E has the ZIP Code 38944.

History

The original settlement was known as "Walnut Place Landing" and "Minter City Landing". After traveling down Charley's Trace (also known as the Old Trading Trail), Spanish explorer

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...

may have crossed the Tallahatchie River near Minter City as his party traveled west in 1541. In 1849, James A. Towne bought in the area for 25 cents per acre, and built a log house on the western shore of the river at Minter City. Known as "Uncle Jimmy", Towne supported the local Methodist church, and was known to give each new preacher a wagon and mule. The "James Minter Ferry", documented in 1868, enabled the crossing of the Tallahatchie River at this site. Minter City became a junction for two railroads, both now abandoned. The Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City Railroad was established in 1890, and the Minter City Southern and Western Railroad, a shortline railroad servicing the sawmills west of Minter City, began operating in 1904. A depot and railroad facilities were erected in Minter City. The African-American educator William H. Holtzclaw, founder of the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute for the Training of Colored Young Men and Young Women (now part of Hinds Community College) in

Utica, Mississippi Utica is a town in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 820 at the 2010 census, down from 966 at the 2000 census. Utica is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Utica was originally an area known ...

, wrote about his experiences establishing schools for African-Americans in Mississippi in his book ''The Black Man's Burden'', published in 1915. In it, he describes meeting with a wealthy white plantation owner in Minter City to discuss the establishment of a school there:

I believe you are about to engage in a good work, and I would like to see the Negro educated, but, candidly, I do not think that the kind of school you would like to start would do any good in the Delta. I really think it would do harm. What I want here is Negroes who can make cotton, and they don't need education to help them make cotton. I could not use educated Negroes on my place, but since you have asked me for advice, I will tell you candidly that here in the Delta is no place to start a school.

The Frank Streater Consolidated School (White) was constructed in Minter City in 1921. The abandoned building burned in 2013. Minter City was the site of a lynching in 1933. Richard Roscoe, an African-American Baptist deacon and tenant farmer, had been in a physical altercation with the white plantation manager, and both men had been injured. An hour later, Roscoe was abducted, shot dead, and then dragged through the streets of Minter City tied to the back of the sheriff's car. File:MinterCityLusiaHarrisSign.jpg, Sign on U.S. Highway 49E celebrating Minter City as the hometown of Lusia Harris File:Minter_City_Post_Office.jpg, Post office File:Frank Streater Consolidated School, Minter City, Leflore County, Mississippi.jpg, Frank Streater Consolidated School

Education

Areas in Leflore County are is in the Greenwood-Leflore School District. Residents are zoned to Amanda Elzy High School. This area was formerly served by the Leflore County School District. T.Y. Fleming Elementary School was in the area, but it closed in 2009. The editor of the ''

Greenwood Commonwealth ''The Greenwood Commonwealth'' is a daily newspaper published in 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 region, ...

'' criticized the closure. Effective July 1, 2019 the Leflore district district consolidated into the Greenwood-Leflore School District. Areas in the Tallahatchie County portion are zoned to the

West Tallahatchie School District The West Tallahatchie School District (WTSD) is a public school district with its headquarters in the Charles M. George Facility for Educational Services in unincorporated area, unincorporated Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, Tallahatchie County ...

. The local schools for West Tallahatchie are R. H. Bearden Elementary School and West Tallahatchie High School. Previously Black Bayou Elementary School in Glendora served southern parts of the West Tallahatchie district.
Clipping
from

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

. The district decided to close Black Bayou in 1998.
Clipping from

. Previously West District Middle School (now Bearden) served as a middle school for the West Tallahatchie area. Mississippi Delta Community College is the designated community college for Leflore County. Coahoma Community College is the designated community college for Tallahatchie County.

In popular culture

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story author, and writer of a series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe. Ford's first collection of short stories, ''Rock Springs (short stories), Rock Springs ...

references Minter City in his 1996 novel ''Independence Day''.

Notable people

* L.C. Green, blues guitarist. *

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 ...

, Olympic silver medalist and All American basketball player. * M. Carl Holman, author, poet and playwright. *

Kemp Malone Kemp Malone (March 14, 1889 – October 13, 1971) was an American medievalist, etymology, etymologist, philologist, and specialist in Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer. He was a lecturer and then professor of English literature at Johns Hopkins Universit ...

, linguist and literary scholar. * Solomon Osborne, member of the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected for ...

* Homer Spragins, former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Leflore County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi