Minter City 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 ...

Leflore County Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,317. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his peo ...

and

Tallahatchie County Tallahatchie County is a county in the U.S. state of Mississippi. At the 2020 census, the population was 12,715. Its county seats are Charleston and Sumner. Tallahatchie County is located in the Mississippi Delta region, divided by the Tall ...

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 ...

. 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, 2009 ...

, 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 Yazoo ...

Mississippi Highway 8 Mississippi Highway 8 (MS 8) is an east–west state highway in northern Mississippi, running from MS 1 in Rosedale to U.S. Route 278 (US 278) northeast of Aberdeen. Points of interest along the route include Great River Road State Park, Del ...

intersects U.S. Route 49E southwest of Minter City, and the

Tallahatchie River The Tallahatchie River is a river in Mississippi which flows from Tippah County, through Tallahatchie County, to Leflore County, where it joins the Yalobusha River to form the Yazoo River. The river is navigable for about . At Money, Mississipp ...

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". Spanish explorer

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1500 – 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 ...

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 Hinds Community College is a public community college with its main campus in Raymond, Mississippi and branches in Jackson and Vicksburg. The Hinds Community College District includes Hinds County, Claiborne County, part of Copiah County, Ran ...

) 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 as ...

, 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. A large gated factory now occupies much of minter city, and there is a public boat launch. 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 Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District (GLCSD) is a school district serves Greenwood, Mississippi and the rest of Leflore County. It was established on July 1, 2019, as a merger of the Greenwood Public School District and the Leflore Cou ...

. Residents are zoned to

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 ...

. This area was formerly served by 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 ...

. 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 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 Delt ...

'' 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 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. In November 2018, ...

. 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 Mississippi Delta Community College is a public community college serving the Mississippi Delta region with its main campus in Moorhead, Mississippi. It also offers courses at locations in Greenville, Greenwood, and Indianola. Its mascot is th ...

is the designated community college for Leflore County.

Coahoma Community College Coahoma Community College (CCC) is a public historically black community college in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The college was founded in 1949 and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. It offe ...

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 writer. His best-known works are the novel '' The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, '' Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and t ...

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 in Minter City, Mississippi – October 13, 1971) was a prolific medievalist, etymologist, philologist, and specialist in Chaucer who was lecturer and then professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins Universit ...

, linguist and literary scholar.

References

External links

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