Sumner is a town in

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 ...

. The population was 407 at the 2000 census. Sumner is one of the two county seats of Tallahatchie County. It is located on the west side of the county 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, Mississi ...

, which runs through the county north-south. The other county seat is Charleston, located east of the river. Charleston was the first county seat, as settlement came from the east, and it is the larger of the two towns. The Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner was the site in 1955 of the trial of two men charged with the

lynching 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 ...

murder in August of

Emmett Till Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...

, a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago who was visiting his great-uncle in

Money, Mississippi Money is an unincorporated community near Greenwood in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta. It has fewer than 100 residents, down from 400 in the early 1950s when a cotton mill operated there. Money is located o ...

. The

all-white jury Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...

acquitted the men; a few months later, they sold their story to '' Look'' magazine, and admitted killing Till. The courthouse has been restored. It also houses the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, which opened in 2012 in his honor.

Geography

Sumner is located at (33.969867, -90.369636). 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 town has a total area of , all land.

History

The heavily wooded swamp along the Tallahatchie River was historically part of 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 ...

Nation, one of 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 ...

of the Southeast. Ceding large amounts of territory to the United States, they were forced to remove to

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 ...

in the 1830s under the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...

. Afterward the US government sold the lands to European-American families. Among the early settlers were the Sumner family. The bottomland was covered by trees, vines, and underbrush when the pioneers started clearing the land for agriculture. The wealthiest men developed their property through the labor of enslaved African Americans. Their work on cotton plantations produced the commodity crop that was the basis of the economy for decades. Sumner was not incorporated until 1900; it was named after its founder and first mayor, Joseph Burton Sumner. In 1902 the county was divided into two districts, on either side of the Tallahatchie River, which was a barrier to cross-county transportation. Charleston was the original county seat, located east of the river in the first area of European-American settlement. Sumner was designated as the seat of the western district. The

Tallahatchie County Courthouse The Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse is located in Sumner, Mississippi, in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The county courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 6, 2007. It is located at 108 Main St ...

in Sumner was built in 1902 on a lot donated by Joseph B. Sumner, who also donated the lot for the jail. The courthouse burned in 1908 and was rebuilt in 1909. Cotton continued to be the major commodity crop of the area well into the 20th century. The county seat also served as the market town for that district. This courthouse was the site of the 1955 murder trial of two white men,

J.W. Milam Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...

and

Roy Bryant Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman language, Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' ...

, charged in the

and murder of

that year in adjoining Leflore County. (His beaten and mutilated body was found on the bank of the river in Tallahatchie County, so the trial was held here.) The two men were acquitted by an all-male,

of the murder of Till, a teenage

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

boy from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of the men generated outrage and activism in the nation. He became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and a symbol of the violent persecution suffered by blacks in the South. In 1990, the courthouse was designated as a state landmark by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. In 2007 the Tallahatchie Board of Supervisors appointed the Emmett Till Memorial Commission to explore commemoration of Till and reconciliation in the area. It made a formal apology to the Till family for their son's lynching. In addition, it undertook to restore the Sumner County Courthouse and adapt it as the site of an interpretive center to commemorate Emmett Till. The center opened in 2012 and is sponsoring a variety of art and historical workshops and events.Maya Miller, "Till Interpretive Center Seeks to Rewrite Civil Rights Narrative"
''Jackson Free Press'', 26 August 2015; accessed 27 February 2017

Demographics

The city reached its peak of population in 1940. After that numerous African-American residents left the city and county. Many moved to California and the West Coast during World War II and after, attracted by jobs in the buildup of the defense industries and seeking to escape southern oppression and violence. In addition, mechanization of agriculture had made much farm labor unneeded. African Americans moving from Sumner were part of the Great Migration, by which some 5 million blacks moved out of the Deep South from 1940 to 1970. Rural populations have continued to decline in many areas. As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2000, there were 407 people, 148 households, and 105 families residing in the town. 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 726.5 people per square mile (280.6/km). There were 158 housing units at an average density of 282.0 per square mile (108.9/km). The racial makeup of the town was 57.99%

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 ...

, 39.07%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 2.21%

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 ...

, and 0.74% 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 0.25% of the population. There were 148 households, out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.3% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 20.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.4% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.14. In the town, the population was spread out, with 27.5% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 24.8% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $25,000, and the median income for a family was $35,208. Males had a median income of $40,625 versus $15,000 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $20,056. About 25.2% of families and 37.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 48.9% of those under age 18 and 29.7% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

Red Nelson, a noted blues singer, was born in Sumner in 1907. World-renowned color photographer

William Eggleston William Eggleston (born July 27, 1939) is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium. Eggleston's books include ''William Eggleston's Guide'' (1976) and ''The ...

grew up on a plantation in Sumner.

Education

The Town of Sumner is served by the West Tallahatchie School District. R. H. Bearden Elementary School and West Tallahatchie High School are the zoned schools. Prior to 1988 Sumner Elementary School was elementary school for the Sumner and

Webb Webb most often refers to James Webb Space Telescope which is named after James E. Webb, second Administrator of NASA. It may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Webb Glacier (South Georgia) * Webb Glacier (Victoria Land) *Webb Névé, Victoria ...

areas and West District Middle School was the area middle school. In 1988 West District Middle became a grade 3-8 school while Sumner Elementary was redesignated for Kindergarten through grade 2 only.
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, ...

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.Student Residency

Archive
. Coahoma Community College. Retrieved on July 8, 2017. "Out-of-District Resident: A student who does not live within Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tallahatchie, and Tunica Counties but does live in some other county in Mississippi."

References

{{authority control Towns in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi Towns in Mississippi County seats in Mississippi