Columbus is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of

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, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. It is approximately northeast of Jackson, north of Meridian, south of Tupelo, northwest of

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

, and west of

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

. The population was 25,944 at the 2000 census and 23,640 in 2010. The population in 2019 was estimated to be 23,573. Columbus is the principal city of the Columbus Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Columbus-West Point Combined Statistical Area. Columbus is also part of the area of Mississippi called The Golden Triangle, consisting of Columbus,

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

and Starkville, in the counties of Lowndes,

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and Oktibbeha. Schools include

Mississippi University for Women Mississippi University for Women (MUW or "The W") is a coeducational public university in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly named the "Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls" and later the "Mississippi State Coll ...

and Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.

History

The first record of the site of Columbus in Western history is found in the annals of the 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, ...

, who is reputed to have crossed the nearby Tombigbee River on his search for

El Dorado El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...

. However, the site does not enter the main continuity of United States history until December 1810, when John Pitchlynn, the U.S. Indian agent and interpreter for the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

Nation, moved to Plymouth Bluff, where he built a home, established a farm, and transacted Choctaw Agency business. After the

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

recognized the urgent need for roads to connect New Orleans to the rest of the country. In 1817 Jackson ordered a

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

be built to provide a direct route from

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. His surveyor, Captain Hugh Young, chose a place on the Tombigbee River where high ground approached the river on both sides as the location for a ferry to be used for crossing the river when high water prevented fording the river. A military bridge was constructed where the present-day Tombigbee Bridge was later developed in Columbus, Mississippi. Jackson's Military Road opened the way for development in the area.

Founding

Columbus was founded in 1819, and, as it was believed to be in Alabama, it was first officially recognized by an Alabama Legislative act as the Town of Columbus on December 6, 1819. Before its incorporation, the town site was referred to informally as ''Possum Town'', a name which was given by the local Native Americans, who were primarily Choctaw and Chickasaw. The name Possum Town remains the town's nickname among locals. The town was settled where Jackson's Military Road crossed the Tombigbee River 4 miles south of John Pitchlynn's residence at Plymouth Bluff. In 1820 the post office that had been at Pitchlynn's relocated in Columbus. Pitchlynn's which had been settled in 1810 became the town of Plymouth in 1836 and is now the location of an environmental center for Mississippi University for Women. Silas McBee suggested the name ''Columbus''; in return, a small local creek was named after him. The city's founders soon established a school known as Franklin Academy. It continues to operate and is known as Mississippi's first public school. The territorial boundary of Mississippi and Alabama had to be corrected as, a year earlier, Franklin Academy was indicated as being in Alabama. In fact, during its early post-Mississippi-founding history, the city of Columbus was still referred to as ''Columbus, Alabama.''

Civil War and aftermath

During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Columbus was a hospital town. Its arsenal manufactured gunpowder, handguns and a few cannons. Because of this, the Union ordered the invasion of Columbus, but was stopped by Confederate General

Nathan Bedford Forrest Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821October 29, 1877) was an List of slave traders of the United States, American slave trader, active in the lower Mississippi River valley, who served as a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Con ...

. This is substantiated in the book ''The Battle of West Point: Confederate Triumph at Ellis Bridge'' by John McBride. Many of the casualties from the

Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater of the ...

were brought to Columbus. Thousands were eventually buried in the town's Friendship Cemetery. One of the hospitals was located at Annunciation Catholic Church, built in 1863 and still operating in the 21st century. The decision of a group of ladies to decorate the Union and Confederate graves with flowers together on April 25, 1866, is an early example of what became known as

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

. A poet, Francis Miles Finch, read about it in the New York newspapers and commemorated the occasion with the poem " The Blue and the Grey". Bellware and Gardiner noted this observance of the holiday in ''The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday in America'' (2014). They recognized the events in Columbus as the earliest manifestation of an annual spring holiday to decorate the grave of Southern soldiers. While the call was to celebrate on April 26, several newspapers reported that the day was the 25th, in error. As a result of Forrest preventing the Union Army from reaching Columbus, its antebellum homes were spared from being burned or destroyed, making its collection second only to Natchez as the most extensive in Mississippi. These antebellum homes may be toured during the annual Pilgrimage, in which the Columbus residences open their homes to tourists from around the country. When Union troops approached Jackson, the state capital was briefly moved to Columbus before moving to a more permanent home in Macon. During the war, Columbus attorney Jacob H. Sharp served as a brigadier general in the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

. After the war, he owned the Columbus ''Independent'' newspaper. He was elected to two terms in the State House, serving four years representing the district in 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 ...

WPA mural

The mural ''Out of the Soil'' was completed in 1939 for the Columbus post office by WPA

Section of Painting and Sculpture Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section s ...

artist Beulah Bettersworth. Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through "the Section" of the U.S. Treasury Department.

20th century

Columbus has hosted Columbus Air Force Base (CAFB) since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. CAFB was founded as a flight training school. After a stint in the 1950s and 1960s as a

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

(SAC) base (earning Columbus a spot in

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

target lists), CAFB returned to its original role. Today, it is one of only four basic Air Force flight training bases in the United States, and prized as the only one where regular flight conditions may be experienced. Despite this, CAFB has repeatedly hung in the balance during

Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) was a process by a Federal government of the United States, United States federal government commission to increase the efficiency of the United States Department of Defense by coordinating the realignment and ...

(BRAC) hearings. Columbus boasted a number of industries during the mid-20th century, including the world's largest toilet seat manufacturer, Sanderson Plumbing Products, and major mattress, furniture and textile plants. Most of these had closed by 2000. A series of new plants at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, including the Severstal mill, the American Eurocopter factory, the

Paccar Paccar Inc. (stylized as PACCAR) is an American company primarily focused on the design and manufacturing of large commercial trucks through its subsidiaries DAF, Kenworth and Peterbilt sold across markets worldwide. The company is headquartere ...

engine plant and the Aurora Flight Sciences facility, are revitalizing the local economy.

Recent history

On June 12, 1990, a fireworks factory in Columbus exploded, detonating a blast felt as far as 30 miles away from Columbus. Two workers were killed in the blast. On February 16, 2001, straightline winds measured at 74 miles per hour destroyed many homes and trees but resulted in no fatalities. The city was declared a federal disaster area the next day by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

. On November 10, 2002, a tornado hit Columbus and caused more damage to the city, including the Mississippi University for Women. In 2010, Columbus won a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In February 2019, Columbus took a direct hit from an EF-3 tornado that caused devastating damage to homes and businesses and killed one woman after a structure fell on her.

Geography

The city is located approximately west of the Mississippi-Alabama state line along U.S. Route 82, U.S. Route 45, and numerous state highways. US 82 leads southeast to Reform, Alabama and west to Starkville. US 45 leads south to Macon and north to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Large lakes and rivers are nearby, such as the Buttahatchee River in northern Lowndes County that defines the border between Lowndes and Monroe counties; in the middle of the City of Columbus and Lowndes County lies the Luxapallila Creek, and the Tombigbee River with the John C. Stennis Lock and Dam impounding Columbus Lake. Columbus is a relatively flat place in the northern part of Lowndes County, as the land rises for a short period of time into hills and bluffs, in the southern/eastern part of the county, the land has rolling hills that quickly turn into flatland floodplains that dominate this county. This county lies in the Black Prairie Geographic Region, and the Northeastern Hills Region of the state/area. Prairies, forests and floodplain forests lie here. The

soil quality Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integ ...

is poor in the eastern part of the county, otherwise the soil is relatively fertile. Columbus and the surrounding areas are listed as an Arbor Day Hardiness Zone 8a (); note that temperatures in 2010 reached , but the USDA Hardiness Zones list the area as zone 7b ().

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 24,084 people, 9,572 households, and 5,348 families residing in the city.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 23,640 people living in the city. 60.0% were

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 37.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.2% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.0%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.6% from some other race, and 1.1% of two or more races. 1.4% were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race.

2000 census

Columbus' population has grown steadily since the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1900, 6,484 people lived in Columbus; in 1910, 8,988; in 1920, 10,501; and in 1940, 13,645. As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 25,944 people, 10,062 households, and 6,419 families living in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

was . There were 11,112 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city is 43.62%

, 54.41%

, 0.10% Native American, 0.56% Asian, 0.01%

, 0.51% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 1.13% of the population. There were 10,062 households, out of which 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.0% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 21.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.07. In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 12.0% from 18 to 24, 26.6% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 15.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $27,393, and the median income for a family was $37,068. Males had a median income of $30,773 versus $20,182 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $16,848.

Economy

Major Employers: * Columbus Air Force Base. * Baptist Memorial Hospital - Golden Triangle. *

. * Columbus Municipal School District. * Lowndes County School District. * International Paper Columbus Mill and Columbus Modified Fiber. * Steel Dynamics, Inc. (steel manufacturer). *

(diesel engines). * American

Eurocopter Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter S.A., trade name, trading as Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopte ...

(military aircraft). * Baldor (electric motors). * Nouryon (sodium chlorate production). * Aurora Flight Sciences (unmanned defense systems). * Stark Aerospace (unmanned defense systems). * Columbus / Nammo-Talley (defense systems). *

Valmet Valmet Oyj, a Finnish company, is a developer and supplier of process technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper, energy industries. Flow control serves a wider base of process industries. History 1999–2012 Valmet ...

(paper machine rolls and roll covers).

Arts and culture

Columbus is the birthplace of playwright

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

, whose grandfather was the priest of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Williams was born in the rectory on Main Street, which is now the Tennessee Williams Home Museum and Welcome Center.

Government

In 2025, city councilman Stephen Jones, a Democrat was elected mayor.

Education

Columbus is home to a state university, the

. The MUW campus is also home to the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, a state-funded public boarding school for academically gifted high school juniors and seniors. The city's public high school (under the Columbus Municipal School District) is Columbus High School, located in the eastern part of town. It is the largest high school in the city and fifth largest in the state, enrolling approximately 1370 students. Columbus High School was formed by the merger of the city's two previous high schools, Stephen D. Lee High School and Caldwell High School; the schools were merged in 1992 and the campuses in 1997. Columbus is also home to the oldest public elementary school in Mississippi, Franklin Academy Elementary, founded in 1821. Desegregated in 1970, Lee High School received a state award for the high school with the best race relations. Prior to desegregation, the school formed a race relations committee consisting of black and white students who could discuss issues and determine how to handle certain situations. For instance, the students decided to have both white and black homecoming courts so as to prevent sides being taken along racial lines. However, black students were allowed to vote for the white homecoming court and vice versa. The school went undefeated in football in 1970, which helped unite the student body. Students were ranked based on achievement score tests and divided into three groups, in order to allow each group to learn at their own pace. This practice was in place prior to integration. It was continued after integration for a period, but such tracking was later ruled to be unconstitutional by a Federal court, because it was based on biased testing. It did not take into account differences in preparation in earlier grades. The Lowndes County School District operates three high schools—Caledonia, New Hope, and West Lowndes—fed by similarly named elementary and middle schools. Columbus has several private schools, including: * Columbus Christian Academy, formerly Immanuel Christian School (K-3 through 12) * Heritage Academy (

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

) * Annunciation Catholic School (

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, K-8) * Victory Christian Academy (Christian, K-12) * Palmer Home for Children (

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusi ...

)

Media

Columbus' city newspapers are the daily (except Saturdays) '' Commercial Dispatch'', the weekly (Thursdays) ''

Columbus Packet ''The Columbus Packet'', also known as ''The Packet'', is a weekly newspaper published on Thursdays in Columbus, Mississippi, Columbus, Mississippi. History The newspaper was founded in 1991 by editor and publisher Roger Larsen. Starting in Ju ...

'' and the internet-only paper, Real Media (formerly The Real Story). One television station, WCBI-TV 4, the CBS affiliate, is located in the city's historic downtown area; it broadcasts FOX and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

programming on digital subchannels. Columbus is also served by television stations from the Columbus / Tupelo / West Point DMA. These include NBC affiliate WTVA 9, its DT2 subchannel which is the market's ABC affiliate, and CW affiliate WLOV-TV 27. Radio Stations include: *103.1 Sports Talk/ESPN Radio *94.1 Top 40 *99.9 Rock *92.1 Hip-Hop & R&B *100.9 Talk Radio ( Supertalk Mississippi) *93.3 Easy Listening/Top 40 *104.5 Christian radio/KLOVE

Infrastructure

Transportation

Columbus lies on U.S. Highways 82 and 45. It is also served by state highways 12, 50, 69, and 182. Columbus is the eastern terminus of the Columbus and Greenville Railway; it is also served by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

(on the original right-of-way of the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway), the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

, and the Alabama Southern Railroad (using the original right-of-way of the

Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was a Class I railroad in the central United States whose primary routes extended from Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as Chicago, Illin ...

). The local airport is Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The airport currently has three flights a day to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. The city is located on the east bank of the Tombigbee River and the associated Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Columbus Lake, formed by the John C. Stennis Lock and Dam, is approximately two miles north of downtown. The Luxapalila Creek runs through the town, separating East Columbus from Columbus proper (both are within city limits). The Lux, as it is locally known, joins the Tombigbee about three miles south of downtown.

Notable people

* Mike Adams (columnist) * Henry Armstrong, world boxing champion * Roy Ayres, pedal steel guitar player *

Red Barber Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sports announcer and author. Nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", he was primarily identified with broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four ...

, sports commentator * William T. S. Barry, congressman from Mississippi * Homer "Billy" Brewer, professional football player * Terry W. Brown, president pro tempore of the Mississippi Senate * Tyson Brummett, professional baseball player * Corey Cott, actor and singer * James E. Darnell, biologist * Jacob M. Dickinson, U.S. Secretary of War from 1909 to 1911 *

Doughboy "Doughboy" was a popular nickname for the American infantryman during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s, when it was gradually replaced by " G.I." as the following ge ...

, record producer * Elbert Drungo, professional football player * Ean Evans, bass player for

Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd (, ) is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964. The group originally formed as My Backyard and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom ...

; moved to Columbus * Leslie Frazier, professional football player and coach * Charles Fredericks, actor * Luther Hackman, professional baseball player * Arthur Cyprian Harper, 26th mayor of Los Angeles * Robert Ivy, chief executive officer of the American Institute of Architects * Sam Jethroe, first black baseball player on the Boston Braves roster * Edward J. C. Kewen, member of California State Legislature and first attorney general of California * Stephen D. Lee, Confederate general, first president of Mississippi State University * Jasmine Murray, singer, Miss Mississippi 2014 * Passie Fenton Ottley (1868-1940), Chair of the Georgia Library Commission * Bobby Richards, professional football player * Andre Rush, celebrity chef and veteran * Jacob H. Sharp, lawyer, newspaperman, politician, and Confederate general; moved to Columbus * Jeff Smith, member of Mississippi House of Representatives * Ruby Jane Smith, bluegrass fiddler * Cordella Stevenson, African-American woman who was raped and lynched by a mob of white men in Columbus in 1915 * William N. Still Jr., maritime historian * Jim Thomas, professional football player * Sedric Toney, professional basketball player * Guy M. Townsend, U.S. Air Force brigadier general, test pilot, and combat veteran * Robert L. Turner, member of Wisconsin State Assembly * James R. Williams, lawyer, politician and jurist *

, playwright * Andrew Wood, musician

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Cities in Mississippi Cities in Lowndes County, Mississippi County seats in Mississippi Populated places established in 1821 1821 establishments in Mississippi