Hinds County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

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 ...

. With its

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 ...

s (

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

and the state's capital, Jackson), Hinds is the most populous county in Mississippi with a 2020 census population of 227,742 residents. Hinds County is a central part of the Jackson metropolitan statistical area. It is a professional, educational, business and industrial hub in the state. It is bordered on the northwest by the Big Black River and on the east by the Pearl River. It is one county width away from the Yazoo River and the southern border of 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 ...

. In the 19th century, the rural areas of the county were devoted to cotton plantations worked by enslaved African Americans and depended on agriculture well into the 20th century; from 1877 to 1950, this county had 22 lynchings, the highest number in the state. Mississippi has the highest total number of lynchings of any state.''Lynching in America'', 2nd edition
, Supplement by County, p. 5 In September 2022, it was reported that Hinds County, Mississippi, had the highest STD rate in the United States, with 2,253 cases per 100,000 residents.

Etymology

The county is named for General Thomas Hinds, a hero of 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 ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

Geography

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 county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.9%) is water. It is the third-largest county in Mississippi by land area and fifth-largest by total area.

Adjacent counties

* Madison County (northeast) * Rankin County (east) * Copiah County (south) * Claiborne County (southwest) * Warren County (west) * Yazoo County (northwest)

National protected area

* Natchez Trace Parkway (part)

Transportation

Major highways

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Airports

The following public-use airports are located in Hinds County: * Hawkins Field (HKS) in Jackson * John Bell Williams Airport (JVW) in

Demographics

With a population of 8,645 at the 1830 census, the county's population has experienced growth to an initial historic high of 250,000 in 1980; its second historic high was 254,441 at the 1990 census. Since then, its population has fluctuated to 250,800 in 2000 and 245,285 in 2010. At the 2020 census, its population was 227,742, locally reflecting a drop in the state's overall population.

Race and ethnicity

With the trend of greater diversification in the United States leading up to and following the 2020 census, the population of

non-Hispanic whites Non-Hispanic Whites, also referred to as White Anglo Americans or Non-Latino Whites, are White Americans who are classified by the United States census as "White" and not of Hispanic or Latino origin. According to annual estimates from the Unit ...

declined from 37.0% of the population in 2000 to 25.5% of the population in 2020. The 2020 census reported 69.2% of its population was Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.0% Asian, nil% Pacific Islander, 2.0% of two or more races, and 2.0% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Law enforcement

The Hinds County Sheriffs Department provides police services to areas of the county that are unincorporated or in municipalities that do not have their own local police force. It was founded on January 1, 1928. Tyrone Lewis took office January 3, 2012, taking over from Malcolm E. McMillin who had held the role for 20 years. Victor Mason defeated Tyrone Lewis August 4, 2015, as Lewis sought another term. Mason went on to secure the Office November 3, 2015. Mason defeated 3 other candidates securing more than seventy percent of the vote. Victor Mason was defeated in the Democratic Primary on August 27, 2019, by Lee D. Vance. On August 4, 2021, Sheriff Lee Vance was found deceased at his home after contracting COVID-19. The current sheriff is Tyree Jones, elected November 23, 2021.

Politics

Hinds County is one of the most staunchly Democratic counties in Mississippi due to it being an urban county and having a large African-American population. The last Republican to win the county was George H.W. Bush in his failed 1992 re-election bid.

Education

Public schools

School districts: * Clinton Public School District * Hinds County School District (Raymond) * Jackson Public School District State-operated schools: *

Mississippi School for the Blind Mississippi School for the Blind (MSB) is a state-operated K-12 public school for blind children located in Jackson, Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regio ...

* Mississippi School for the Deaf

Private schools

* Clinton Christian Academy (Clinton) * Hillcrest Christian School (Jackson) * Jackson Academy (Jackson) * Mt. Salus Christian School (Clinton) * Rebul Academy (Learned) * Central Hinds Academy (Raymond)

Colleges and universities

* Belhaven University (Jackson) * Hinds Community College (Raymond) *

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a Public university, public Historically Black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and ...

(Jackson) *

Millsaps College Millsaps College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. History The college was founded ...

(Jackson) *

Mississippi College Mississippi College (MC) is a private university affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention and located in Clinton, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1826, MC is the second oldest Baptists, Baptist-affiliated college or university in ...

(Clinton) ** Mississippi College School of Law (Jackson) * Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson) *

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi, United States. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was established in 1869 by ...

(Tougaloo) * University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson) * Wesley Biblical Seminary (Jackson) Hinds County is in the community college district of Hinds Community College.

Public libraries

* Jackson/Hinds Library System

Communities

Cities

* Byram * Clinton * Jackson (county seat; partly in Madison and Rankin counties) *

(county seat)

Towns

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

* Edwards * Learned *

Terry Terry is a unisex diminutive nickname for the given names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence, Terrance (masculine). People Male * Terry A. Canales, American politician * Terry A. Doughty (born 1959), American district ...

* Utica

Unincorporated communities

* Brownsville * Cayuga * Cynthia * Midway * Oakley *

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...

Notable people

* Kate Stone (1841–1907), diarist * Henry Sloan (1870–1948), delta blues musician *

Charley Patton Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of America ...

(1891–1934), blues musician * Richard Durham (1917–1984), writer of the radio series ''

Destination Freedom ''Destination Freedom'' was a series of weekly radio programs that was produced by WMAQ in Chicago. The first set ran from 1948 to 1950 and it presented the biographical histories of prominent African Americans such as George Washington Carver ...

References

External links

Hinds County
– Official site. {{authority control 1821 establishments in Mississippi Jackson metropolitan area, Mississippi Mississippi counties Populated places established in 1821 Black Belt (U.S. region) Majority-minority counties in Mississippi