Leakesville is a town 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 ...

Greene County, Mississippi Greene County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,530. Its county seat is Leakesville. Established in 1811, the county was named for General Nathanael Gree ...

, United States. It is located along the

Chickasawhay River The Chickasawhay River is a river about long in southeastern Mississippi in the United States. It is a principal tributary of the Pascagoula River that flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Chickasawhay's tributaries also drain a portion of wester ...

in Greene 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 served by the junction of Mississippi routes 57 and 63. As of the 2020 census, the rural town population was 3,775.

History

Like most of Mississippi, this area was part of the traditional territory of the historic

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 ...

. Under the

Indian Removal Act The Indian Removal Act of 1830 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, ...

of 1830, they were forced to cede their lands in this area to the United States. The Choctaw were the first of the Southeast

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Cr ...

to be removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), west of the Mississippi River. Some members remained in the state and their descendants have maintained cultural identity. They gained federal recognition as the

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians () is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw, an indigenous Indian people, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe was organized under the Indian Reorgan ...

. A post office called Leakesville has been in operation since 1829, when European Americans established a settlement here. The town was named for

Walter Leake Walter Daniel Leake (May 20, 1762November 17, 1825) was a judge, U.S. senator, and governor of Mississippi. He served as a United States Senator from Mississippi (1817–1820), as a justice in 1821, and as third Governor of Mississippi (1822� ...

, third governor of Mississippi. The area was developed for cotton plantations in the nineteenth century, and remains mostly rural. In 1927, an African-American man named Bernice Raspberry, aged 23, who had been arrested for alleged improper conduct with a white woman, was taken from the jail and

lynched 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 or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

Geography

Leakesville is in southeastern Greene County, on the west side of the Chickasawhay River, a south-flowing tributary of the

Pascagoula River The Pascagoula River is a river, about 80 miles (130 km) long, in southeastern Mississippi in the United States. The river drains an area of about 8,800 square miles (23,000 km²) and flows into Mississippi Sound of the Gulf of Mexico. ...

. Via Mississippi Highway 63, it is south to Lucedale and northwest to Sand Hill. Via Highway 57, it is north to State Line and west to McLain. 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 ...

, Leakesville has a total area of , of which , or 0.31%, is water.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,775 people, 340 households, and 241 families residing in the town. The sudden population increase and shift in racial demographics can be explained by the annexation of the South Mississippi Correctional Institution.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, There were 898 people living in the town. 78.0% were

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 ...

, 20.0%

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 ...

, 0.1% Asian, 0.3% of some other race and 1.2% of two or more races. 2.3% 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

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 1,026 people, 390 households, and 262 families living in the town. The population density was . There were 463 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 79.92%

, 19.40%

, 0.10% Native American, 0.10% Asian, 0.49% from other races.

or Latino people of any race were 1.07% of the population. There were 390 households, out of which 27.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.0% 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, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.6% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.92. In the town, the population was spread out, with 21.5% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 19.6% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 27.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females, there were 71.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 66.0 males. The median income for a household in the town was $26,731, and the median income for a family was $33,618. Males had a median income of $30,208 versus $19,167 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 town was $14,674. About 17.0% of families and 21.5% 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 ...

, including 38.0% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

The

Mississippi Department of Corrections The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. Burl Cain is the commissioner. History In 1843 a penitentiary in four city squares in central Jack ...

South Mississippi Correctional Institution is located in unincorporated Greene County, near Leakesville.State Prisons
."

. Retrieved on May 21, 2010.

Education

Leakesville is served by the Greene County School District. Schools include Greene County High School, Leakesville Junior High School, and Leakesville Elementary School.

Notable people

* Don Churchwell, NFL player *

Kermit Davis Kermit John Davis Jr. (born December 14, 1959) is an American college basketball coach who was most recently the head coach for the Ole Miss Rebels from 2018 to 2023. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Middle Tennessee for 16 seasons. His he ...

, former head basketball coach at Ole Miss * Dennis DeBar, member of the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi State Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the Lower house, lower Mississippi House of Represen ...

* Reed Green, former head football coach and athletic director for the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bac ...

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian and satirist. His material— encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy— was controversial and ofte ...

, comedian, buried in Magnolia Cemetery * Jerry Lott,

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

singer * Wilmer Mizell, MLB pitcher and congressman * Walter Packer, NFL player

References

{{authority control Cities in Greene County, Mississippi Cities in Mississippi County seats in Mississippi