Leighton is a town in Colbert County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. It is part of the

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Muscle Shoals Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located on the left bank of the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, its population was 13,146. The estimated popula ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area known as " The Shoals". At the 2020 census, the population was 665. Leighton has been hit by several

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

es in the 2000s, including a damaging EF2 on May 8, 2008, that was caught on tape flipping over many cars and damaging buildings.

History

The first settlers in what is now Leighton arrived in the early 1810s. The community was initially known as "Crossroads" for its location at the intersection of two early stage coach roads. The name was later changed to "Leighton" for town's first postmaster, the Reverend William Leigh. The town developed as a cotton shipping center in the 1830s after the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad constructed a railroad line through the area. Leighton incorporated in 1890.James P. Kaetz,
Leighton
" ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'', March 7, 2013. Leighton originally straddled the county line of Franklin and Lawrence Counties. When Colbert County was carved off in 1867, the town still remained divided between the new county and Lawrence. On the 1880 U.S. Census, it reported having 196 residents on the Colbert County side and 83 on the Lawrence County side. After the 1890 Census, Colbert County's eastern border was expanded eastward several miles to Town Creek, placing Leighton wholly within Colbert. In 1909, an African-American man named Sam Davenport was lynched by a mob of some two dozen men in Leighton. Davenport was suspected of burning a white man's barn.

Geography

Leighton is located in eastern Colbert County at (34.699642, -87.530699). The town is concentrated around the intersection of County Line Road (signed as Main Street within town limits) and County Road 22 ("Old Highway 20"), southeast of

. U.S. Route 72 passes just to the south, and the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

lies a few miles to the north. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 665 people, 368 households, and 200 families residing in the town.

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 849 people, 360 households, and 235 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 414 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 44.41%

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 ...

, 55.12%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

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 ...

and 0.47% Native American. 0.94% of the population 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. There were 360 households, out of which 27.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.9% 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, 23.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.7% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.99. In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.0% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 20.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 75.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.7 males. The median income for a household in the town was $20,500, and the median income for a family was $28,036. Males had a median income of $27,625 versus $18,393 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 $12,680. About 22.7% of families and 26.5% 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 34.5% of those under age 18 and 25.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Leighton is served by three schools in the Colbert County School System: *Hatton Elementary (K-6) *Leighton Elementary (K-6) *Colbert County High School (7-12)

Employment

According to 2010 Census estimates, the work force in Leighton was divided among the following industrial categories: * Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (20.3 percent) * Retail trade (18.5 percent) * Manufacturing (15.8 percent) * Educational services, and health care and social assistance (15.3 percent) * Construction (13.5 percent) * Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (5.4 percent) * Other services, except public administration (5.0 percent) * Public administration (5.0 percent) * Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (1.4 percent)

Notable people

* Lefty Bates,

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the fi ...

guitarist *

Leon Douglas Leon Douglas (born August 26, 1954) is an American basketball coach and former professional player. He played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before transitioning to an extensive professional career overseas in Europe. ...

, former NBA player * Francine Hughes, domestic abuse survivor and subject of the book and film '' The Burning Bed'' * Jimmy Hughes, former

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

singer* Ozzie Newsome, NFF College Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end played for CCHS * Thomas Minott Peters, lawyer and botanist *

Percy Sledge Percy Tyrone Sledge (November 25, 1940 – April 14, 2015) was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. He is best known for the song " When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 19 ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

musician

Gallery

Below are photographs taken in Leighton as part of the

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: File:FRONT VIEW, FACES WEST - Drury Vinson House, County Road 63, Leighton, Colbert County, AL HABS ALA,17-LEIT.V,2-1.tif, Drury Vinson House File:EAST END OF BRIDGE (GENERAL VIEW) - Presbyterian Church, Mount Pleasant Road, Leighton, Colbert County, AL HABS ALA,17-BRIC.V,1-1.tif, Presbyterian Church File:NORTH FRONT, SHOWING ARCUATED ENTRANCE PORCH - Hugh C. Leckey House, State Highway 20 and County Road 48, Leighton, Colbert County, AL HABS ALA,17-LEIT,1-1.tif, Hugh C. Leckey House

References

External links

* {{authority control Towns in Colbert County, Alabama Florence–Muscle Shoals metropolitan area Towns in Alabama