Money is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

near Greenwood in Leflore 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, in 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 ...

. It has fewer than 100 residents, down from 400 in the early 1950s when a

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

operated there. Money is located on a railroad line along the Tallahatchie River, a tributary of the Yazoo River in the eastern part of the Mississippi Delta. The community has ZIP code 38945 in the

Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area The Greenwood Micropolitan Statistical Area is a micropolitan area in the northwestern Delta region of Mississippi that covers two counties - Leflore and Carroll. As of the 2000 census, the USA had a population of 48,716 (though a July 1, 200 ...

. Money is the site of events leading to the 1955

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

of 14-year-old

Emmett Till Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African American youth, who was 14 years old when he was abducted and Lynching in the United States, lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman, ...

History

The settlement was named for Hernando Money, a United States Senator from Mississippi. Money was a stop on the

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the Illinois Central Railroad system (IC). Construction began in Jackson, Mississippi, and continued to Yazoo City, Mississippi. The line was later expand ...

. This rural area was developed for cotton cultivation. The population in 1900 was 40. The Money post office was established in 1901. Money gained international attention in 1955 after

, a 14-year-old African-American boy from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

visiting his uncle, was accused of flirting, by means of whistling, with a white woman working alone at Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market in Money. Till was subsequently murdered. A historic marker has been placed in front of Bryant's Grocery, and the site draws "an ever-increasing number of tourists". The crumbling building is privately owned, which has hindered efforts to preserve it.

Transportation

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

’s '' City of New Orleans'', which operates between

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 ...

and

, passes through the town on CN tracks, but makes no stop. The nearest station is located in Greenwood, to the south.

Education

It is in the Greenwood-Leflore School District. Residents are zoned to Amanda Elzy High School. The town was formerly served by the Leflore County School District. Effective July 1, 2019 this district consolidated into the Greenwood-Leflore School District.

Notable people

* Richard "Hacksaw" Harney –

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

guitarist and pianist * James Schaffer – religious leader and centenarian * Willye White – Olympic athlete

In popular culture

A wooden bridge across the Tallahatchie River at Money was the focus of

Bobbie Gentry Bobbie Gentry (born Roberta Lee Streeter; July 27, 1942) is an American retired singer-songwriter. She was one of the first female artists in the United States to compose and produce her own material. Gentry rose to international fame in 1967 ...

's 1967 hit song " Ode to Billie Joe." The November 10, 1967 issue of ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine featured a photo of Gentry crossing the bridge. The bridge collapsed in June 1972 after being burned by vandals. It has since been replaced. The novel '' The Trees'' by Percival Everett is set in Money and depicts a mysterious series of murders that seem to follow identical patterns and involve the families of the confessed murderers of Emmett Till.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Leflore County, Mississippi Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area Emmett Till