Noxubee 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 ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 10,285. 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 ...

is Macon. The name is derived from 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 ...

word ''nakshobi'' meaning "to stink".

Geography

According to the

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

, the county has a total area of , of which (0.7%) is covered by water.

Major highways

* U.S. Highway 45 * Mississippi Highway 14 * Mississippi Highway 21 *

Mississippi Highway 39 Mississippi Highway 39 (MS 39) is a major south to north highway in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Spanning , it connects Meridian and NAS Meridian with DeKalb and Shuqualak. Route description MS 39 begins in Lauderdale County in the cit ...

Adjacent counties

* Lowndes County (north) *

Pickens County, Alabama Pickens County is a County (United States), county located on the west central border of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,123. Its county seat is Carrollton, Alabama, Carrollton, ...

(east) *

Sumter County, Alabama Sumter County is a county located in the west central portion of Alabama."ACES Winston County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Sumter At the 2020 census, the population was 12,345. Its co ...

(southeast) * Kemper County (south) * Winston County (west) * Oktibbeha County (northwest)

National protected area

* Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, 10,285 people, 3,986 households, and 2,592 families were residing in the county.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, 11,545 people lived in the county; 71.6% 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 ...

, 27.1%

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% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 0.4% of some other race, and 0.5% of two or more races, and 0.8% were Hispanic 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, 12,548 people, 4,470 households, and 3,222 families were living in the county. 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 . The 5,228 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 69.30% Black, 29.49% White, 0.15% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.58% from two or more races. About 1.12% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Of the 4,470 households, 35.8% had children under 18 living with them, 43.0% were married couples living together, 24.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.9% were not families. About 25.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.77, and the average family size was 3.36. In the county, the age distribution was 30.7% under 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.50 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 84.60 males. The median income for a household in the county was $22,330, and for a family was $27,312. Males had a median income of $25,008 versus $17,636 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 county was $12,018. About 29.20% of families and 32.80% 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 43.60% of those under age 18 and 25.30% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

Noxubee County is solidly Democratic in modern presidential elections, having last voted for the Republican nominee in 1972. This is the result of the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights move ...

, which returned the vote to the African-American majority after nearly a century of whites-only elections. In the final presidential contest before the act's passage, the 1964 election, anti-civil rights whites in Noxubee gave 96.6% of the county's vote to Republican

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and major general in the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, and was the Re ...

— a margin no candidate of either party has surpassed in any county in any subsequent presidential election. Goldwater received 1,980 votes to incumbent

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

's 70.

Law enforcement

The Noxubee County Sheriff's Department has been embroiled in controversies related to covering up rape and abuse at its facilities. In 2023, former sheriff Terry Grassaree faced criminal charges for his involvement in rape cases. In 2023, ''The New York Times'' and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at ''

Mississippi Today Mississippi Today is a nonprofit online newsroom headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Launched in 2016, it was founded by former Netscape president Jim Barksdale and his wife Donna, alongside former NBC chairman Andrew Lack, to address the ...

'' uncovered gross mismanagement at the Noxubee County jail, enabling male inmates to rape and abuse female inmates.

Education

Public elementary and secondary education is administered by the Noxubee County School District, which includes the entire county. Noxubee County is within the service area of the East Mississippi Community College system.CATALOG 2007-09
, eastms.edu. 3 (3/147); retrieved March 1, 2011. The system offers classes in the Macon Extension at Noxubee County High School in Macon.CATALOG 2007-09, eastms.edu, 10 (10/147)
; retrieved on March 1, 2011. At one time, many more schools existed within the county. In the early 20th century, 19 of these were consolidated into two districts consisting of six schools, which were Salem, Lynn Creek, Center Point, Cliftonville, Cooksville-Paulette, Mashulaville, and Brooksville. The old Salem School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. The Noxubee County Agricultural School at Mashulaville opened in 1910 and included a 40-acre farm and provided living arrangements for up to 40 boarding students. The public school population is 1% White, compared to 27% of the county population. Central Academy in Macon, which was founded in 1968 as a

segregation academy Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend Racial segregation in the United States, desegregated public schools. They ...

, closed in 2017. In 1982, private deals that had been made between board members to use public funds to aid Central Academy became public. As a result, the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

called for the resignation of all Noxubee county school board members who had knowledge of the board's aid to Central Academy, which at the time did not enroll any black students.

''United States v. Ike Brown''

In 2005, the

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...

began an investigation and the following year filed suit under the

Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...

alleging that the chairman of the Noxubee County Democratic Party, Ike Brown, had conspired to orchestrate "relentless racial discrimination" against White voters. The court ruled that Brown, in conjunction with the Noxubee Democratic Executive Committee, had "manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and designed to impair and impede participation of White voters and to dilute their votes". This was the first time the

had been used to allege discrimination against Whites.

Communities

City

* Macon

Towns

* Brooksville * Shuqualak

Unincorporated communities

* Bigbee Valley * Deerbrook * Gholson * Mashulaville

References

{{authority control Mississippi counties Mississippi placenames of Native American origin 1833 establishments in Mississippi Populated places established in 1833 Black Belt (U.S. region) Majority-minority counties in Mississippi