Scott 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, the population was 27,990. 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 ...

Forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

. The county is named for Abram M. Scott, the

Governor of Mississippi The governor of Mississippi is the head of government of Mississippi and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Mississippi National Guard, military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either appro ...

from 1832 to 1833.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.2%) is water. It is an approximately 45 minute driving distance from Jackson.Robertson, Campbell.
In a Mississippi Jail, Convictions and Counsel Appear Optional
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. September 24, 2014. Print: September 25, 2014, p. A15 ("In a Mississippi Jail, Convictions and Counsel Appear Optional"). Retrieved on September 26, 2014.

Major highways

* Interstate 20 * U.S. Highway 80 * Mississippi Highway 13 * Mississippi Highway 21 * Mississippi Highway 35

Adjacent counties

* Leake County (north) * Newton County (east) * Smith County (south) * Rankin County (west) * Madison County (northwest)

National protected area

* Bienville National Forest (part)

History

This area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations. After the American Civil War, many

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

worked as sharecroppers or tenant farmers on the plantations. In 1890 the state legislature disenfranchised most blacks, who were a majority in the state, by creating barriers to voter registration; it also passed

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...

laws, treating freedmen and their descendants as second-class citizens. From 1877 to 1950, there were nine lynchings of blacks in Scott County.''Lynching in America'', 2nd edition
, Supplement by County, p. 5 It was a form of racial terrorism that was at its height at the turn of the 20th century. On October 23–25, 1898, a "race war" erupted in Harperville, an unincorporated community in Scott County, after blacks resisted one of their community being arrested for an alleged conflict with his white employer. They fatally shot a white deputy and wounded three others. A mob of whites gathered that night and started hunting down and killing black suspects, killing nine to eleven black men by the end of the following day. Sources vary in the count of fatalities, and some blacks were buried before being identified or counted. The county sheriff arrested some black suspects and took them first to the county seat at Forest, and then to Meridian for their safety.

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

and major newspapers covered the events."Fierce Race War in Mississippi"
''San Francisco Call,'' Volume 84, Number 146, October 24, 1898; California Digital Newspaper Collection; accessed March 19, 2017Associated Press, "Mississippi Race War/ Counting Its Victims by the Dozen"
''Los Angeles Herald,'' Volume 26, Number 25, October 25, 1898; California Digital Newspaper Collection; accessed March 20, 2017"Casualties to Date", ''New Orleans Picayune'', October 24, 1898; reprinted within ''Los Angeles Herald'' article
/ref>

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 27,990 people, 10,180 households, and 7,015 families residing in the county.

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 28,264 people, 10,248 households, and 7,264 families residing 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 . There were 11,470 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 53.3%

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 ...

, 37.5%

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 ...

, 0.31% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 7.2% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. 10.7% 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 (6.3% Mexican, 1.5% Guatemalan, 0.7% Cuban). There were 10,183 households, out of which 36.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.80% 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, 18.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.00% were non-families. 22.20% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.21. In the county, the population was spread out, with 28.60% under the age of 18, 9.60% from 18 to 24, 27.90% from 25 to 44, 21.40% from 45 to 64, and 12.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 94.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.10 males. The median income for a household in the county was $26,686, and the median income for a family was $31,487. Males had a median income of $26,406 versus $18,459 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 $14,013. About 16.50% of families and 20.70% 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 26.80% of those under age 18 and 22.70% of those age 65 or over.

Government

The Scott County Sheriff's office provides the equivalent of County law enforcement for both unincorporated cities as well as incorporated cities within the county. The Scott County Sheriff is the oldest elected position in Scott County. The Scott County Sheriff's Office has 63 employees, both sworn and non-sworn. It is divided into six divisions; Administration, patrol, criminal investigations, narcotics, communications, and detention. The Sheriff's office operates the County Jail; it provides detention services under contract to the City of Forest Police Department and to 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 ...

Class-action suit against court and Sheriff's Office

In September 2014 the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

(ACLU) and the MacArthur Justice Center filed a federal class-action civil rights suit, ''Burks v. Scott County,'' against the County courts and the Scott County Sheriff's Office for violating suspects' rights, under the Sixth and Fourteenth amendments, to 1) defense counsel, 2) a speedy trial, 3) individualized bail determinations; and 4) freedom from excessive pre-trial detention. The two plaintiffs had each been held for months in detention without access to a public defender before they were indicted or tried on the charges. "... Mr. Burks has spent over three years in the Scott County jail since August 30, 2009, on the three separate charges," the complaint states. "He has only been indicted once, he has never been to trial, and he has never been convicted."Karen Houpper, "Challenging Mississippi’s depraved justice system: Months in jail, with no indictment and no lawyer"
Salon.com, September 23, 2014. Accessed March 17, 2017. The state does not require the county courts to issue indictments within any set period of time. The county courts call a grand jury only three times a year, so defendants have long waits in between. At the time of indictment, the Scott County judges pick the public defender for each defendant, creating a conflict of interest. The ACLU notes that similar abuses exist in other Mississippi county court systems. At the time of the suit, Brandon Buskey, a lawyer with the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. ...

's Criminal Law Reform Project, said 53 of the 129 inmates in the Scott County Detention Center had not been indicted.CAMPBELL ROBERTSON, "In a Mississippi Jail, Convictions and Counsel Appear Optional"
September 24, 2014. Accessed March 17, 2017. On September 23, 2014, these parties filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of several inmates in the Scott County Detention Center who had been detained for lengthy periods without counsel, fair bail arrangements, formal prosecution, or trial. They proposed the creation of three classes of plaintiffs, among persons who were treated similarly by the county courts. As of November 2015, the case was ongoing. The US District Court dismissed the plaintiff's motion for a declaratory judgment in September 2015. It retained the claim for damages by the two named plaintiffs but dismissed the motions to certify three classes as moot, saying that defendants could bring up the claimed issues above with the county judges before indictment. The plaintiffs were thus denied class status by the court. (case ID: 3:14-cv-00745-HTW-LRA (S.D. Miss.))

Media

The ''Scott County Times'' has served Scott County since 1939. It is a weekly publication owned by Emmerich Newspapers, Inc.

Communities

Cities

* Morton

Towns

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

(partly in Newton County) * Sebastopol (partly in Leake County)

Census-designated places

* Harperville * Hillsboro

Other unincorporated communities

* Forkville * Homewood * Kalem *

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

* Midway * Norris * Pulaski * Contrell

Education

School districts include:
Text list
/ref> * Forest Municipal School District * Scott County School District

References

External links

*
Official website of Scott County

Mississippi Courthouses – Scott County
{{Coord, 32.40, -89.55, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-MS_source:UScensus1990 Mississippi counties 1833 establishments in Mississippi Populated places established in 1833 Majority-minority counties in Mississippi