Washington 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 44,922. 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 Greenville. The county is named in honor of the first

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. It is located next to the Arkansas border. The Greenville, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Washington County. It is located 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 ...

History

Located in the Mississippi Delta, Washington County was first developed for cotton cultivation in the antebellum years. Most plantations were developed to have access to the rivers, which were the major transportation routes. Cotton was based on slave labor. In an 1860 Census, Washington County had an enslaved population of 92.3%, the second-highest anywhere in the country, only behind Issaquena County, Mississippi (92.5%). In the period from 1877 to 1950, Washington County had 12 documented lynchings of African Americans.''Lynching in America'', 3rd edition
, Supplement by County, pg. 6 Most occurred around the turn of the 20th century, as part of white imposition of

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 ...

conditions and suppression of black voting.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (4.8%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Bolivar County (north) * Sunflower County (northeast) * Humphreys County (east) * Sharkey County (southeast) * Issaquena County (south) * Chicot County, Arkansas (west) *

Desha County, Arkansas Desha County ( ) is a county located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of Arkansas, with its eastern border the Mississippi River. At the 2020 census, the population was 11,395. The county is plurality-African American. The county seat ...

(northwest)

National protected areas

* Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge * Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge (part) * Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 44,922 people, 17,988 households, and 11,232 families residing in the county.

2010 census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 51,137 people living in the county. 71.3% were Black or African American, 27.0%

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 ...

, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Native American, 0.4% of some other race and 0.6% of two or more races. 1.0% 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, there were 62,977 people, 22,158 households, and 15,931 families 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 . There were 24,381 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 69.57%

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 ...

, 33.97%

, 0.09% Native American, 0.53% Asian, 0.02%

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 ...

, 0.25% from other races, and 0.57% from two or more races. 0.84% 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. According to the

of 2000, the largest ancestry groups in Washington County were African 69.57%, English 21.4%, Scottish 8.2% and Scots-Irish 3.1% Washington County by 2005 was 67.2% African-American in population. Latinos constituted 1.1% of the population in the county while non-Hispanic whites made up 31.7% of the population. As of the

of 2000, there were 22,158 households, out of which 36.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.60% 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, 26.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.10% were non-families. 24.60% 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 2.80 and the average family size was 3.35. In the county, the population was spread out, with 31.50% under the age of 18, 10.10% from 18 to 24, 26.50% from 25 to 44, 20.50% from 45 to 64, and 11.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 87.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.30 males. The median income for a household in the county was $25,757, and the median income for a family was $30,324. Males had a median income of $28,266 versus $20,223 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 $13,430. About 24.90% of families and 29.20% 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 38.40% of those under age 18 and 24.60% of those age 65 or over. Washington County's demographics are rooted in the region's mid-nineteenth-century ascendance in cotton production and, accordingly, importation of people as slaves. According to the historian Sven Beckert, the county had "more than ten slaves for every white inhabitant" in 1840, and "every white family in the county held on average more than eighty slaves" by 1850.

1990 census

As of the

o
1990
there were 67,935 people living in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 57.46% (39,035) Black or African American, 41.47% (28,174)

, 0.08% (53) Native American, 0.36% (244) Asian, and 0.02% (13) from other races. 0.61% (416) were

or Latino of any race.

Transportation

Major highways

U.S. Highway 82 * US 61

U.S. Highway 61 * US 278

U.S. Highway 278 * Circle sign 1

Mississippi Highway 1 Mississippi Highway 1 (MS 1) is a state highway in Mississippi that runs south from U.S. Highway 49 near Lula, Mississippi, Lula to U.S. Highway 61 south of Cary, Mississippi, Cary, roughly paralleling the Mississippi River. It travels approxi ...

Mississippi Highway 12

Airport

Mid Delta Regional Airport, owned by the City of Greenville, is located in an

unincorporated area 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 ...

in the county.

Education

* Public School Districts ** Greenville Public School District ** Leland School District ** Hollandale School District ** Western Line School District * Private Schools ** Deer Creek School (Arcola) ** Greenville Christian School ** Saint Joseph Catholic High School (Greenville) ** Washington School (Greenville) Pillow Academy in unincorporated Leflore County, near Greenwood, enrolls some students from Washington County.Profile of Pillow Academy 2010-2011
." Pillow Academy. Retrieved on March 25, 2012. It originally was a segregation academy.

Communities

Cities

* Greenville (third and current county seat) * Hollandale * Leland

Towns

* Arcola * Metcalfe

Census-designated places

* Elizabeth * Glen Allan * Stoneville * Winterville

Unincorporated communities

* Avon * Burdett * Chatham * Darlove * Erwin * Foote * McCutcheon * Murphy * Percy * Refuge * Tralake * Tribbett * Wayside * Wilmot

Ghost towns

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

(first county seat) * Port Anderson * Princeton (second county seat)

Politics

Washington County has a very high African American population and is a Democratic stronghold, having been so for decades. The last Republican to carry the county was

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

, who won it by 7 votes in 1988.https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/