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Greenwood is situated in Leflore County, Mississippi at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta, approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,425. It is the county seat of Leflore CountyTemplate:GR. The Tallahatchie River and the Yalobusha River meet at Greenwood to form the Yazoo River. Greenwood is the gateway to the Delta and has a vast array of things to do, places to visit, first-class shopping and wonderful world-renowned dining and lodging options. It is home to such corporations as Viking Range, Milwaukee Electric Tool, Staplcotn, America's Catch and Heartland Catfish, John-Richard, Balkamp and more. Greenwood is alive with cultural opportunities, including live blues music, live theater productions, museum exhibits, offerings of various art and culinary classes and much more.

History

The flood plain of the Mississippi River has long been an area rich in vegetation and wildlife, feeding off the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries. Long before Europeans migrated to America, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations settled in the Delta’s marsh and swampland. In 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed by Choctaw Chief Greenwood Leflore, opening the swampland to European settlers.

The first settlement on the banks of the Yazoo River was a trading post founded by John Williams in 1830 and known as Williams Landing. The settlement quickly blossomed, and in 1844 was incorporated as “Greenwood,” named after Chief Greenwood Leflore. Growing into a strong cotton market, the key to the city’s success was based on its strategic geographic location in the heart of the Delta; on the easternmost point of the alluvial plain and astride the Tallahatchie River and the Yazoo River. The city served as a shipping point to New Orleans, Louisiana, Vicksburg, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri. Greenwood continued to prosper until the latter part of the American Civil War.

During that war, Greenwood played an important, if little-known, role in the famous Siege of Vicksburg. In early 1863, it was clear that the Union intended to attack the strategic port of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. After failed attempts at a frontal assault of the city, General Ulysses S. Grant hatched a new plan to attack from the rear by way of the Tallahatchie and Yazoo Rivers. A hastily constructed Confederate fort was placed between the two rivers at Fort Pemberton. Here the Confederates met the oncoming Union flotilla with fierce resistance, successfully stopping their advance. As a result, Grant abandoned the Yazoo Expedition and retreated north to the Mississippi River to assault Vicksburg by another route.

The end of the Civil War in the mid-1860’s and the following year of Reconstruction severely diminished the cotton industry and crippled the city’s previously thriving economy. Greenwood saw very little growth during these years of hardship.

The arrival of railroads in the 1880’s saved the city – with two lines running to downtown Greenwood, close to the Yazoo River. Once again, Greenwood emerged as a prime shipping point for cotton. Downtown’s Front Street bordering the Yazoo bustled with cotton factors and other related businesses, earning that section the name Cotton Row. The city continued to prosper in this way well into the 1940’s.

Today, in the twenty-first century, Greenwood is experiencing a renaissance. Its historic downtown boasts dozens of completed renovations with several others in progress. There are upscale shops, unique dining experiences, a boutique hotel, galleries and museums. All the while, Greenwood has retained its small-town beauty, Delta personality and deep-South hospitality.

(from the Greenwood Convention and Visitor’s Bureau)

The Coming of Tourism, the Viking Renaissance and the Blue Parrot Migration */

The establishment of Greenwood as a tourist destination came with the opening on Howard Street of the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum & Gallery on November 15, 2001 The Museum contains within it, many historical and interesting artifacts concerning the life and music of Blues legend, Robert Johnson. It offers for public perusal, the collection of its owner/curator, music historian and Grammy Award-winning blues record producer, Stephen LaVere.

Thereafter, a renaissance ensued in Greenwood with the opening of The Alluvian Hotel on Howard Street in mid-2003. Built by Greenwood-based Viking Range Corporation, The Alluvian is a cosmopolitan boutique hotel located in the heart of historic downtown Greenwood in which it also offers next door at Guardina's, fine dining in the Delta style and a small bar.

On October 1, 2004, Greenwood got a big shot of urban-style energy with the opening of LaVere's Blue Parrot Cafe and Veronica's - Custom Bakery. The Blue Parrot Cafe is a casual fine dining restaurant, unique in it's setting and known for its warmth. Features of the Blue Parrot include live music performed three nights a week by regional artists and the only bar in Greenwood which offers its own signature libation, the rum-based Blue Parrot. Veronica's - Custom Bakery was Greenwood's first bakery after a purported 20-year absence of such businesses and is the only bakery in town to offer pastries and cakes made on site and to your order. It is operated five days a week by a young Cordon Bleu pastry chef. Both are located in the historic Three Deuces building (222 Howard St), which is now also home to the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum & Gallery, which has recently enlarged to include a radio museum and a local history room. Also operating from the location is Greenwood Heritage tours, offering local excursions to tourists interested in blues, civil war, civil rights, cotton plantations, literature and Native Americans. An interesting fact about the Three Dueces Building is that it is the former home of radio station (WGRM) in which the King of the Blues, B.B. King, made his first radio broadcast. Public recognition of that fact will occur in June 2006 when King will participate in the dedication of the building and the erection of a Mississippi Blues Trail Historical Marker.

Viking soon followed this up-beat trend with the opening of a lavish 7,000-square-foot spa, a sophisticated cooking school and an artisan bakery in 2005, a revitalization effort of the classic cotton town that proponents dub the dawn of "Delta chic.” The Alluvian Spa, Viking Cooking School and the Mockingbird Bakery are all the work of Viking Hospitality Group, and serve as entertainment for the largely corporate clientele that Viking brings to town for training and demonstrations.

Outside of Viking’s development, other private ventures have flourished in the blocks surrounding The Alluvian, including various retail stores and antique shops. What once was a deserted downtown has returned to its former glory as a booming central business district in Greenwood. Notable businesses that make their home on Howard Street in addition to the Three Deuces (Blue Parrot Cafe & Veronica's - Custom Bakery and the Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum & Gallery) and the Alluvian adjuncts, include Olde World Antiques, Russell's Antiques, Turnrow Books (formerly Dancing Rabbit Bookstore), Melon Patch (ladies' clothes), Sweet Pea (children's clothing), Mississippi Gift Company (offering exclusively Mississippi items and art), Fincher's Gifts, Traditions (gift store & frame shop), Ashley's Rug World, Fincher's Antiques and several bank headquarters.

With the historic preservation efforts of LaVere and Viking Range and other private developers, Greenwood has truly turned into a small-town tourist destination.

African-American Heritage

The African-American contribution to the Greenwood region is invaluable. In fact, the Delta has exported as much music as cotton, sprouted from the spirit of the people. That spirit rose from historic neighborhoods such as Browning Community in Greenwood, the oldest African-American community in Mississippi, and home to the important Browning Artesian Well. The spirit was fed by the town and country churches, including the areas oldest African-American church, Wesley United Methodist in downtown Greenwood, organized in 1870. The spirit was shaped by centers of learning such as Mississippi Valley State University, which has borne generation of historic figures, from sports stars and Olympians to Civil Rights leader and present-day civic leaders.

Leflore County has produced extraordinary music stars, from the early bluesmen such as Mississippi John Hurt, to the talent of today including B.B. King and Denise LaSalle. Another famous blues musician, Robert Johnson, has three purported gravesites in the Greenwood area. In the area of sports, Greenwood native Willye White followed the advice of her father and found her future far outside the cotton fields as a five-time Olympian and a medalist.

Not all great African-Americans left the Delta. Others stayed and forged freedom a day at a time, through their own efforts and by welcoming noted Civil Rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King held a rally in the summer of 1966, along with Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Sites such as East Percy Street Christian Church and the home of the late Dewey Greene were Civil Rights-era meeting places.

The Mississippi Delta is rich in the accomplishments of African-Americans who struggled, transcended, created, inspired and motivated.

(from the Greenwood Convention and Visitor’s Bureau)

Famous Greenwoodians

• Morgan Freeman, actor
• Webb Franklin, United States Congressman
• Kent Hull, professional football player
• Jim Gallagher, Jr., professional golfer
• Fred Carl, Jr., Founder and CEO of Viking Range
• Donna Tartt, author
• Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Olympian
• John A. Pittman, Congressional Medal of Honor winner
• Willye White, Olympian
• Betty Everett, singer
• Guitar Slim, blues musician
• Robert Johnson, blues musician
• Mississippi John Hurt, blues musician

Greenwood Trivia

• The largest Bible-binding plant in the nation is Norris Bookbinding located in Greenwood.
• Greenwood sites used in the filming of John Grisham's “The Chamber” include Webster’s Restaurant where you can sit and eat steak and seafood in the same barstool as Chris O’Donnell.
• Greenwood is one of the few places in the world where you can stand between two rivers flowing in the opposite direction: the Yazoo River and the Tallahatchie River.
• The City of Greenwood is named after Choctaw Indian Chief Greenwood Leflore, who negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with the U.S. Government.
• In 1944, Time Magazine covered The Greenwood Mule Race, attended by over 5,000 people.
• The Tallahatchie River in Greenwood contains relics of the Union side-wheel steamship, Star of the West, sunk to prevent passage of the Union flotilla to Vicksburg.
• Cottonlandia Museum in Greenwood houses furniture from Chief Greenwood Leflore’s mansion Malmaison, which burned in 1942.
• John Phillip Sousa conducted a concert in Greenwood in 1930.
• Keesler Bridge in Greenwood is a swing bridge of the Howe Truss design and a dedicated Mississippi landmark.
• The movie Ode to Billie Joe was filmed on location in Greenwood.
• Greenwood known as the Cotton Capital of the World and boasts the second largest cotton exchange in the nation located on Cotton Row.
• B.B. King, King of the Blues, was born in Leflore County as was broadcast over Greenwood’s own WGRM as part of the St. John’s Gospel Choir.
• The Leflore County Courthouse in Greenwood stands on Choctaw land once used for rituals and sacraments.
• Little Richard sang a song titled, “Greenwood, Mississippi”
• Hellen Keller gave a speech about happiness in Greenwood on March 29, 1916.
• Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman graduated from high school in Greenwood in 1955

City Government

Greenwood is governed by city council form of government composed of council members from seven wards and headed by a strong mayor.

Current City Officials (as of 2005):

Mayor:

• Harry L. Smith

Council Members:

• Ward 1: Johnny Jennings
• Ward 2: John Lee
• Ward 3: Ronnie Stevenson
• Ward 4: Sheriel Perkins
• Ward 5: Arance Williamson
• Ward 6: David Jordan
• Ward 7: Carl Palmer

City Attorney:

• Billy Bowman

City Clerk:

• Deirdre Mayes

Education

Post-Secondary Institutions:

• Mississippi Valley State University – Greenwood Center ()
• Mississippi Delta Community College – Greenwood Branch ()

Greenwood Public Schools: ()

• Greenwood High School
• Greenwood Middle School
• Bankston Elementary
• Davis Elementary
• Threadgill Elementary
• W.C. Williams Elementary

Private Schools:

• Pillow Academy ()

Parochial Schools:

• St. Francis of Assisi

Media and Publishing

Newspapers, Magazines and Journals

• The Greenwood Commonwealth (published daily) ()
• Leflore Illustrated (published yearly)

Television:

• WABG, ABC Affiliate (Channel 6)
• WMAO, PBS Affiliate (Channel 23)

AM/FM Radio:

• WYMX, 99.1 FM
• WGRM, 93.9 FM
• WGNL, 104.3 FM
• WMAO, 90.9 FM
• WGRM, 1240 AM
• WABG, 960 AM
• WKXG, 1540 AM

Transportation

Railroads

Greenwood is served by two major railroad lines: the Columbus and Greenville Railway and the Canadian National Railway-Illinois Central Railroad. Amtrak’s City of New Orleans train connects Greenwood with Chicago, Illinois, Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Amtrak station is located at 506 Carrollton Avenue.

Air Transportation

Greenwood (GWO) is served by Greenwood-Leflore Airport to the east and is located midway between Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee and about halfway between Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia.

Highways

• U.S. Route 82 runs through Greenwood on its way from the White Sands of New Mexico (Alamogordo, New Mexico) east to Georgia’s Atlantic coast (Brunswick, Georgia).
• U.S. Route 49 passes through Greenwood as it stretches between Piggott, Arkansas south to Gulfport, Mississippi.
• Other Greenwood highways include Mississippi Highway 7.

Employers

The largest employers in Leflore County are:

• Viking Range Corporation
• Greenwood Leflore Hospital
• Greenwood Public Schools
• Mississippi Valley State University
• Heartland Catfish
• America’s Catch Catfish
• The John-Richard Collection
• Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp.
• J.J. Ferguson Sand and Gravel
• Staplcotn

Sites of interest

Museums and History

• Greenwood Blues and Heritage Museum
• Cottonlandia
• Fort Pemberton and Star of the West

Historic Downtown:

• Three Dueces Building
• Veronica's Bakery
• Mockingbird Bakery
• Greenwood Blues Museum
• Viking Range Corporate Headquarters
• The Viking Cooking School
• The Viking Culitary Arts Center
• The Alluvian Hotel
• The Alluvian Spa
• Staplcotn Corporate Headquarters
• Cotton Row

Fine Dining:

• Blue Parrott
• Lusco’s
• Giardina’s
• Yianni’s
• Crystal Grill
• Delta Fresh Market
• Flatland Grill
• KK’s Delicatessen
• Webster’s

Geography

Greenwood is located at 33°31'7" North, 90°11'2" West (33.518719, -90.183883)Template:GR.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.7 km² (9.5 mi²). 23.9 km² (9.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.8 km² (0.3 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 3.15% water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 18,425 people, 6,916 households, and 4,523 families residing in the city. The population density was 771.6/km² (1,997.8/mi²). There are 7,565 housing units at an average density of 316.8/km² (820.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 32.82% White, 65.36% Black, 0.11% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.24% from other races, and 0.48% from two or more races. 1.03% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 6,916 households out of which 34.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.4% are married couples living together, 27.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.29.

In the city the population was spread out with 31.0% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 26.7% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 84.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $21,867, and the median income for a family was $26,393. Males had a median income of $27,267 versus $18,578 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,461. 33.9% of the population and 28.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 47.0% of those under the age of 18 and 20.0% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

External links

• Greenwood Chamber of Commerce
• Greenwood Convention and Visitor's Bureau
• Greenwood Leflore Carroll Economic Development Foundation
• The Greenwood Commonwealth
• Greenwood-Leflore Airport
• About Greenwood, Mississippi
• Viking Range Corporation
• The Alluvian Hotel
• Mississippi Delta Tourism Association

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