Holmes County, MS
| Holmes County, Mississippi | |
|---|---|
|
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 Location in the U.S. state of Mississippi |
|
 Mississippi's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1833 |
| Named for | David Holmes |
| Seat | Lexington |
| Largest city | Durant |
| Area | |
| • Total | 765 sq mi (1,981 km2) |
| • Land | 757 sq mi (1,961 km2) |
| • Water | 7.9 sq mi (20 km2), 1.0% |
| Population | |
| • (2010) | 19,198 |
| • Density | 25/sq mi (10/km2) |
| Congressional district | 2nd |
| Time zone | Central: UTC−6/−5 |
| Website | holmescountyms |
Holmes County is a county in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Yazoo River and the eastern border by the Big Black River. The western part of the county is within the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,198. Its county seat is Lexington. The county is named in honor of David Holmes, territorial governor and the first governor of the state of Mississippi. A favorite son, Edmond Favor Noel, was an attorney and state politician, elected as governor of Mississippi, serving from 1908-1912.
Cotton was long the commodity crop; before the Civil War, its cultivation was based on slave labor and the majority of the population was made up of black slaves. Planters generally developed their properties along the riverfronts. After the war, many freedmen acquired land in the bottomlands of the Delta by clearing and selling timber, but most lost their land during difficult financial times, becoming tenant farmers or sharecroppers. With an economy based on agriculture, the county had steep population declines from 1940 to 1970, due to mechanization of farm labor, and the second wave of the Great Migration, as African Americans migrated from the Deep South especially to West Coast cities, where jobs were plentiful in the buildup of the defense industry.
Some African Americans had reacquired land in Holmes County in the 1940s under the New Deal programs. By 1960, Holmes County's 800 independent black farmers owned 50% of the land, more such farmers than elsewhere in the state. They were integral members of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. In 1967, eight of ten black candidates to run for local county office were landowning farmers; they were the first African Americans to run for office in the county since Reconstruction. Holmes had more candidates running for offices for the Freedom Democratic Party than did any other county.
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