Meadville, Mississippi
| Meadville, Mississippi | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
 Location of Meadville, Mississippi |
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 Meadville, Mississippi
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| Coordinates: 31°28′23″N 90°53′27″W / 31.47306°N 90.89083°WCoordinates: 31°28′23″N 90°53′27″W / 31.47306°N 90.89083°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Franklin |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.10 sq mi (2.86 km2) |
| • Land | 1.10 sq mi (2.86 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 305 ft (93 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 449 |
| • Density | 407/sq mi (157.0/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 39653 |
| Area code(s) | 601 |
| FIPS code | 28-46200 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0693939 |
| Website | www |
Meadville is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Mississippi, United States, in the southwest part of the state. The population was 449 at the 2010 census, down from 519 at the 2000 census. It is situated north of the Homochitto River, which runs from the northeast to the southwest through the county on its way to its outlet at the Mississippi River.
It is home of a chess center, covered in 60 Minutes story aired March 26, 2017, involving chess coach Jeff Bulington.
The town was named after Cowles Mead, a 19th-century political leader. This town developed as a trading center for the agricultural county, which had an early economy based on the cultivation of cotton. Court days also attracted farmers and their customers. The county is still largely rural.
In May 1964, two African-American young men from Meadville, Charles Moore, a student from Alcorn State College who had been active in the Civil Rights Movement, and Henry Hezekiah Dee, a friend who was a millworker, were abducted in the town while hitchhiking. They were tortured and murdered by Ku Klux Klan members, transported across state lines, and tied to heavy machinery and dropped alive into the Mississippi River to die. Their bodies were discovered in July 1964 during the hunt for three civil rights workers who disappeared in June 1964. In November 1964 two men were arrested for the murders, but the district attorney dropped the charges for what he said was insufficient evidence.
They were two of six men killed by Klan chapters in a wave of violence from January to December 1964 in the area of Natchez, southwest Mississippi, and Concordia Parish, Louisiana. Additional Klan murders followed from 1965 to 1967. Two other bodies of African-American males were found in the Mississippi in the summer of 1964, including that of 14-year-old Herbert Oarsby.
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Wikipedia