Mound bayou
| Mound bayou | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Location in Mississippi
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1887 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Mississippi | ||
| County : | Bolivar County | ||
| Coordinates : | 33 ° 53 ′ N , 90 ° 44 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) | ||
| Residents : | 1,446 (as of 2016) | ||
| Height : | 44 m | ||
| Postal code : | 38762 | ||
| Area code : | +1 662 | ||
| FIPS : | 28-49320 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 0673895 | ||
Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County in the state of Mississippi .
history
The city was founded in 1887 by cousins Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green. The two founders were former slaves of Jefferson Davis and his brother Joseph. Immediately after the Civil War , Joseph Davis had signed a contract with Isaia Montgomery's father, Benjamin Montgomery, that allowed Montgomery to plant a black church on the Davis plantation. This Davis Bend settlement came under increasing pressure due to diminishing federal government protection and increasing state influence.
In the 1880s, the opened up Louisviolle, Texas and New Orleans Railway land in Yazoo - Mississippi - Delta . It was primarily aimed at black settlers for development. Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green seized the opportunity and were able to conclude an agreement with railroad company representative George McGinnis for an all-black settlement. Your choice for this fell on today's urban area. In the fall of 1887 the first settlers arrived, who had acquired land from the railroad company through Montgomery. They began clearing and cultivating the marshland. The first huts were built in October 1887. The settlement initially operated a subsistence economy , supported by the sale of wood obtained by clearing to the railway company. Montgomery ran the post office in his home and also sold train tickets there. The Green Grove Baptist Church was organized in the home of another settler. The conditions led to the emigration of settlers. In 1891 the local African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded. In 1892 the public school, the Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute, was established . There was a large influx of African Americans between 1896 and 1914 to evade discrimination elsewhere in Mississippi state. On August 16, 1898, Mound Bayou received the status of an Incorporated Village with officially 183 registered voters.
In 1904, Charkles Banks founded the Bank of Mound Bayou , one of the first Mississippi banks to be owned by black people. Banks founded the Mississippi Negro Business League in 1905 and made the acquaintance of Booker T. Washington . Washington visited the site in 1907 and was so impressed that he wrote several articles on Mound Bayou, Montgomery and Banks. In 1910, Mount Bayou was half the size of neighboring Cleveland and the economy was based on the cultivation and distribution of cotton . 50 companies were based in the village at the time. Most important of all was the Mound Bayou Cotton-Seed Oil Mil, initiated in 1907 by Washington, Banks, and Montgomery . The school had 200 students in 1910. In 1911, the 1911 the Farmer's Mercantile Cooperative was formed to reduce capital outflows to neighboring white communities. The cooperative ran a shop to sell the produce of local black farmers.
In 1912 Mound Bayou received town status.
In 1914 the city got into a financial crisis as cotton prices fell. The bank had to be closed, the oil mill initially closed in 1915. At the end of 1915 a new bank was formed, the Mound Bayou State Bank . Cotton prices began to rise again and the oil mill could be reopened for a short time. However, it came under economic pressure because on the one hand white buyers began to boycott the mill and an oil mill cartel had formed on a national level. From 1919 onwards, cotton prices fell rapidly again, causing an economic crisis in Mound Bayou that lasted until 1922. Among other things, the bank finally had to close in 1922. In the following ten years there was massive emigration. Nonetheless, the Mound Bayou Consolidated Public School and County Training School , a high school, opened in 1920 . The Great Depression from 1929 worsened the economic situation of the place and drove mainly small farmers into ruin. In 1941 there was a major fire that destroyed almost the entire business district of the city.
