Minter City, Mississippi

Unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States

Minter City, Mississippi

Unincorporated community

Minter City

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Minter City

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Coordinates: 33°45′1″N 90°17′40″W﻿ / ﻿33.75028°N 90.29444°W﻿ / 33.75028; -90.29444
Country| United States
State| Mississippi
Counties| Leflore
Elevation

| 138 ft (42 m)
Time zone| UTC−6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)| UTC−5 (CDT)
ZIP Code|

38944

Area code| 662
GNIS feature ID| 673683[1]

Minter City is an unincorporated community in Leflore County and Tallahatchie County, Mississippi.[2] It is part of the Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area, and is within the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway 8 intersects U.S. Route 49E southwest of Minter City, and the Tallahatchie River flows to the east. The post office on U.S. Route 49E has the ZIP Code 38944.[3]

## History[edit]

The original settlement was known as "Walnut Place Landing" and "Minter City Landing".[4]

After traveling down Charley's Trace (also known as the Old Trading Trail), Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto may have crossed the Tallahatchie River near Minter City as his party traveled west in 1541.[5][6]

In 1849, James A. Towne bought 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) in the area for 25 cents per acre, and built a log house on the western shore of the river at Minter City. Known as "Uncle Jimmy", Towne supported the local Methodist church, and was known to give each new preacher a wagon and mule.[7][8]

The "James Minter Ferry", documented in 1868, enabled the crossing of the Tallahatchie River at this site.[9]

Minter City became a junction for two railroads, both now abandoned. The Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City Railroad was established in 1890, and the Minter City Southern and Western Railroad, a shortline railroad servicing the sawmills west of Minter City, began operating in 1904. A depot and railroad facilities were erected in Minter City.[10]

The African-American educator William H. Holtzclaw, founder of the Utica Normal and Industrial Institute for the Training of Colored Young Men and Young Women (now part of Hinds Community College) in Utica, Mississippi, wrote about his experiences establishing schools for African-Americans in Mississippi in his book The Black Man's Burden, published in 1915. In it, he describes meeting with a wealthy white plantation owner in Minter City to discuss the establishment of a school there:

> I believe you are about to engage in a good work, and I would like to see the Negro educated, but, candidly, I do not think that the kind of school you would like to start would do any good in the Delta. I really think it would do harm. What I want here is Negroes who can make cotton, and they don't need education to help them make cotton. I could not use educated Negroes on my place, but since you have asked me for advice, I will tell you candidly that here in the Delta is no place to start a school.[11]

The Frank Streater Consolidated School (White) was constructed in Minter City in 1921. The abandoned building burned in 2013.[12]

Minter City was the site of a lynching in 1933. Richard Roscoe, an African-American Baptist deacon and tenant farmer, had been in a physical altercation with the white plantation manager, and both men had been injured. An hour later, Roscoe was abducted, shot dead, and then dragged through the streets of Minter City tied to the back of the sheriff's car.[13]

* Sign on U.S. Highway 49E celebrating Minter City as the hometown of Lusia Harris

* Post office

* Frank Streater Consolidated School

## Education[edit]

Areas in Leflore County are is in the Greenwood-Leflore School District. Residents are zoned to Amanda Elzy High School.[14] This area was formerly served by the Leflore County School District.[15] T.Y. Fleming Elementary School was in the area,[16] but it closed in 2009.[17] The editor of the Greenwood Commonwealth criticized the closure.[18] Effective July 1, 2019 the Leflore district district consolidated into the Greenwood-Leflore School District.[19]

Areas in the Tallahatchie County portion are zoned to the West Tallahatchie School District.[20] The local schools for West Tallahatchie are R. H. Bearden Elementary School and West Tallahatchie High School. Previously Black Bayou Elementary School in Glendora served southern parts of the West Tallahatchie district.[21] The district decided to close Black Bayou in 1998.[22] Previously West District Middle School (now Bearden) served as a middle school for the West Tallahatchie area.[21]

Mississippi Delta Community College is the designated community college for Leflore County.[23] Coahoma Community College is the designated community college for Tallahatchie County.[24]

## In popular culture[edit]

* Richard Ford references Minter City in his 1996 novel Independence Day.[25]

## Notable people[edit]

* L.C. Green, blues guitarist.[26]
* Lusia Harris, Olympic silver medalist and All American basketball player.[27]
* M. Carl Holman, author, poet and playwright.[28]
* Kemp Malone, linguist and literary scholar.[29]
* Solomon Osborne, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives[30]
* Homer Spragins, former pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies[31]

## References[edit]

1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Minter City, Mississippi
2. ^ "Minter City". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
3. ^ "Free ZIP Code Lookup with area code, county, geocode, MSA/PMSA, population". Zipinfo.com. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
4. ^ "Minter City Landing". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
5. ^ Brown, Ian W. (2008). "Chapter 16. Culture Contact Along the I-69 Corridor: Protohistoric and Historic Use of the Northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi". In Rafferty, Janet; Peacock, Evan (eds.). Time's River: Archaeological Syntheses from the Lower Mississippi Valley. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 378\. ISBN 978-0-8173-8112-7.
6. ^ Fordyce, John (2001). O'Brien, Michael J.; Lyman, R. Lee (eds.). Trailing DeSoto : Setting the Agenda for American Archaeology: The National Research Council Archaeological Conferences of 1929, 1932, and 1935. University of Alabama Press. p. 153\. ISBN 9780817310844.
7. ^ Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State. Viking. 1938. p. 421\. ISBN 9781623760236.
8. ^ Fraiser, Jim (2000). Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History. Pelican. p. 125\. ISBN 9781455608911.
9. ^ "James Minter Ferry (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
10. ^ Howe, Tony. "Minter City, Mississippi". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
11. ^ Holtzclaw, William H. (1915). "The Black Man's Burden". Neale.
12. ^ Baughn, Jennifer (October 22, 2008). "Frank Streater Consolidated School (White)". Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
13. ^ Finnegan, Terence (2013). A Deed So Accursed: Lynching in Mississippi and South Carolina, 1881-1940. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 9780813933849.
14. ^ "School Profile". Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District. Retrieved May 18, 2021. "Amanda Elzy currently services [...] including the towns of [...] Minter City."
15. ^ "SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP (2010 CENSUS): Leflore County, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
16. ^ "Home". T.Y. Fleming School. May 23, 2001. Archived from the original on May 23, 2001. Retrieved May 18, 2021. "Route 2 Box 1A Minter City, MS 38944"
17. ^ Darden, Bob (June 27, 2009). "T.Y. Fleming to close doors for final time". Greenwood Commonwealth. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
18. ^ Kalich, Tim (February 14, 2009). "Closing T.Y. Fleming isn't the only option". Greenwood Commonwealth. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
19. ^ "School District Consolidation in Mississippi Archived 2017-07-02 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Professional Educators. December 2016. Retrieved on July 2, 2017. Page 2 (PDF p. 3/6).
20. ^ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Tallahatchie County, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
21. ^ a b Mikell, Ray S. (August 14, 1988). "West Tallahatchie students face longer classes, new staff". The Greenwood Commonwealth. Greenwood, Mississippi. p. 7A. \- Clipping from Newspapers.com.
22. ^ "West Tallahatchie schools launch building projects". The Charleston Sun-Sentinel. February 12, 1998. \- Clipping from Newspapers.com.
23. ^ "About MDCC". Mississippi Delta Community College. Retrieved May 12, 2021. "Service District Bolivar, [...]"
24. ^ "Student Residency" (Archive). Coahoma Community College. Retrieved on July 8, 2017. "Out-of-District Resident: A student who does not live within Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Tallahatchie, and Tunica Counties but does live in some other county in Mississippi."
25. ^ Ford, Richard (1996). Independence Day. New York: Vintage Books. p. 303.
26. ^ Larkin, Colin (2013). The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues. Random House. ISBN 9781448132744.
27. ^ Sorensen, Dan (May 1977). "Give the Ball to Lusia". NBA.com.
28. ^ Thompson, Julius Eric (2001). Black Life in Mississippi: Essays on Political, Social, and Cultural Studies in a Deep South State. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761819226.
29. ^ Malone, Randolph Augustus (1996). Malone and Allied Families. R.A. Malone.
30. ^ "Solomon C. Osborne". State.ms.us. Mississippi House of Representatives. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
31. ^ Robertson, Steve. "Diamond Dawg Tales: Homer Spragins". 247sports.com. Retrieved February 16, 2023.

## External links[edit]

* Media related to Minter City, Mississippi at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Municipalities and communities of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States

County seat: Greenwood

Cities|

* Greenwood
* Itta Bena

Map of Mississippi highlighting Leflore County

Towns|

* Morgan City
* Schlater
* Sidon

CDP|

* Mississippi Valley State University

Unincorporated
communities|

* Berclair
* Browning
* Highlandale
* McNutt
* Minter City‡
* Money
* Quito
* Rising Sun
* Ruby
* Shellmound
* Sunnyside
* Swiftown
* Wildwood

Ghost town|

* Colony Town

Footnotes|

‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

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