Misplaced Pages

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 68.35.2.8 (talk) at 14:04, 18 September 2010 (→History: originally -> previously. We don't know if the Natchez were the "original" population, given the repeated waves of migration from Asia it is unlikely they are the originals.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 14:04, 18 September 2010 by 68.35.2.8 (talk) (→History: originally -> previously. We don't know if the Natchez were the "original" population, given the repeated waves of migration from Asia it is unlikely they are the originals.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) City in Mississippi, United States
Vicksburg, Mississippi
City
Aerial view of Vicksburg HarborAerial view of Vicksburg Harbor
Nickname: Red Carpet City of the South
Location of Vicksburg in Warren CountyLocation of Vicksburg in Warren County
CountryUnited States
StateMississippi
CountyWarren
Incorporated1826
Government
 • MayorPaul Winfield
Area
 • Total35.3 sq mi (98.32 km)
 • Land32.9 sq mi (85.2 km)
 • Water2.4 sq mi (6.2 km)
Elevation240 ft (82 m)
Population
 • Total26,407
 • Density803.1/sq mi (310.1/km)
Time zoneUTC-6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes39180-39183
Area code601
FIPS code28-76720
GNIS feature ID0679216
Websitewww.vicksburg.org

Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located 234 miles (377 km) northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and 40 miles (65 km) due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920, 17,931; and in 1940, 24,460. The population was 26,407 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County.

Vicksburg is the principal city of the Vicksburg Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Warren County.

History

The entire Choctaw Nation's location compared to the U.S. state of Mississippi.

The area which is now Vicksburg was previously part of the Natchez Native Americans' territory. The first Europeans who settled the area were French colonists, who built Fort-Saint-Pierre in 1719 on the high bluffs overlooking the Yazoo River at present-day Redwood. On 28 November, 1729, the Natchez Native Americans attacked the fort in Natchez), killing several hundred people, including the Jesuit Father Paul Du Poisson, and carrying off most of the women and children. The Natchez War was a disaster for French Louisiana. With the help of the Choctaw, traditional enemies of the Natchez, the French defeated and scattered the Natchez and their allies, the Yazoo.

The Choctaw Nation took over the area by right of conquest and inhabited it for several decades. Under pressure from the US government, in 1801 the Choctaw agreed to cede nearly 2,000,000 acres of land to the US under the terms of the Treaty of Fort Adams. The treaty was the first of a series that eventually led to the removal of most of the Choctaw to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River in 1830. Nonetheless, many Choctaw remained in Mississippi, citing article XIV of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.

In 1790 the Spanish founded a military outpost on the site, which they called Nogales (walnut trees). When the Americans took possession in 1798, they changed the name to Walnut Hills. A sprawling community developed which officially incorporated in 1825 as Vicksburg. It was named after Newitt Vick, a Methodist minister. He had been a conscientious objector during the Revolution.

View of Vicksburg in 1855

During the American Civil War, the city finally had to surrender during the Siege of Vicksburg, after which the Union Army gained control of the entire Mississippi River. The 47-day siege was intended to starve the city into submission. Otherwise its location atop a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River proved impregnable to assault by federal troops. The surrender of Vicksburg by Confederate General John C. Pemberton on July 4, 1863, together with the defeat of General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg the day before, has historically marked the turning point in the Civil War. The residents of Vicksburg did not celebrate the national holiday of 4th of July again until 1945.

Floating drydock in Vicksburg, circa 1905

Because of the city's location on the Mississippi River, in the 19th century it built an extensive trade from the river's prodigious steamboat traffic. Between 1881 and 1894, the Anchor Line, a prominent steamboat company on the Mississippi River from 1859 to 1898, operated a steamboat called the City of Vicksburg. In 1876 a Mississippi River flood cut off the large meander flowing past Vicksburg, leaving limited access to the new channel.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Yazoo River in 1903 into the old, shallowing channel to rejuvenate the waterfront. Railroad access to the west was by transfer steamers and ferry barges until a combination railroad-highway bridge was built in 1929. This is the only Mississippi River rail crossing between Baton Rouge and Memphis. It is the only highway crossing between Natchez and Greenville.

Interstate 20 bridged the river after 1973. Freight rail traffic still crosses via the old bridge. North-South transportation links are by the Mississippi River and U.S. Highway 61.

The historic 1894 Mississippi River Commission Building

On March 12, 1894, the popular soft drink Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time in Vicksburg by Joseph Biedenharn, a local confectioner. Today, surviving nineteenth-century Biedenharn soda bottles are prized by collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia. His original candy store has been renovated as the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.

Vicksburg served as the primary refugee gathering point, and relief parties put up temporary housing during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. It submerged a large percentage of the Mississippi Delta. That flood was the impetus towards the US Army Corps of Engineers establishing the Waterways Experiment Station as the primary hydraulics laboratory, to develop protection of important croplands and cities from the river. Now known as the Engineer Research and Development Center, it applies military engineering, information technology, environmental engineering, hydraulic engineering, and geotechnical engineering.

In December 1953, a severe tornado swept across Vicksburg causing 38 deaths and destroying nearly 1,000 buildings.

Racial unrest

During and after Reconstruction, blacks were subject to intimidation and attacks across the South, as whites tried to regain social and political dominance. In the first few years after the war, the Ku Klux Klan became active but was suppressed about 1870. By the mid-1870s, new paramilitary groups had arisen in the Deep South. On December 7, 1874 in the Vicksburg Massacre, white men killed at 50 black residents. Alternate accounts estimated that upwards of 300 blacks were killed in the city and the surrounding area. The Red Shirts, a paramilitary organization that acted as an arm of the Democratic Party, was active in Vicksburg and other Mississippi areas. President Ulysses S. Grant sent Federal troops to Vicksburg to quell the violence. In the aftermath of the Vicksburg Massacre, other states adopted what they called the Mississippi Plan. At election times, paramilitary groups' intimidated black Republican voters into staying away from the polls, thereby preventing the election of any Republicans or blacks, despite their legal right to vote. By the late 1870s, the Democrats had regained power in state legislatures across the former Confederacy.

Lynchings and other forms of vigilante violence continued to occur in Vicksburg after the turn of the century as well. In May 1903, for example, two black men charged with murdering a planter were taken from jail by a mob of 200 farmers and lynched before they went to trial.

1910 panorama

Geography

Vicksburg is located at 32°20′10″N 90°52′31″W / 32.33611°N 90.87528°W / 32.33611; -90.87528 (32.335986, -90.875356).Template:GR According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.3 square miles (98.32 km²), of which 32.9  square miles (85.2 km²) is land and 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²) (6.78%) is water. It is located at the confluence of the Mississippi River and Yazoo River.

Demographics

Mississippi River at Vicksburg

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 26,407 people, 10,364 households, and 6,612 families residing in the city. The population density was 803.1 people per square mile (310.1/km²). There were 11,654 housing units for an average density of 354.4/sq mi (136.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 37.80% White, 60.43% African American, 0.15% Native American, 0.61% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.41% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.04% of the population. There were 10,364 households out of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.9% were married couples living together, 24.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.4% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 19.6% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 82.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,466, and the median income for a family was $34,380. Males had a median income of $29,420 versus $20,728 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,174. About 19.3% of families and 23.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.8% of those under age 18 and 16.5% of those age 65 or over.

The city is also home to three large Corps of Engineers installations, the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), the Mississippi Valley Division headquarters, and the Vicksburg District headquarters.

Government

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2009)

The city government consists of a mayor who is elected at large. The current mayor is Paul Winfield, who defeated incumbent Mayor Leyens in the June 2009 election. There are also two aldermembers who are elected from one of two wards.

Education

The City of Vicksburg is served by the Vicksburg-Warren School District, Vicksburg Catholic School (St. Francis Xavier Elementary and St. Aloysius High School), as well as Porter's Chapel Academy.

Trivia

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (October 2008)
  • "Down around Vicksburg" is where the singer meets the "Mississippi Queen" in the rock-and-roll standard of the same name by the band Mountain.
  • Some of the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? was filmed here. The Stokes campaign dinner was filmed in the Southern Cultural Heritage Center's auditorium.
  • Vicksburg is home to the McRaven House, said to be one of the most haunted houses in America.
  • Every summer, Vicksburg plays host to the Miss Mississippi Pageant and Parade.

Cultural references

This article may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please help Misplaced Pages to improve this article by removing the content or adding citations to reliable and independent sources. (June 2010)
  • Jacob Appel's classic short story, The Siege, takes place in Vickburg during the spring of 1863.

Notable residents

Sites of interest

Sources

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  1. "Lynched for Murder…". New York Times. May 4, 1903. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. Appel, Jacob. The Siege, originally printed in The New Delta Review, Louisiana State University, Volume 16, No 2.
  3. Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963.
  4. Delta State’s Okra mascot to appear on Food Network’s ‘Good Eats’. Accessed 2008-07-07.
  5. Excitement building for Business Woman of the Year luncheon by Lynn Lofton, Mississippi Business Journal, 15-JAN-07. Accessed 2008-07-07.

External links

Municipalities and communities of Warren County, Mississippi, United States
County seat: Vicksburg
City
Map of Mississippi highlighting Warren County
CDPs
Other
communities
Ghost town
State of Mississippi
Jackson (capital)
Topics
Society
Regions
Metros
Larger cities
Smaller cities
Counties
flag Mississippi portal
Categories:
Vicksburg, Mississippi Add topic