| County: | Franklin County |
| State: | Mississippi |
| Ex Image: | Franklin MS Courthouse RT.jpg |
| Ex Image Cap: | Franklin County Courthouse, Meadville, Mississippi. |
| Founded: | 1809 |
| Seat Wl: | Meadville |
| Largest City Wl: | Bude |
| City Type: | town |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 567 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 564 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 3.0 |
| Area Percentage: | 0.5 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 7675 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | auto |
| Web: | www.franklincountyms.com |
| District: | 3rd |
| Time Zone: | Central |
| Named For: | Benjamin Franklin |
Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,675.[1] Its county seat is Meadville.[2] The county was formed on December 21, 1809, from portions of Adams County and named for Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.[3] It is bisected by the Homochitto River, which runs diagonally through the county from northeast to southwest.
This was the fourth county organized in Mississippi. It was initially developed for agriculture, specifically cotton plantations based on enslaved labor of African Americans. Cotton continued to be important to the economy through the 19th century and into the early 20th century.
This still rural county has had a decline in population by about half since 1910. It is the fourth least populous county in the state. Mechanization of agriculture and the blight of the boll weevil both reduced the need for farm workers; they left the area and often the state. Many African Americans went north or west in the Great Migration before and after World War II. The county in the 21st century is majority white in population; in the 2000 census, African Americans composed more than 36% of the population. (See Demographics section below.)
As in the rest of the state, the county had racially segregated facilities under Jim Crow from the late 19th century. Many white residents opposed the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. In May 1964, Ku Klux Klan members abducted and killed two young black men, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore of Meadville, before Freedom Summer started. Their bodies were not discovered in the Mississippi River until July 1964, during the hunt for three disappeared civil rights workers.
No one was prosecuted at the time, but the case was reopened in 2007, after a documentary had been released on it by Canadian Broadcasting Company. Local man James Ford Seale was convicted of the kidnappings and deaths by an all-white jury in federal court.[4] In 2008 the families of Dee and Moore filed a civil suit against the Franklin County government, charging complicity by its law enforcement in the deaths. On June 21, 2010, Franklin County agreed to an undisclosed settlement in the civil suit with the families of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.[5] [6] [7] [8]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and (0.5%) is water.[9]
| White (non-Hispanic) | 4,910 | 63.97% | |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 2,563 | 33.39% | |
| Native American | 2 | 0.03% | |
| Asian | 8 | 0.1% | |
| Other/Mixed | 132 | 1.72% | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 60 | 0.78% |
In the 1964 Presidential election Barry Goldwater reportedly received 96.05% of the county's vote.[11] Although the white-majority county has supported Southern Democrats such as Jimmy Carter for the presidency, since 2000 the Republican candidate has consistently received over 60% of the vote.[12]