Smithville, Mississippi

Smithville is located on lands purchased from Chickasaw chief Che-lah-cha-chubby in 1836. The town is named for William Smith, an early settler who established a store at the site around 1840. The town was incorporated in 1845.[4]

Smithville is located at 34°4′7″N 88°23′44″W / 34.06861°N 88.39556°W / 34.06861; -88.39556 (34.068605, -88.395486).[7] The town is situated along the east bank of Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in northern Monroe County. The waterway's Glover Wilkins Lock is located just downstream. Mississippi Highway 25 traverses Smithville, connecting the town with Fulton to the north and Amory to the south.

As of the census[9] of 2000, there were 882 people, 365 households, and 243 families residing in the town. The population density 602.1 people per square mile (233.2/km²). There were 404 housing units at an average density of 275.8 per square mile (106.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town is 97.62% White, 1.59% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.23% Asian, 0.23% from other races, and 0.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.79% of the population.

Sumner, Mississippi

Sumner is a town in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The population was 407 at the 2000 census. Sumner is one of the two county seats of Tallahatchie County. It is located on the west side of the county and the Tallahatchie River, which runs through the county north-south. The other county seat is Charleston, located east of the river. Charleston was the first county seat, as settlement came from the east, and it is the larger of the two towns.

The Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner was the site in 1955 of the trial of two men charged with the lynching murder in August of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago who was visiting his great-uncle in Money, Mississippi. The all-white jury acquitted the men; a few months later, they sold their story to Look magazine, and admitted killing Till.

The heavily wooded swamp along the Tallahatchie River was historically part of the Choctaw Nation, one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast. Ceding large amounts of territory to the United States, they were forced to remove to Indian Territory in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act.

Tishomingo, Mississippi

Tishomingo is named after the Chickasaw chief, who signed the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832. He served with General Anthony Wayne against the Shawnees in the Northwest Territory and received a silver medal from President George Washington. During the War of 1812, he served under Andrew Jackson. After his service in the military, he retired to become a farmer until white settlers came onto his land. In 1837, a final treaty forced the Chickasaws to move to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Tishomingo died of smallpox on the Trail of Tears and is buried in Arkansas somewhere near Little Rock.[3] His son, Iuka, is the namesake of the county seat of Tishomingo County, Mississippi.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km2), all land. The town is situated along Mississippi Highway 25, south of the highway's intersection with Mississippi Highway 30, and north of its intersection with the Natchez Trace Parkway. The Mississippi-Alabama border lies a few miles to the east, Tishomingo State Park lies to the southeast, and Bay Springs Lake (part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway) lies to the west.

As of the census[5] of 2000, there are 316 people, 144 households, and 87 families residing in the town. The population density is 572.5 people per square mile (221.8/km²). There are 165 housing units at an average density of 299.0 per square mile (115.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town is 97.15% White, 1.90% African American, 0.63% from other races, and 0.32% from two or more races. 1.27% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Valley Park, Mississippi

A movie set resembling a rural radio station was constructed west of Valley Park in order to film a scene for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). In the movie, the "Soggy Bottom Boys" recorded Man of Constant Sorrow at radio station "WEZY". Only the mast tower remains at this location: 32°38′56″N 90°56′22″W / 32.648775°N 90.939418°W / 32.648775; -90.939418.[3]

Waveland, Mississippi

Waveland is a city located in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city of Waveland was incorporated in 1972. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,435.[4] Waveland was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969, and by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.

On August 17, 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall at the tip of Louisiana before continuing on shore at Waveland. The storm heavily damaged the areas south of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Recovery efforts went on for nearly a decade. The town later erected a plaque commemorating the efforts of the volunteers who committed time and resources towards rebuilding.

The city of Waveland was "ground zero" of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005. The city received massive damage and is still in the process of recovering and rebuilding. South of the CSXT mainline, the area was almost completely destroyed. The rest of the city took heavy flooding. In a news report, state officials said Waveland took a harder hit from the wind and water than any other town along the Gulf Coast, and that the town was obliterated. 36 years earlier, in 1969, Waveland had been severely damaged by Hurricane Camille.[8]

Yazoo City, Mississippi

Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth. It is the county seat of Yazoo County and the principal city of the Yazoo City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Jackson–Yazoo City Combined Statistical Area. According to the 2010 census, the population was 11,403.[6]

A yellow fever epidemic struck Yazoo City in 1853. During the American Civil War, a makeshift shipyard was established on the Yazoo River at Yazoo City after the Confederate loss of New Orleans. The shipyard was destroyed by Union forces in 1863, but the Confederates soon recovered Yazoo City. Union forces returned the following year and this time burned down almost the entire town.

Yazoo City was rebuilt, but yellow fever struck and took more victims in 1878. On May 25, 1904, a fire destroyed much of central Yazoo City.[8] According to a local legend, the fire was caused by a witch avenging her death.[9] In reality, a boy playing with matches accidentally set a house ablaze. The fire quickly spread, and three-fourths of the town was destroyed, including most of the homes. It was stopped by a canal, which saved the new courthouse (built in 1872 to replace the one burned by the Union forces) and 10 antebellum homes nearby. The town took almost two years to recover.

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag (/ˈsɒntæɡ/; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist.[2] She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her best-known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover, and In America.

Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or travelling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, and communism and leftist ideology. Although her essays and speeches sometimes drew controversy,[3] she has been described as "one of the most influential critics of her generation."[4]

Sontag was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City, the daughter of Mildred (née Jacobson) and Jack Rosenblatt, both Jews of Lithuanian[5] and Polish descent. Her father managed a fur trading business in China, where he died of tuberculosis in 1939, when Susan was five years old.[1] Seven years later, Sontag's mother married U.S. Army Captain Nathan Sontag. Susan and her sister, Judith, took their stepfather's surname, although he did not adopt them formally.[1] Sontag did not have a religious upbringing and claimed not to have entered a synagogue until her mid-20s.[6]

Sumrall, Mississippi

Sumrall was one of many new towns incorporated along the Mississippi Central Railroad during the first decade of the 20th century. Prior to the arrival of the railroad, founder Daniel Sumrall operated a grist mill along Mill Creek. In 1890, the federal government established a post office in the community and named it Sumrall. The J. J. Newman Company, headed by Fenwick Peck, chose the site as the location for a large sawmill. Situated in the heart of South Mississippi's pine belt, the location was ideal for just such a large mill. Evidence of the quality of timber in the area is supported by a prize-winning short leaf pine displayed at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. The tree was 160 feet tall, measured 20 feet in circumference and was 6 feet eight inches in diameter. With the arrival of the railroad, the town grew quickly and petitioned for incorporation as a town; this wish was granted by the Mississippi Legislature on October 6, 1903. Some early residents wanted to change the name of the town because, although Daniel Sumrall was a native of Perry County in Mississippi, he had served in the Civil War as a Union soldier. The federal government had the final choice in the matter and, as they refused to change the name of the post office, any change in the name of the city would have been meaningless.[3][4]

For nearly 30 years the Newman Lumber Company was the main industry of the city. As the timber industry was a "cut out and get out" operation at this time, when the mill depleted the profitable timber supply it ceased operation in 1931. Combined with the Great Depression, the shutdown of the mill had a marked impact on the town and left it with no large employer for nearly 20 years.[5] In 1949, the Movie Star Company opened a plant in nearby Purvis, and soon opened a similar plant in Sumrall which provided stable employment for many local women until the 1990s. The population of the city remained flat or declined from 1940-2000. As the metropolitan area of Hattiesburg has expanded westward, Sumrall is now once again experiencing economic growth. The Longleaf Trace, a recreational trail which follows the route of the former Mississippi Central Railroad, runs through the center of town. The Longleaf Trace extends from Hattiesburg, MS to Prentiss Mississippi and is popular with bikers, hikers, and horseback riders.[6][7]

The climate in this area is characterized by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Sumrall has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.[9]

Toccopola, Mississippi

As of the census of 2000, there were 189 people, 71 households, and 56 families residing in the town.[6] The population density was 127.3 people per square mile (49.3/km²). There were 84 housing units at an average density of 56.6 per square mile (21.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.41% White, 0.53% African American, and 1.06% from two or more races.

There were 71 households, out of which 35.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.5% were married couples living together, 19.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.1% were non-families. 19.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.04.

In the town, the population was spread out with 25.4% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 96.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.3 males.

Van Vleet, Mississippi

Van Vleet is an unincorporated community in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Van Vleet is located at the junction of Mississippi Highway 32 and Mississippi Highway 385, 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Houston. Van Vleet has a post office with ZIP code 38877.[2]