Mississippi Civil Rights Project

History of the 82 counties

Background/History

New Albany, the "Fair and Friendly City,"is the county seat of Union County, in the northeast corner of the State of Mississippi.

Currently, there are no images associated with this county.

Currently, there are no videos associated with this county.

Currently, there are no audio files associated with this county.

Currently, there are no documents associated with this county.

Jesse Lee Howell
Jesse Lee Howell lived from 1892 to 1972. He worked as both a railroad hand and a farmer.
Geneva Wade
Geneva Wade was born to a family of tenant farmers in the Myrtle community, just northwest of New Albany in Union County.
Benjamin F. Ford
B.F. Ford was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1893 and came to New Albany in 1921 to serve as principal of the African American Union County Training School.
Jimmy Crawford Folsom
Jimmy Crawford Folsom, Sr., was one of the first black men to vote in Union County in the 1930s.

Places

B.F. Ford School
African American school during segregation. Mattie Thompson School was the white school during segregation.

Events

School Desegregation in Union County
Date of Event:
1875-1950s
The first schools in Union County were established around 1875. In 1901, New Albany began construction of the first building dedicated exclusively to public education.
Lynching of L.Q. Ivy
Date of Event:
September 1925
On September 18, 1925, just over the county line in the sleepy Union County community of Rocky Ford, a seventeen year-old timber cutter named L.Q.

Organizations

The Community Citizen
In the 1950s, an African American man from New Albany named J.W. Jones published a semimonthly newspaper called The Community Citizen.