Harperville is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in rural Scott County, Mississippi, United States. Harperville is located on Mississippi Highway 35, 9 miles (14 km) north of Forest. Harperville has a post office with ZIP code 39080.[3][4]

Harperville, Mississippi
Census-designated place
Harperville, Mississippi Show map of Mississippi Harperville, Mississippi Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 32°29′40″N 89°29′22″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Scott
Area [1]
• Total	1.44 sq mi (3.72 km2)
• Land	1.44 sq mi (3.72 km2)
• Water	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation	407 ft (124 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	250
• Density	173.97/sq mi (67.15/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	39080
Area code(s)	601 & 769
GNIS feature ID	693419[2]

It was first named as a CDP in the 2020 Census which listed a population of 250.[5]

History

Harperville was named for G. W. Harper, an early European-American settler.[6]

In October 23–25, 1898, Harperville was the scene of what national reporters described as a "race war", when a white mob retaliated for African Americans resisting arrest. One African American allegedly had a confrontation with his white boss; when a white posse showed up at his house to arrest him, his friends shot at the group to force them away. They fatally shot a deputy and wounded three others. Hearing about it in Harperville, a white mob quickly gathered, hunting down and killing at least nine blacks from that night through the next day. They continued hunting more suspects and were said to have buried some in the woods. It is not clear how many blacks were killed by the mobs. The county sheriff gathered a posse, and the governor asked for National Guard support. Governor Anselm J. McLaurin went by train to Forest to assess the situation.[7]

After arresting several blacks, the sheriff took them under armed guard from Harperville to the county seat at Forest for their safety, fearing he would be unable to deal with the mob. He nearly had to fight his way out of Harperville.[8] The Los Angeles Herald reprinted an article from the New Orleans Picayune, dated October 24, stating that a total of 11 blacks and one white had been killed, with one black and three whites seriously wounded. It reported a posse member saying he had helped bury blacks in trenches, but he did not know their names and did not "care enough about them to inquire."[8] The night of October 24, Sheriff Stevenson took the black suspects by train to the county seat at Meridian, Mississippi, in Lauderdale County for their safety, as he had heard rumors of a planned lynching of the prisoners.[8]

Demographics

2020 census

Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.

Education

It is in the Scott County School District.[11]

References

This Scott County, Mississippi state location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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