Vicksburg is a historic city inWarren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 21,573 at the2020 census.[7] Located on a highbluff on the east bank of theMississippi River across fromLouisiana, Vicksburg was built by French colonists in 1719. The outpost withstood an attack from the nativeNatchez people. It was incorporated as Vicksburg in 1825 afterMethodist missionary Newitt Vick.[10] The area that is now Vicksburg was long occupied by theNatchez as part of their historical territory along the Mississippi. The firstEuropeans who settled the area wereFrench colonists who builtFort Saint Pierre in 1719 on the high bluffs overlooking theYazoo River at present-dayRedwood. They conductedfur trading with the Natchez and others, and started plantations. During theAmerican Civil War, it was a key Confederate river-port, and itsJuly 1863 surrender toUlysses S. Grant, along with the concurrentBattle of Gettysburg, marked the turning-point of the war.
The area that is now Vicksburg was long occupied by theNatchezNative Americans as part of their historical territory along the Mississippi. The Natchez spoke a language isolate not related to theMuskogean languages of the other major tribes in the area. Before the Natchez, other indigenous cultures had occupied this strategic area for thousands of years.
The firstEuropeans who settled the area wereFrench colonists who builtFort Saint Pierre in 1719 on the high bluffs overlooking the Yazoo River at present-dayRedwood. They conductedfur trading with the Natchez and others, and started plantations. On 29 November 1729, the Natchezattacked the fort and plantations in and around the present-day city ofNatchez. They murdered several hundred settlers, includingJesuit missionary Paul Du Poisson. As was the custom, they violently took a number of women and children as captives, adopting them into their families.
The Natchez War was a disaster for French Louisiana, and the colonial population of the Natchez District never recovered. Aided by theChoctaw, traditional enemies of the Natchez, though, the French defeated and scattered the Natchez and their allies, theYazoo.
The Choctaw Nation took over the area by right of conquest and inhabited it for several decades. Under pressure from the US government, the Choctaw agreed to cede nearly 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of land to the US under the terms of theTreaty of Fort Adams in 1801. The treaty was the first of a series that eventually led to theremoval of most of the Choctaw toIndian Territory west of the Mississippi River in 1830. Some Choctaw remained in Mississippi, citing article XIV of theTreaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek; they became citizens of the state and the United States. They struggled to maintain their culture against the pressure of the binary slave society, which classified people as only white or black.
In 1790, the Spanish founded a military outpost on the site, which they calledFort Nogales (nogales meaning "walnut trees"). When the Americans took possession in 1798 following theAmerican Revolutionary War and a treaty with Spain, they changed the name toWalnut Hills. The small village was incorporated in 1825 as Vicksburg, named after Newitt Vick, aMethodistminister who had established a Protestant mission on the site.[11]
Drawing of the hanging of five gamblers in Vicksburg in 1835View of Vicksburg in 1855
The town of Vicksburg was incorporated in 1825, with a population of 3,000 people; of which approximately twenty people wereJewish and had immigrated fromBavaria,Prussia, andAlsace–Lorraine.[12][13]
In 1835, during theMurrell Excitement, a mob from Vicksburg attempted to expel the gamblers from the city, because the citizens were tired of the rougher element treating the city residents with contempt. They captured and hanged five gamblers who had shot and killed a local doctor.[14] Historian Joshua D. Rothman calls this event "the deadliest outbreak of extralegal violence in the slave states between theSouthampton Insurrection and the Civil War."[15]
In 1862, fifty Jewish families formed the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Anshe Chesed in Vicksburg, and received a charter from the state.[13] Two years later in 1864, theAnshe Chesed Cemetery was formed, and it was the secondJewish cemetery in the city; not much is known about the first Jewish cemetery.[12][16]
The Confederate president,Jefferson Davis, was based at his family plantation atBrierfield, just south of the city.
During theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865), the city finally surrendered during theSiege of Vicksburg, after which theUnion Army gained control of the entire Mississippi River. The 47-day siege was intended to starve the city into submission. Its location atop a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River proved otherwise impregnable to assault by federal troops. The surrender of Vicksburg by Confederate GeneralJohn C. Pemberton on July 4, 1863, together with the defeat of GeneralRobert E. Lee atGettysburg the day before, has historically marked theturning point of the Civil War in the Union's favor.
From the surrender of Vicksburg until the end of the war in 1865, the area was under Union military occupation.[17]
Celebrations of the 4th of July, the day of surrender, were irregular until 1947. TheVicksburg Evening Post of July 4, 1883, called July 4 "the day we don't celebrate",[18] and another Vicksburg newspaper, theDaily Commercial Appeal, in 1888 hoped that a political victory would bring an enthusiastic celebration the following year.[19] In 1902, the 4th of July saw only "a parade of colored draymen".[20] In 1947, the JacksonClarion-Ledger stated that the city of Vicksburg did not celebrate the 4th of July again until 1945, and then it was celebrated as Confederate Carnival Day.[21] A recent scholar disagrees, stating that large Fourth of July celebrations were being held by 1907, and informal celebrations before that.[22][23] A large parade was held in 1890.[24]
Because of Vicksburg's location on the Mississippi River, it built extensive trade from the prodigioussteamboat traffic in the 19th century. It shipped out cotton coming to it from surrounding counties and was a major trading city in West Central Mississippi.
However, in 1876, a Mississippi River flood cut off the largemeander next to Vicksburg through the De Soto Point, which changed the Mississippi River's course away from the city. Vicksburg only retained access to anoxbow lake formed from the old channel of the river, which effectively isolated the city from accessing the Mississippi riverfront. The city's economy suffered greatly due to the lack of a functional river port; Vicksburg would not be a river town again until the completion of the Yazoo Diversion Canal in 1903 by theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[25]
In the first few years after the Civil War, white Confederate veterans developed theKu Klux Klan, beginning in Tennessee; it had chapters throughout the South and attacked freedmen and their supporters. It was suppressed about 1870. By the mid-1870s, new whiteparamilitary groups had arisen in theDeep South, including theRed Shirts in Mississippi, as whites struggled to regain political and social power over the black majority. Elections were marked by violence and fraud as white Democrats worked to suppress black Republican voting.
In August 1874, a black sheriff,Peter Crosby, was elected in Vicksburg. Letters by a white planter, Batchelor, detail the preparations of whites for what he described as a "race war," including acquisition of the newest Winchester guns. On December 7, 1874, white men disrupted a black Republican meeting celebrating Crosby's victory and held him in custody before running him out of town.[26] He advised blacks from rural areas to return home; along the way, some were attacked by armed whites. During the next several days, armed white mobs swept through black areas, killing other men at home or out in the fields, in what would come to be known as theVicksburg massacre. Sources differ as to total fatalities, with 29–50 blacks and 2 whites reported dead at the time. Twenty-first-century historian Emilye Crosby estimates that 300 blacks were killed in the city and the surrounding area ofClaiborne County, Mississippi.[27] The Red Shirts were active in Vicksburg and other Mississippi areas, and black pleas to the federal government for protection were not met.
At the request of Republican GovernorAdelbert Ames, who had left the state during the violence, PresidentUlysses S. Grant sent federal troops to Vicksburg in January 1875. In addition, a congressional committee investigated what was called the "Vicksburg Riot" at the time (and reported as the "Vicksburg massacre" by northern newspapers.) Testimony from both black and white residents was given, as reported by theNew York Times, but no one was ever prosecuted for the deaths. The Red Shirts and other whiteinsurgents suppressed Republican voting by both whites and blacks; smaller-scale riots were staged in the state up to the 1875 elections, at which time white Democrats regained control of a majority of seats in the state legislature.
Under new constitutions, amendments and laws passed between 1890 in Mississippi and 1908 in the remaining southern states, white Democratsdisenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites by creating barriers to voter registration, such aspoll taxes,literacy tests, andgrandfather clauses. They passedJim Crow laws through which they imposed racial segregation of public facilities. In 1908, a publication documented some of Vicksburg's leading African Americans including lawyer and bankerW. E. Mollison.[28]
On March 12, 1894, the popular soft drinkCoca-Cola was bottled for the first time in Vicksburg byJoseph A. Biedenharn, a localconfectioner. Today, surviving 19th-century Biedenharnsodabottles are prized by collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia. The original candy store has been renovated and is used as the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum.
Mississippi River Commission building, built 1894Aerial view, 1932
The exclusion of most blacks from the political system lasted for decades until after Congressional passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.Lynchings of blacks and other forms of white racial terrorism against them continued to occur in Vicksburg after the start of the 20th century. In May 1903, for instance, two black men charged with murdering a planter were taken from jail by a mob of 200 farmers and lynched before they could go to trial.[29] In May 1919, as many as a thousand white men broke down three sets of steel doors to abduct, hang, burn and shoot a black prisoner, Lloyd Clay, who was falsely accused of raping a white woman.[30][31] From 1877 to 1950 in Warren County, 14 African Americans were lynched by whites, most in the decades near the turn of the century.[32]
TheUnited States Army Corps of Engineers diverted the Yazoo River in 1903 into the old, shallowing channel to revive the waterfront of Vicksburg. The port city was able to receive steamboats again, but much freight and passenger traffic had moved to railroads, which had become more competitive.
Railroad access to the west across the river continued to be by transfer steamers and ferrybarges until a combination railroad-highway bridge was built in 1929. After 1973,Interstate 20 bridged the river. Freight rail traffic still crosses by the old bridge. North-south transportation links are by the Mississippi River andU.S. Highway 61. Vicksburg has the only crossing over the Mississippi River betweenGreenville and Natchez, and the only interstate highway crossing of the river betweenBaton Rouge andMemphis.
During theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927, in which hundreds of thousands of acres were inundated, Vicksburg served as the primary gathering point for refugees. Relief parties put up temporary housing, as the flood submerged a large percentage of theMississippi Delta.
Because of the overwhelming damage from the flood, the US Army Corps of Engineers established the Waterways Experiment Station as the primary hydraulics laboratory, to develop protection of important croplands and cities. Now known as theEngineer Research and Development Center, it applies military engineering, information technology, environmental engineering, hydraulic engineering, and geotechnical engineering to problems of flood control and river navigation.
In December 1953, asevere tornado swept across Vicksburg, causing 38 deaths and destroying nearly 1,000 buildings.
A 1910 panorama
During World War II, cadets from the Royal Air Force, flying from their training base at Terrell, Texas, routinely flew to Vicksburg on training flights. The town served as a stand-in for the British for Cologne, Germany, which is the same distance from London, England as Vicksburg is from Terrell.[33]
Particularly after World War II, in which many blacks served, returning veterans began to be active in the civil rights movement, wanting to have full citizenship after fighting in the war. In Mississippi, activists in the Vicksburg Movement became prominent during the 1960s.
In the fall of 2010, a new 55-foot mural was painted on a section of wall on Grove Hill across the street from the original project by former Dafford muralists Benny Graeff andHerb Roe. The mural's subject is the annual "Run thru History" held in the Vicksburg National Military Park.[37][38]
On December 6–7, 2014, a symposium was held on the 140th anniversary of the 1874 riots. A variety of scholars gave papers and an open panel discussion was held on the second day at the Vicksburg National Military Park, in collaboration with the Jacqueline House African American Museum.[39]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.093 square miles (90.89 km2), of which 33.017 square miles (85.51 km2) is land and 2.076 square miles (5.38 km2) is water.[5]
As of the 2022American Community Survey, there are 8,092 estimated households in Vicksburg with an average of 2.57 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $45,147. Approximately 25.5% of the city's population lives at or below thepoverty line. Vicksburg has an estimated 55.1% employment rate, with 25.3% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 86.1% holding a high school diploma.[43]
The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (94.3%), Spanish (2.9%), Indo-European (1.8%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.1%), and Other (0.8%).
Vicksburg, Mississippi – racial and ethnic composition 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 may be of any race.
As of the2020 census, there were 21,573 people, 9,277 households, and 5,317 families residing in the city.[47] Thepopulation density was 653.5 inhabitants per square mile (252.3/km2). There were 10,967 housing units at an average density of 332.2 inhabitants per square mile (128.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 28.16%White, 67.21%African American, 0.15%Native American, 0.97%Asian, 0.00%Pacific Islander, 0.64% from some other races and 2.86% from two or more races.Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.87% of the population.[48] 25.2% of residents were under the age of 18, 6.6% were under 5 years of age, and 15.5% were 65 and older.
TheUnited States Coast Guard's 8th District/Lower Mississippi River sector has an Aids To Navigation unit located in Vicksburg, operating the buoy tending vessel USCGC Kickapoo.[49]
Every summer, Vicksburg plays host to the Miss Mississippi Pageant and Parade. Also every summer, the Vicksburg Homecoming Benevolent Club hosts a homecoming weekend/reunion that provides scholarships to graduating high-school seniors. Former residents from across the country return for the event.
U.S. Post Office (former) and Courthouse in Vicksburg
The city government consists of a mayor who is electedat-large and two aldermembers elected fromsingle-member districts, known as wards. The current mayor is Willis Thompson, who defeated former mayorGeorge Flaggs Jr. in the June 2025 election.[54][55]
Past mayors include Johnnie Holland 1957–1968 and Nat Bullard 1973–1977.[56]Robert Major Walker was elected the city's first African American mayor in a special election in 1988 and was re-elected in 1989. He was succeeded byJoe Loviza who served 1993–1997.[57] Walker was re-elected in 1997.[58]
All Saints' Episcopal School was a local boarding school located on Confederate Avenue, which closed in 2006 after 98 years in operation. The historic school is now a regional campus forAmeriCorps NCCC.
St. Mary's Catholic School served the African-American community.
McIntyre Elementary School served the African-American community.
Magnolia Avenue School serviced the African-American community and was renamed Bowman High School to honor a former principal.
TheYazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad and then theIllinois Central Railroad for several decades had passenger service through the city, at two different stations, one on Levee Street, and the other on Cherry Street. The IC'sPlanter went north toMemphis, Tennessee and south toNew Orleans. The Chery Street station hosted theNortheastern Limited and an unnamed train east to Jackson andMeridian (sleeping car passengers could continue to New York; coach passengers could transfer at Meridian'sUnion Station to an Atlanta and New York bound train there), and theSouthwestern Limited and another train west to Monroe andShreveport'sUnion Station.[64][65] The final train serving Vicksburg was theSouthwestern Limited/Northeastern Limited in 1967.
Vicksburg is featured inRobert A. Heinlein's 1982 science fiction novelFriday as a town in the Lone Star Republic, a leading smugglers' port between Texas and the Chicago Imperium. The book's protagonist Friday Baldwin stayed there, particularly in the riverfront Lowtown, while trying to find a way into the Imperium.
In the novelUnderground to Canada the protagonists Julilly and Liza are slaves on a cotton plantation near Vicksburg.
^Cotton, Gordon; Mason, Ralph (1991).With Malice Toward Some : The Military Occupation of Vicksburg, 1864 - 1865. Vicksburg and Warren County Historical Society.
^"Local Items".Vicksburg Evening Post. July 4, 1883. p. 4.Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. RetrievedAugust 12, 2019.
^"The Fourth of July".Daily Commercial Herald (Vicksburg, Mississippi). July 4, 1888. p. 2.Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. RetrievedAugust 12, 2019.
^"10 Years Ago in Vicksburg".Vicksburg Evening Post. July 6, 1912. p. 6.Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. RetrievedAugust 12, 2019.
^Historian Michael G. Ballard, in hisVicksburg campaign history, pp. 420-21, claims that this story has little foundation in fact. Although it is unknown whether city officials sanctioned the day as a local holiday, Southern observances of July 4 were for many years characterized more by family picnics than by formal city or county activities.
^"20 Years Ago in Vicksburg".Vicksburg Evening Post. July 5, 1910. p. 3.Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. RetrievedAugust 12, 2019.
^Hahn, Steven (2003).A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration. Harvard University Press. p. 297.
^"Station: Tallulah Vicksburg AP, LA".U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. RetrievedMay 16, 2021.
^"Admission Guide 2019-2020"(PDF).Hinds Community College. p. 10 (PDF p. 12/20). RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024.[...]located in the Hinds Community College District (Hinds, Rankin, Warren, Claiborne, and Copiah counties)[...]
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