MOUND BAYOU
MISSISSIPPI

Less than a square mile in total area, the city of Mound Bayou, Mississippi even now stands for release, freedom, and a promised land for the descendants of formerly enslaved people.  Founded in 1887, Mound Bayou’s population is 98 percent African-American, one of the largest of any community in the United States, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

From its beginnings in a lonely swamp, this small town in the Mississippi Delta grew into a bustling community of black-owned businesses and successful farms by 1900. With some decline in the 1920s and 30s, Mound Bayou continued to draw black businesses and a large hospital up until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.