Money, Mississippi

Money, Mississippi
Unincorporated community
Leflore County Volunteer Fire Department in Money
Money Location in Mississippi Show map of Mississippi Money Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 33°39′04″N 90°12′33″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Leflore
Elevation [1]	138 ft (42 m)
Population
• Total	<100
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID	673728[1]

Money is an unincorporated community near Greenwood in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta.[1] It has fewer than 100 residents, down from 400 in the early 1950s when a cotton mill operated there. Money is located on a railroad line along the Tallahatchie River, a tributary of the Yazoo River in the eastern part of the Mississippi Delta. The community has ZIP code 38945 in the Greenwood, Mississippi micropolitan area.

Money is the site of events leading to the 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till.

History

Bryant's Grocery, 2009. By 2018, it was described as "not much left" as preservation was hindered by its private owners.[2]

The settlement was named for Hernando Money, a United States Senator from Mississippi.[3] Money was a stop on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad.[4] This rural area was developed for cotton cultivation. The population in 1900 was 40.[4] The Money post office was established in 1901.[5]

Money gained international attention in 1955 after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago visiting his uncle, was accused of flirting, by means of whistling, with a white woman working alone at Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market in Money. Till was subsequently murdered.[6]

A historic marker has been placed in front of Bryant's Grocery, and the site draws "an ever-increasing number of tourists". The crumbling building is privately owned, which has hindered efforts to preserve it.[7][8]

Transportation

Amtrak’s City of New Orleans, which operates between New Orleans and Chicago, passes through the town on CN tracks, but makes no stop. The nearest station is located in Greenwood, 11 miles (18 km) to the south.

Education

It is in the Greenwood-Leflore School District. Residents are zoned to Amanda Elzy High School.[9]

The town was formerly served by the Leflore County School District.[10] Effective July 1, 2019 this district consolidated into the Greenwood-Leflore School District.[11]

Notable people

• Richard "Hacksaw" Harney – Delta blues guitarist and pianist[12]
• James Schaffer – religious leader and centenarian
• Willye White – Olympic athlete[13]

In popular culture

A wooden bridge across the Tallahatchie River at Money was the focus of Bobbie Gentry's 1967 hit song "Ode to Billie Joe." The November 10, 1967 issue of Life magazine featured a photo of Gentry crossing the bridge. The bridge collapsed in June 1972 after being burned by vandals.[14] It has since been replaced.

The novel The Trees by Percival Everett is set in Money and depicts a mysterious series of murders that seem to follow identical patterns and involve the families of the confessed murderers of Emmett Till.

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Money, Mississippi
2. Mitchell, Jerry (August 29, 2018). "'They just want history to die:' Owners demand $4 million for crumbling Emmett Till store". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
3. Gallant, Frank K. (February 16, 2012). A Place Called Peculiar: Stories about Unusual American Place-Names. Courier Corporation. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-486-48360-3.
4. Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (PDF). Vol. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 271.
5. "Leflore County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
6. "Woman Linked to 1955 Emmett Till Murder Tells Historian Her Claims Were False". Retrieved August 7, 2018.
7. Burch, Audra D. S.; Shastri, Veda; Chaffee, Tim (February 20, 2019). "Emmett Till's Murder, and How America Remembers Its Darkest Moments". The New York Times.
8. Tell, David (April 2019). "Remembering Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi". Places.
9. "School Profile". Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2021. Amanda Elzy currently services [...] including the towns of [...] Money, [...]
10. "SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP (2010 CENSUS): Leflore County, MS" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
11. "School District Consolidation in Mississippi Archived 2017-07-02 at the Wayback Machine." Mississippi Professional Educators. December 2016. Retrieved on July 2, 2017. Page 2 (PDF p. 3/6).
12. Komara, Edward; Lee, Peter (July 19, 2004). The Blues Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 409. ISBN 9781135958329 – via Google Books.
13. Wiggins, David K. (March 26, 2015). African Americans in Sports. Routledge. p. 401. ISBN 978-1-317-47744-0.
14. Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 239. CN 5585.