Harperville, Mississippi

Harperville was named for G. W. Harper, an early European-American settler.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6] 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."[6] 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.[6]