Monroe County, Mississippi: History
The county is named in honor of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States. Part of the county east of the Tombigbee River originally made-up part of the Alabama Territory, belonging to Marion County, until new lines of demarcation put it in the State of Mississippi in 1821.
In 1889, an African-American man, Keith Bowen was lynched by a mob in the Lebanon community six miles south of Aberdeen after he was found in a white girl's bedroom at 3:00 AM."
In 1922, William Baker, an 18-year-old African-American man was lynched in Monroe County by a white mob.