Claiborne County, Mississippi
Claiborne County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,135. Its county seat is Port Gibson. The county is named after William Claiborne, the second governor of the Mississippi Territory.
Claiborne County is included in the Vicksburg metropolitan area as well as the Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is bordered by the Mississippi River on the west and the Big Black River on the north.
As of the 2020 Census, this small county has the highest percentage of black or African American residents of any U.S. county, at 88.6% of the population. It also had the lowest median household income of any U.S. county in 2023, at $28,579.
Located just south of the area known as the Mississippi Delta, this area also was a center of cotton plantations and related agriculture along the river, supported by enslaved African Americans. After emancipation, many generations of African Americans have stayed here because of family ties and having made the land their own.
Claiborne County was the center of a little-known but profound demonstration and struggle during the civil rights movement.