Editing Grenada, Mississippi (section)

==History==
[[File:South Main Street Grenada.jpg|thumb|left|South Main Street, Grenada]]
[[File:Grenada Depot.jpg|thumb|left|[[Grenada station|Grenada Depot]], c. 1910]]

Grenada was formed in 1836, after federal removal of the [[Choctaw people]] who had previously occupied this territory.  It was the result of the union of the two adjacent towns (separated by the present-day Line Street) of Pittsburg and Tulahoma (or Tullahoma), founded, respectively, by [[Franklin Plummer]] and [[Hiram Runnels]].<ref name="Project">{{cite book|author=Federal Writers' Project|title=Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nb2ME6mgsAsC&pg=PA383|access-date=July 24, 2012|publisher=US History Publishers|isbn=978-1-60354-023-0|page=383}}</ref>

Development included stores and businesses that supported the county court and market days.
Plantations were first developed along the [[Yalobusha River]] for transportation and access to water. Cotton was the major commodity crop, dependent on the labor of African slaves.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

In 1851, Grenada townspeople founded the [[Yalobusha Baptist Female Institute]] for education of their young White women. In 1882, the school was taken over by the Methodists and renamed as [[Grenada College]].<ref name="Project"/> Classified in the 20th century as a junior college, it encountered financial troubles during the [[Great Depression]]. The church closed the college in 1936 and transferred its assets to [[Millsaps College]].<ref name="Hathorn">{{cite book|author=J. C. Hathorn|title=A History of Grenada County|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Z-mxjOz-X0C&pg=PA55|access-date=24 July 2012|publisher=David Jensen|page=55}}</ref>

In the late 1850s, Grenada was one of the places [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]] sold slaves.<ref name=":0">{{cite thesis |last=Stokes |first=Rebecca Martin |title=History of Grenada (1830–1880) |year=1929 |degree=Master's |id=1972 |publisher=University of Mississippi |location=Oxford, Miss. |url=https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1972}} p. 131</ref> His brother [[John N. Forrest]] had a house on a hill in West Grenada.<ref name=":0" />

On [[Holly Springs Raid|December 20, 1862]], [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] general [[Earl Van Dorn]], whose troops were encamped in Grenada, led the three brigades under his command in a raid that destroyed the Union supply depot at [[Holly Springs, Mississippi]].<ref name="HeidlerHeidler2002">{{cite book|author1=David Stephen Heidler|author2=Jeanne T. Heidler|author3=David J. Coles|title=Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SdrYv7S60fgC&pg=PA987|access-date=23 July 2012|date=1 September 2002|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-04758-5|page=987}}</ref><ref>Shelby Foote. ''[[The Civil War: A Narrative]]. Volume Two, Fredericksburg to Meridian:'' "Good news reached [Jefferson Davis] on December 27.… [[Ulysses S. Grant|Grant]]'s army in North Mississippi was in full retreat; Van Dorn had broken loose in its immediate rear and burned its forward supply base at Holly Springs, capturing the garrison in the process." New York: Random House (1963), pp. 17–18. {{ISBN|9780307744685}}.</ref>

In 1885 two men, Perry McChristian and Felix Williams, were accused of murdering two peddlers and were lynched. During the lynching, they implicated two black men, Bartley James and John Campbell, who were then also lynched by a mob of White men.<ref name="Bartley James and John Campbell">{{cite news |title=Southern Gleanings |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85034447/1885-07-17/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=20 November 2018 |newspaper=Magnolia Gazette |date=17 July 1885}}</ref><ref name="California">[[Daily Alta California]] 9 July 1885</ref><ref name="Lynchings in Mississippi">{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Julies E |title=Lynchings in Mississippi: A History, 1865-1965 |page=25}}</ref>

===Civil rights era===
In 1966, [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Dick Gregory]] spent a week demonstrating in Grenada against discrimination and for voters' rights.<ref name="Publishing1998">{{cite book|title=Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8h406aDUeL4C&pg=PA65|access-date=23 July 2012|date=15 June 1998|publisher=Turner Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-56311-473-1|page=65}}</ref> During that time, town officials cooperated and protected marchers with local police.<ref name="analavage"/> Six black voter registrars were hired and registered 1,000 black residents during that week. After the march passed through, the county fired the registrars and the town never entered the new black voters on official rolls; they had to start over again to gain official voter registration.<ref name="analavage">{{cite news|author=Robert Analavage|date=August 1966|publisher=The Southern Patriot|title=Which way in Grenada}}, reprinted in {{cite book|author=Clayborne Carson|title=Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism, 1963-1973|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E8HtAAAAMAAJ|access-date=22 July 2012|year=2003|publisher=Library of America|pages=516–9|isbn=9781931082297|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

As the [[civil rights movement]] continued to press in 1966 and 1967 for voter registration and opportunities in employment, the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC) ran a civil rights organizing project in Grenada which lasted at least 11 months.<ref name="Garrow2004">{{cite book|author=David Garrow|title=Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HecWJnClV3wC&pg=PA563|access-date=23 July 2012|date=6 January 2004|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-056692-0|page=563}}</ref> They worked to register voters and gain concessions for hiring black Americans in local businesses and restaurants. These were still segregated, despite the federal anti-segregation and voting rights laws.

In August 1966, a federal judge ordered Grenada to allow black students to enroll in the previously all-White schools. White leaders used threats of eviction and firing to coerce black parents to withdraw their children from school. While the intimidation caused 200 out of 450 students to withdraw, the remaining 250 students attempted to enter school on September 12, 1966. A group of White people met them at the school and chased them away, pursuing them through the streets and beating the children with chains, pipes and clubs. The group went so far as to beat reporters as well. The group repeated this for the first week of school, while local law enforcement did not intervene. Federal protection for the children began on September 17, and 13 members of the group were arrested.<ref name="EJI 1966">{{cite web |title=Black Students Attacked for Integrating Grenada, Mississippi Schools |url=https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/sep/12 |access-date=4 May 2021}}</ref>

===Thunder on Water===
Grenada hosts the annual [[Thunder on Water Safe Boating Festival]] at [[Grenada Lake]], typically held in June. This festival, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025, has a variety of events including fishing tournaments, carnival rides and fireworks displays.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thunder on Water Safe Boating Festival|url=https://thunderonwater.org/|access-date=June 29, 2024}}</ref>

===Industrial Growth===
In recent years, Grenada has seen significant industrial growth. [[Milwaukee Tool]] announced a major expansion in 2022, creating 800 new jobs and establishing a new facility in the area. This expansion is part of a broader effort to bolster the local economy and provide new employment opportunities.<ref>{{cite news|title=Milwaukee Tool hiring 800 new jobs|url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/money/business/2022/05/19/milwaukee-tool-grenada-hiring-800-new-jobs/9823065002/|access-date=June 30, 2024}}</ref> Additionally, the Grenada Business and Technology Park North was awarded a $4.3 million MDA site development grant, further promoting industrial and technological growth in the area.<ref>{{cite web|title=Grenada's Business and Technology Park North awarded $4.3 million MDA site development grant|url=https://www.qcnews.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/683049593/grenadas-business-and-technology-park-north-awarded-4-3-million-mda-site-development-grant/|access-date=June 30, 2024}}</ref>