Editing Starkville, Mississippi (section)

===20th century===
Before the Civil War, Colonel Montgomery imported cattle from the isle of [[Jersey]], initiating the areas prominence as a dairy center. In 1912, the co-operative creamery was created, and in 1926 the Borden Condensary was established.<ref name="CL 1955" />

In April 1912, Gabe (sometimes reported as Abe) Coleman, an African-American man was accused of attacking a farmer's wife and was shot to death by a mob. Nine men were tried for the murder.<ref name="Denied Bail">{{cite news |title=The Nine Men Charged With the Murder of the Negro Gabe Coleman Denied Bail |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40731718/the_nine_men_charged_with_the_murder_of/ |access-date=18 December 2019 |newspaper=East Mississippi Times |date=April 12, 1912|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> In February 1912, another African-American man, Mann Hamilton, was murdered by a mob for allegedly attacking a woman.<ref name="Public Hangings">{{cite web |last1=Morris |first1=Nate |title=U.S. Senator "jokes" about public hangings and voter suppression on hallowed ground where lynchings took place |date=November 16, 2018 |url=https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2018/11/16/u-s-senator-jokes-about-public-hangings-and-voter-suppression-on-hallowed-ground-where-lynchings-took-place/ |access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref> Following an incident in which whites fired into a Republican Meeting at a church in Chapel Hill, Mississippi, killing a black man, a group of black men planned a march in Starkville. They were met at a bridge near the [[Mississippi State University|A & M]] dairy barn by white men from Starkville and West Point armed with cannon loaded with buckshot and iron.<ref name="Reconstruction part VI">{{cite news |last1=Browne |first1=F.Z. |title=Reconstruction in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, Part VI. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40748582/reconstruction_in_oktibbeha_county/ |access-date=18 December 2019 |newspaper=East Mississippi Times |date=March 15, 1912|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

In 1915, two African-American men, Dit Seals and Peter Bolen,<ref name="Two on scaffold">{{cite news |title=Two Die on Scaffold |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40746716/two_die_on_scaffold_public_double/ |access-date=18 December 2019 |newspaper=The Commonwealth (Greenwood, Mississippi) |date=August 13, 1915|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> were hanged in a public execution while a crowd of 5,000, including blacks and whites, and children watched and sang ''There is a Land of Pure Delight''. The crowd ate lunch while the execution was being conducted. Vendors were on hand selling popcorn, soda pop and sandwiches. The men had been convicted of killing Willie Taylor, an African-American porter on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The story was widely reported as a "gala hanging" sponsored by the merchants of Starkville by various newspapers including the ''New York World'' and ''Chicago Tribune'', while the Detroit Times described it as little better than a lynching.<ref name="Literary Digest">{{cite web |title=Capitalizing Capital Punishment in Mississippi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZxFAQAAMAAJ&q=%22new+york+world%22+starkville+hanging+1915&pg=PA338 |publisher=The Literary Digest |access-date=18 December 2019|year = 1915}}</ref><ref name="Hanging Picnic">{{cite news |title=Five Thousand See a Double Hanging, Make it a Picnic |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87065612/1915-08-13/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1789&index=1&rows=20&words=Dit+Seales+Seals&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=dit+seals&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |access-date=4 February 2020 |newspaper=The Starkville News |date=August 13, 1915 |page=1 |quote=As the people carefully watched the scaffold they munched on sandwiches hard boiled eggs, and pie}}</ref>

In 1922, Starkville was the site of a large rally of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name="KK">{{cite news|title=The Parade of the Ku Klux|newspaper=[[East Mississippi Times]] |location=Starkville, Mississippi |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87065609/1922-12-01/ed-1/seq-1/
|page=1 |access-date=January 1, 2019|date=December 1, 1922}}</ref>

In 1926 the Borden Condensery was established, the first condensery in the southern U.S. At the time, Starkville was served by two railroads, the [[Illinois Central]] and the Mobile and Ohio.<ref name="Borden 1938">{{cite news |title=Starkville |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45233981/starkville/ |access-date=20 February 2020 |date=April 20, 1938|via=Newspapers.com|newspaper=Clarion-Ledger|location=Jackson, Mississippi}}</ref>

In 1970, several Black organizations organized a boycott or ''selective buying'' campaign. This was met with firebombings, and a crowd of African-Americans assembled near Henderson High School was broken up by gunfire.<ref name="American">{{cite news |title=Police seek unknown gunman who injured one at meeting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40747610/starkville_black_boycott_opposed_with/ |access-date=18 December 2019 |newspaper=Hattiesburg American |date=May 5, 1970|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>