Tallahatchie River north of Greenwood, Mississippi, United States

The Tallahatchie River is a river in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

which flows from Tippah County, through Tallahatchie County, to

Leflore County Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,317. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his ...

, where it joins the

Yalobusha River The Yalobusha River is a river, long, in north-central Mississippi in the United States. It is a principal tributary of the Yazoo River, via which it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. The name "Yalobusha" comes from the Choctaw ...

to form the Yazoo River. The river is navigable for about . At

Money, Mississippi Money is an unincorporated community near Greenwood in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, in the Mississippi Delta. It has fewer than 100 residents, down from 400 in the early 1950s when a cotton mill operated there. Money is located ...

, the river's flow measures approximately 7,861 cubic feet per second. ''Tallahatchie'' is a Choctaw name meaning "rock of waters." The sources of the Tallahatchie River have outcrops of iron sandstone. As part of the Flood Control Act of 1936, the federal government built an earth-filled flood control dam on the Tallahatchie near the town of

Sardis, Mississippi Sardis is a town in Panola County, Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 1,703. Sardis is one of two county seats for Panola County; the other is Batesville, on the south side of the Tallahatchie River. Geography Accordi ...

, creating Sardis Lake.

Tributaries

* Coldwater River * Old Yocona River * Yocona River Canal *

Little Tallahatchie River Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

*Old Little Tallahatchie River *Panola Quitman Floodway *McIvor Drainage Canal *

Tippah River Tippah River is a stream in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is a tributary of the Tallahatchie River. ''Tippah'' is a name derived from the Choctaw language purported to mean "to eat one another", i.e. cannibalism Cannibalism is the act ...

*Cassidy Bayou *Black Bayou *Ascalmore Creek * Tillatoba Creek

In popular culture

The river is mentioned in "Tallahatchie River Blues," recorded by Mattie Delaney in 1930. This blues song laments the devastation caused in the local African-American community by a flood on the normally shallow river. The river is deep with very sharp rocks. The river has historical significance due to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, an African-American boy visiting from Chicago, who was brutally murdered by white men in

, for allegedly whistling at a white woman. In 2017, Till's accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham, spoke to Timothy B. Tyson, a Duke University professor who has written a book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,”. In it, he wrote that she said of her long-ago allegations that Emmett grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her, “that part is not true.” He was beaten, shot, and sunk in the river with a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

fan tied around his neck by barbed wire. This event is mentioned in the song, "Freedom Highway" by The Staple Singers, in the lines, "Found dead people in the forests, Tallahatchie River and lakes... whole world is wondering, what's wrong with the United States?" Till’s badly mutilated body was found near the river by two boys that were fishing. The eponymous wooden bridge over the river was popularized in Bobbie Gentry's 1967 hit song " Ode to Billie Joe," which has the refrain, "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge." A film was titled '' Ode to Billy Joe''. The wooden bridge collapsed in 1972 after being set alight by vandals. It crossed the Tallahatchie River at

Money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money ar ...

, about ten miles north of Greenwood, Mississippi. The bridge has since been replaced.

References

External links

* {{authority control Rivers of Mississippi Emmett Till Bodies of water of Leflore County, Mississippi Bodies of water of Quitman County, Mississippi Bodies of water of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Tributaries

In popular culture

See also

References

External links