Bogue Chitto, Alabama

Bogue Chitto is an unincorporated community in Dallas County, Alabama.[1] It was named for the nearby creek of the same name, which in the Choctaw language means "big stream."[2]

Bogue Chitto, Alabama
Unincorporated community
Bogue Chitto Location within the state of Alabama Bogue Chitto Bogue Chitto (the United States)
Coordinates: 32.366°N 87.304°W
Country	United States
State	Alabama
County	Dallas
Elevation	151 ft (46 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)	334

History

In the early 1900s the population consisted of black landowners whose ancestors had been enslaved on the cotton-producing plantations and had bought land there after the American Civil War ended. Almost every man was registered to vote, and did vote, from Reconstruction until their rights were taken away. A spirit of independence, caused by landownership, prevented even the Ku Klux Klan from infringing upon their rights: "Local lore had it that the Klan came calling one night, looking for a Bogue Chitto man who had refused to doff his hat to a white man and say 'Yessir'. They were met by a spray of bullets and did not come back".[3]

Inoculations against typhoid in 1930 were administered to over 900 people in Bogue Chitto, and Amelia Platts, a "black home demonstration agent" ("community clubs" had been opened throughout Dallas County to help improve the lives of African-American farmers and their families) who attended the county nurse during the process, noted an active community spirit. A decade later it was one of the first places to welcome voter registration classes. Later still, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee got four volunteers from Bogue Chitto, and a minister from a church just south of the community, to help with voter registration efforts in the area.[3]

Geography

Bogue Chitto is located at 32.366°N 87.304°W and has an elevation of 151 feet (46 m).[1]

Notable inhabitants

• Redoshi, a woman originally from Benin, West-Africa, kidnapped and sold to a Dallas County slave owner.
• Amelia Boynton Robinson, Civil Rights activist, based on Bogue Chitto[4]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Bogue Chitto, Alabama
2. "In The Supreme Court Of Mississippi No. 2009-CA-00243-SCT" (PDF). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
3. Forner, Karlyn (2017). Why the Vote Wasn’t Enough for Selma. Duke University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780822372233.
4. Durkin, Hannah (2019). "Finding last middle passage survivor Sally 'Redoshi' Smith on the page and screen". Slavery & Abolition. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2019.1596397.