Hayneville, Alabama

Hayneville, Alabama
Town
Hayneville Courthouse Square
Location in Lowndes County and the state of Alabama
Country	United States
State	Alabama
County	Lowndes
Government
• Mayor	Helenor Bell
Area
• Total	1.9 sq mi (4.8 km2)
• Land	1.9 sq mi (4.8 km2)
• Water	0 sq mi (0 km2)
Elevation	243 ft (74 m)
Population  (2000)
• Total	1,177
• Density	619.5/sq mi (245.2/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP code	36040
Area code	334
FIPS code	01-33712
GNIS feature ID	0119902

Hayneville is a town in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,177. The city is the county seat of Lowndes County. It is also part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Located in the fertile Black Belt region, Hayneville's early economy centered on cotton production. The town was later a railway terminus and home to the Hayneville Railway Company, which was organized in 1903. Two years later, the company was reorganized as the Hayneville & Montgomery Railroad Company and provided connections for shipping with the L&N Railroad Company's tracks. The agricultural focus shifted to more diverse crops and livestock in the latter half of the 20th century. Hayneville, like the rest of the Black Belt, has struggled to shift to a more productive economy.

Settlement (1820-1831)

Hayneville was founded in 1820 by settlers from the Edgefield, Abbeville, and Colleton Districts of South Carolina on property purchased from the U.S. Land Office at Cahawba. Throughout the 1820s, Hayneville was known as "Big Swamp".

In 1831, after being chosen as the county seat of Lowndes County, the town was officially named Hayneville in honor of Robert Y. Hayne, governor of South Carolina and a U.S. senator.

Civil Rights Era and "Bloody Lowndes" (1965)

On August 13, 1965, Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian from New Hampshire, in a group of 29 civil rights protesters, went to picket whites-only stores in the small town of Fort Deposit, Alabama. All of the protesters were arrested and taken to jail in nearby Hayneville. Five juvenile protesters were released the next day. The rest of the group was held for six days; they refused to accept bail unless everyone was bailed. Finally, on August 20, the prisoners were released without transport back to Fort Deposit. After release, the group waited by a road nearby the jail. Daniels with three others — a white Catholic priest and two black protesters—went down the street to get a cold soft drink at Varner's Grocery Store, one of the few local stores that would serve nonwhites. They were met at the front by Tom L. Coleman, an engineer for the state highway department and unpaid special deputy, who wielded a shotgun. The man threatened the group, and finally leveled his gun at seventeen-year-old Ruby Sales. Daniels pushed Sales down to the ground and caught the full blast of the gun. He was killed instantly. The priest, Richard F. Morrisroe, grabbed the other protester and ran. Coleman shot Morrisroe, wounding him in the lower back.

In June 1965, an 18-year-old from upstate New York named Gregory Orr who had traveled to Mississippi to take part in civil rights protests was driving home from Jackson, where he had been arrested with other protesters and held without charges for 10 days under brutal conditions at the state fairgrounds. In Alabama he was stopped by vigilantes, kidnapped and then held without charges for eight days in the Hayneville jail. In New York that August, Orr read a report of the murder of Jonathan Daniels in the New York Times. He recognized one of his own kidnappers in a photograph—apparently Tom Coleman. Gregory Orr would later become a prominent poet and professor at the University of Virginia. He published an account of his Hayneville ordeal in the Virginia Quarterly Review in 2008.

Incorporation (1967-1968)

The incorporation of Hayneville as a town began with the vision of 25 qualified electors of the county and residents of the Hayneville community in July 1967. Two subsequent attempts were made for incorporation, the last resulting in favor of incorporation. Only one person filed for a statement of candidacy and was nominated for the office of Mayor and five places on the town council. Therefore, due to the completion of the requirements of incorporation, the court declared on July 15, 1968, by Probate Judge Harold Hammond, that Hayneville was completely incorporated.

Geography

Hayneville is located at 32°10′57″N 86°34′50″W (32.182365, -86.580468)Template:GR.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), of which, 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²) of it is land and 0.54% is water.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 1,177 people, 409 households, and 294 families residing in the town. The population density was 635.3 people per square mile (245.6/km²). There were 467 housing units at an average density of 252.1 per square mile (97.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 85.47% Black or African American, 13.42% White, 0.17% Asian, and 0.93% from two or more races. 0.34% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 409 households out of which 37.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.7% were married couples living together, 33.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.1% were non-families. 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.80 and the average family size was 3.45.

In the town the population was spread out with 32.7% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 88.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $19,554, and the median income for a family was $22,788. Males had a median income of $22,396 versus $20,417 for females. The per capita income for the town was $9,556. About 35.2% of families and 35.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 42.3% of those under age 18 and 28.1% of those age 65 or over.

Gallery

• 
  The Lowndes County courthouse is located in Hayneville.
• 
  Hayneville Town Hall and Fire Department
• 
  Hayneville Post Office (ZIP Code: 36040)