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is the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. With a population of 7,303 at the 2000 census, Philadelphia is most noted for the racial violence, murders, and other civil rights violations that occurred in the mid 1960s. As has been common for small towns across the U.S. in the last part of the twentieth century and since, the economic base of the town and surrounding area has been adversely affected by the abandonment by long-present industries that have down-sized, consolidated or moved to more financially beneficial locations. However, this adverse effect has been offset or even reversed by the development of an entertainment and casino center at Pearl River Resort, located on the nearby reservation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Built on the site of a former Choctaw settlement, the town was first named “Neshoba Courthouse”, with that town charter being signed by President Martin Van Buren in 1841. Philadelphia was incorporated as a municipality and given its current name in 1903, two years before the railroad brought new opportunities and prosperity to the newly renamed town. The history of the town and its influences- social, political and economic- can still be seen in the many points of interest within and beyond the city limits, from the large ceremonial Indian mound and cave at Nanih Waiya to the still thriving Williams Brothers Store, a true old-fashioned general store founded in 1907 and featured in
in 1939 as a source of anything from “needles to horse collars”, and still offering everything from bridles, butter and boots to flour, feed and fashion.