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is a city in and the county seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, in the state's upstate region. One of the principal cities of the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), it had a population of 56,006 at the 2000 census, and the metropolitan area had an estimated population of 601,986 in 2006. Greenville is the largest city of the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson Combined Statistical Area (CSA) which has a 2006 estimated population of 1,203,795. The CSA, an 8-county region of northwestern South Carolina, is known as "The Upstate". Greenville is located approximately halfway between the cities of Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina along Interstate 85, and its metropolitan area is further serviced by Interstates 185 and 385.
The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families already had settled just within the boundary, and White traders regularly crossed the area. The first White man to settle permanently in the area was Richard Pearis, who settled at the falls of the Reedy River, sometime after 1770, which are now located in what is downtown Greenville. Paris Mountain, overlooking the city, is named for him.
During the American Revolution, the Cherokee (and Pearis) sided with the British. After a campaign in 1776, the Cherokee agreed to the Treaty of DeWitt's Corner, ceding territory that includes present-day Greenville County to South Carolina.
Greenville was originally called Pleasantburg. Greenville County was created in 1786 from Spartanburg District (now Spartanburg County), but was called Greenville District from 1800 until 1868. Greenville is probably named for American Revolutionary General Nathanael Greene, or Lord Grenville. Greenville is the mother district to Pendleton District (now Anderson County), Pickens District (now Pickens County) and Oconee District (now Oconee County).
During World War I; Greenville served as a training camp center for Army recruits. This eventually fostered the development of Donaldson Air Force Base, built during World War II, which was very important to the economy of the City of Greenville. Donaldson served as a military base until the early 1960s, when it was returned to the City of Greenville. The former air base has been developed into a business park. It contains historic military-style barracks which are used now by various businesses.
From 1870 to the late 1950s and early 1960s; Greenville had a strict segregationist code. Racial tensions were great enough to result in sporadic lynchings of African-Americans who were perceived to stress the imposed social boundaries. In 1949, the alleged rape of a white woman by a black man spawned the creation of a vigilante lynch mob. The mob seized the jail as well as the jailer; the suspect was then hung and a fire built beneath him. No semblance of a trial occurred.
Blacks in the area were subject to the standard segregationist restrictions; they were limited to the back of city buses, were not permitted to stay in hotel or motel rooms which had white customers, and had to sit in the balcony of movie theaters. Especially significant was the restriction of Blacks from use of the public library, which partially motivated the activism of the library-denied Jesse Jackson. Jackson, working through the NAACP, organized a sit-in at Greenville's "F.W. Woolworth's Five and Dime" store, and quickly emerged as a prominent civil rights leader. Compared to similar events in locations such as Birmingham, the protests were considered peaceful.