Newport and Jackson County

For almost 200 years, Jackson County has been a typical farming community in the Mississippi Delta. Based on timber, cotton, and freshwater pearls, its early economy produced great wealth for a small group of landowners. In the 1920s, Jackson County was the 10th-largest cotton producer in the country. However, with the arrival of the tractor in the 1950s and the departure of the laboring classes, the county's economy spiraled downward. The tensions in this social mix led to a creative fermentation that allowed Jackson County to become one of the birthplaces of rock and roll. Images of America: Newport and Jackson County tells many of the colorful stories of the history of the county, from land barons and sharecroppers to Elvis, illuminating the rich heritage of its apparently simple towns and communities.

Tim Watson is an attorney and sixth-generation resident of Jackson County with a lifelong interest in history. Betsy Jacoway Watson is a native Arkansan and a professional historian. The images in this book come from a wide variety of sources, most notably from the Jackson County Historical Society, of which both authors have been president, and the Jacksonport State Park Museum.