Canton, where history and Hollywood meet

Canton, Mississippi is the Hollywood of the South. The movies, A Time to Kill, My Dog Skip and Brother Where Art Thou  were filmed in this lovely town. There are so many neat things to do in this beautiful Mississippi town. If I would have known ahead of time, I would have stayed more than just a morning stop at their historic square!

Movie Tours

There are movie tours that can be scheduled. You just have to call ahead!

My husband Keith and our friends Kent, Jane and Beth Elliott stopped in Canton on our way to Carthage. It was late February.

Once we arrived we learned there is a movie museum, a Multi-Cultural Museum and and Canton’s Museum of History. Currently they are undergoing renovation and remodeling. They are only taking tours by appointment. Boo hoo for us!

Location

Canton is in Madison County near the Black and Pearl Rivers. The County has a variety of Choctaw, African American and Civil War history. We headed to the downtown courthouse square to see where some of this history happened.

The town of Canton was incorporated in 1836.

The Courthouse

The crowning glory downtown is the beautiful Greek Revival courthouse. Located in the center of the square, the courthouse was built in 1855. It was the second courthouse to be built. The courthouse is surrounded by a wrought iron fence.

The Madison County Movement

Voting rights were not even in the 1960s. Sadly there was not much fairness in voting registration between the races. It was interesting to read during Black History Month the work that Madison County CORE activists.

The group opened a Madison County Office in 1963 to register black voters. This created Freedom Schools and implemented mass registration drives. They suffered violence in Canton, yet stayed the course.

Martin Luther King even spoke on the grounds of the Madison County courthouse square

What Else?

There were several cute shops and beautiful buildings around the square. I would have liked to check them out if we had time.

We also learned the local Nissan plant offers tours. They were not offering them until April though.

If you plan ahead, in Canton there is a lot to see and do. Even if you don’t plan ahead, there is a lovely square that is worth taking time to stop and have a photo op!

History and film and more hurray!