Historical Timeline

Key dates in the history of Emelle and the surrounding Black Belt region.

Year	Event
Before 1830	The area is part of the homeland of the Choctaw Nation.
1830	The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek cedes Choctaw lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
1832	Sumter County is created by the Alabama Legislature on December 18 and named for General Thomas Sumter.
1830s–1850s	Settlers arrive and a cotton plantation economy built on enslaved labor develops across the Black Belt.
1852	The Mobile, Gainesville and Tuscaloosa Railroad builds its line through the area; a settlement grows along the tracks.
1861–1865	The Civil War. Slavery ends in 1865 with Union victory and the Thirteenth Amendment.
1865–1877	Reconstruction. Freed families form churches and schools and, for a time, vote and hold office.
1879	The original railroad line through the area is removed.
1912	The Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad builds through the area, reviving Emelle as a railroad town.
1928	Artist Thornton Dial is born in Emelle.
1930	A lynching in the Emelle area — part of the history of racial violence in the region.
1965	The Voting Rights Act opens the ballot box to Black citizens of Sumter County.
1977–1978	A commercial hazardous waste landfill opens near Emelle.
1980s	Emelle residents and advocates become a central part of the emerging environmental justice movement.
1981	Emelle is incorporated as a town. James Daily is elected first mayor.
1992	The U.S. Supreme Court decides Chemical Waste Management, Inc. v. Hunt, involving the facility near Emelle.
2000	The U.S. Census records a population of 31.
2010	The U.S. Census records a population of 26.
2016	Thornton Dial passes away; his work is held in major museums nationwide.
2020	The U.S. Census records a population of 32.
2023	A tornado strikes the area in January; residents come together to recover.
Today	The Town of Emelle continues under Mayor Roy Willingham Sr. and the Town Council.