City of Tchula

Tchula History

The first permanent settlement at Tchula was made in the 1830s. The community takes its name from Tchula Lake. In the 1960s most residents were farmworkers; the properties they worked on belonged to people living in other communities in the area. Mississippi columnist Sid Salter stated that the Tchula area had "Some of the best farmland in America" and "some of the most successful plantations". In 1982, the city's first Black mayor, Eddie James Carthan, was incarcerated. Chris McGreal of The Guardian stated that the criminal charges were "trumped-up". In the 2000s the community elected Yvonne Brown as mayor. She was a Republican, and the community hoped this would convince George W. Bush, the President of the United States, to provide additional funding. She was the first black Republican woman to be elected as a mayor in the country.