Edwards, MS

Edwards is a Hinds County town on the western side of the Jackson metropolitan area, with Interstate 20 along its northern edge and Mississippi 22 running through the region. The town began as Amsterdam in the 1830s. After the Alabama and Vicksburg Railroad bypassed the first settlement, a plantation stop called Edwards Depot formed in 1839. The depot burned during the Civil War, the present site was chosen in 1866, and Edwards incorporated in 1871. The 2020 census counted 995 residents.

In 1882, the Southern Christian Institute opened in Edwards to educate African American students and later became Bonner-Campbell College. The town's school district, Lois A. Flagg Library, Town Hall, police department, and municipal court now sit within a community that still looks toward the railroad and the Big Black River. I-20 connects Edwards with Jackson and Vicksburg, while the river bottomlands offer fishing and hunting beyond the town streets. Edwards is a crossroads town in the literal sense, with an old depot story, a strong Black educational history, and a highway-and-river map.