Warren County promotes Census 2010

From the Vicksburg Post...

An effort has begun in Warren County to get all residents counted during the 2010 census.

Community events and notices are part of a local and nationwide push by a Complete County Committee that wants to let residents know census forms will arrive in March.

"Right now, the main thing is getting the word out," Kelvin Rankin, a Census Bureau partnership specialist working with the local committee, told The Vicksburg Post.

U.S. population counts have taken place every 10 years since 1790, with each shift affecting representation in Congress and federal funding for various projects.

Warren County's return rate was 63 percent in 2000, about the same as the statewide rate.

The 2010 survey will ask a person's name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, relationship and housing tenure.

Warren County had 49,644 citizens in 2000, up nearly 2,000 from 1990. Slight drops have been recorded in bureau estimates since, most recently at 48,087 in 2008.

The 2000 count for Vicksburg, the county's largest city, was 26,407, up nearly 5,500 from 1990.

The Census Bureau released data in May showing Warren County has become a "minority-majority" county, meaning less than 50 percent of the population is non-Hispanic white.

The percentage that emerges from 2010's count will be of special importance to committee chairman Marie Thompson, a policy and intergovernmental relations official with the City of Vicksburg, who is Hispanic.

Next year's census allows for a person to identify under one or more Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin groups by country. Thompson said she'll be checking the box for Mexican, as both maternal grandparents hailed from south of the U.S. border.

"Before, I was counted as Caucasian," Thompson said.

Five local United Way agencies will hold two events each to raise awareness about the census, United Way of West Central Mississippi executive director Barbara Tolliver said.

Other outreach will be conducted by the Vicksburg Warren County Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP Vicksburg Chapter.

NABJ: 2010 Census will show that US "on path to becoming majority minority nation"

The National Association of Black Journalists put out this press release. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will address the group, which is the "largest organization of journalists of color," at their annual convention. Below is a snippet from the press release...

Commerce Secretary Locke to Discuss First “Majority Minority” Census at Black Journalists’ Convention

2010 Census to Highlight the Growing Influence of Minorities in the U.S.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) welcomes Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to its annual convention to discuss the ramifications of one of the most important censuses in U.S. history. The 2010 census will show that the country is on a path to becoming a majority minority nation. This unparalleled historic event will have wide-ranging implications including the impact on minority political power.

“Gary Locke has been charged with overseeing the counting of people in the United States at a crucial moment in our lifetime,” said NABJ President Barbara Ciara. “With this census, the evolving melting pot of our country reaches a new chapter, and minority voices will be strengthened as a result.”

Secretary Locke will lead a plenary, “The 2010 Census and a Majority Minority Nation,” on Friday, August. 7 at the Tampa Convention Center. This plenary will give NABJ convention attendees a first-hand opportunity to analyze this historic event with ideas for coverage on the Web, how to find and use census data, tools you can use to see how neighborhoods have changed and will change in the future and new ideas that will arise from the census.

“The census is about power and money,” said Bobbi Bowman, the 2009 Ida B. Wells Award-recipient and diversity director at the American Society of News Editors (ASNE). “The more people a state has, the more political power it gets.”

Governors and mayors across the U.S. will want to ensure that everyone is counted, including undocumented immigrants, in order to ensure more federal funds and, with them, political power.

Census News Roundup

From the Chicago Tribune: 2010 Census will be the biggest, most expensive to date... The Wichita Eagle in Kansas reports that 4 Kansas counties are majority minority...How does the Census work? The AP answers your questions... Longest serving Census worker prepares for the sixth and last count, reports the AP... Q&A with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, courtesy Chicago Tribune...

Warren County: Majority Minority

According to the latest Census data, Warren County is one of six U.S. counties to become "majority minority" in 2008.

Census: Warren Co., Miss., now 'majority minority'

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi's Warren County has long been a multicultural hub with its Chinese-owned grocery stores, black funeral homes and restaurants that serve fried catfish and turnip greens to diverse crowds of diners.

New Census numbers, released Thursday, show Warren is 1 of 6 counties in the U.S. that became "majority minority" in 2008.

The others are Orange County, Fla.; Edwards and Schleicher counties in Texas; Finney County, Kan.; and Stanislaus County, Calif.

The new estimated numbers from the Census show that 50.4% of the people in Warren County are black, Hispanic, Asian or other racial minority. The county's population is 49.6% white.

Warren County, on the Mississippi River, is the home of Vicksburg.