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Drew, in northern Sunflower County, Mississippi, actually began about three miles east of its current location, in a place that was known as Sandy Bayou, in the 1880s. The community and post office moved to its current location to be nearer the Yellow Dog Railroad, and was incorporated as Drew in 1899, for Miss Drew Daniel, the daughter of Andrew Jackson Daniel. Several large cotton plantations surrounded Drew, and at one time the area had more cotton gins than anywhere else in the country. In 1923, Joe Pullen, an African-American tenant farmer, was lynched by a white mob in Drew, but not before he had killed several members of the lynch mob and injured several others. Mae Bertha Carter, a major figure in the Civil Rights movement, was from Drew, and her children were the first in the county to attend an otherwise all-white school. The city is situated along US Route 49-W, on the route between Jackson and Clarksdale. The Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman is about eight miles north of Drew. Ruleville and Yazoo City are south of the city. Cleveland, Mississippi is twelve miles from Drew. The former NFL quarterback, Archie Manning, is from Drew, but he never lived in Drew again after leaving to attend the University of Mississippi. Other professional football players from Drew include Al Dixon and Billy Stacy.

 

 

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