News Releases & Announcements
Reopening Quitman County Rural Access Hospital
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2021
Quentin Whitwell, CEO Panola Med
P: 662.388.0700
www.panolamed.com
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(MARKS, MS) It is miraculous! The local stakeholders and residents of Quitman County are awaiting the highly-anticipated reopening and ribbon cutting ceremony of the county’s rural access hospital, scheduled for November 12, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. (more…)
Quitman County Hospital Returns
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2021
Quentin Whitwell, CEO Panola Med
P:662.388.0700
www.panolamed.com
Closed Critical Access Hospital in Marks, MS Slated to Reopen
(MARKS, MS) – The hospital in Quitman County closed on October 31, 2016, as the county’s largest employer with 99 people. Without healthcare, despondency has grown with in the unemployed. Current acute healthcare situations have worsened due to the length of time it takes to receive critical medical and healthcare services in neighboring counties, which is at minimum a 30-minute drive. (more…)
Quitman County Receives $400K to Restore Historic Courthouse
In the near future the citizens of Quitman County will be able to get onto an elevator to access the second floor of the historic courthouse to attend public meetings and court proceedings. Obtaining this elevator was made possible through the Board of Supervisors’ submission of a proposal and resolution for the renovations of the 110-year-old courthouse building. (more…)
Nationwide Civil Rights Education Delegation Visits Marks
January 8th, 2019
By Velma Benson-Wilson, Quitman County Administrator and Kevin Dayhoff, former Mayor of Westminster MD.
Civil Rights Tour Article 2019 PDF
Marks, Miss. – On January 4, 2019, a nationwide delegation visited Marks, Miss. The 51-member delegation, from as far away as New England, Chicago, Connecticut, Seattle, Baltimore, and Westminster, MD. were part of an educational tour of historic civil rights sites in Atlanta, GA., Tuskegee, AL, Montgomery, AL, Ruleville, MS, and Birmingham, AL. (more…)
Quitman County to Host Amtrak Station Ribbon Cutting
This project has been in the making for nearly three decades, and finally, in less than a month, the City of New Orleans Northbound Amtrak Train #58 will sound its whistle at a distance and slowly bring its engine to a stop on the tracks at the new Northwest Regional Amtrak Station at 285 Cherry Street in Marks, Mississippi.
Interior and National Park Service Grants
Interior and National Park Service Announces $12.6 Million in Grants
to Preserve African American Civil Rights History
The U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service today announced $12.6 million in grants for 51 projects in 24 states that preserve sites and highlight stories related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century.
The Marks Mule Train and MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign Interpretive Trail received $50,000.
Learn More: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/03-12-2018-aacr-grants.htm
50th Mule Train Anniversary Event
Quitman County to Celebrate 50th Anniversary
of Mule Train March With “Rebuild the Dream” Symposium
(MARKS, MS) – In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., walked and marched down Highway 3 in Marks, Mississippi. Few would have imagined then that decades later the same main thoroughfare would bear his name. (more…)
Marking the Mule Train Workshop

On February 27, 2016, Quitman County held a workshop to interpret and commemorate the “Mule Train”, Marks’ contribution to the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968.
The workshop, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and organized by Mississippi State University’s Carl Small Town Center and Department of History, featured interactive centers and exhibits on the Mule Train and Marks.
The goal of the workshop was for the community to tell the MSU team what they wanted to see happen in Marks to mark the Mule Train.
View our Photo Gallery to learn more about this workshop.
Marking the Mule Train
NEA Our Town Planning Grant
Marking the Mule Train:
Placemaking for Marks, MS
This project will consist of a 12 months planning period to develop a comprehensive cultural master plan featuring an interpretive trail and center in Marks, MS. (more…)