On August 24, 2022, William Thompson presented “The 1950 U.S. Census: New Answers, New Questions” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
“Every ten years the federal government conducts a census to count the citizens of the United States and collect data on their characteristics,” said Thompson, a reference librarian at the state archives. “Although general results of each census are released soon after they’re completed, federal law requires the specifics of each census be held for 72 years.”
In 1950, census workers visited more than 45 million U.S. houses and apartments—it would be the last year the census was conducted primarily in person rather than by mail—and counted 150.7 million people. They also recorded ages, incomes, addresses, military status, ancestry and other facts. This spring, those handwritten forms were posted online by the National Archives and Records Administration, along with Indian Reservation Schedules that counted Native Americans.
The 1950 census shows the Baby Boom in full swing, an average family income of $3,300, and fewer than one in 10 households with televisions.
“The release of a new census always generates buzz among genealogists as we use the information to link one family generation to another,” said Thompson. “While we hope to solve lingering mysteries, the census information often creates more questions than it answers.”
Since 2001 Mississippi native William Thompson has worked for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as a reference librarian in the Archives and Records Services Division, and before that in the Historic Preservation Division. He earned his BA in history from Tougaloo College and his MA in biblical and theological studies from Belhaven University. Thompson is pastor of Clark's Chapel M.B. Church in Camden.
History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
