Guide Rankings Geography Updated May 28, 2026

Black Belt States

Cotton field stretching across the Mississippi Delta in Coahoma County under a broad summer sky

Black Belt States

Ranking - Geography

Cotton agriculture grew on the fertile dark soils that gave the Black Belt its name and shaped the region's economy, labor system, and settlement pattern.

Quick Answer

Black Belt States

  1. 1

    Mississippi's 24 Black Belt counties are the most of any state in the region. The Black Belt crosses 11 states in the American South — from Virginia in the northeast to Texas in the southwest — following a crescent of dark, calcareous clay soil that made the region the center of American cotton production.

  2. 2

    Alabama, with 18 Black Belt counties, is the region's namesake state. Dallas County, Alabama — home to Selma — is among the most historically significant counties in the entire region, site of the 1965 Voting Rights March that led to the Voting Rights Act.

  3. 3

    Florida (4 counties) and Texas (6 counties) are the smallest Black Belt states by county count. The 39 states outside the South are not part of the Black Belt region.

Map

Black Belt Region Map by State

Black Belt counties
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Mississippi (24 counties) and Alabama (18 counties) form the core of the Black Belt. The region runs in a crescent from Virginia through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and into East Texas, ending with Florida's northern panhandle.
Black Belt Region Map by State
Rank State Black Belt counties
1 Mississippi 24
2 Alabama 18
3 North Carolina 17
4 Georgia 15
5 South Carolina 14
6 Louisiana 13
7 Virginia 11
8 Arkansas 10
9 Tennessee 7
10 Texas 6
11 Florida 4

Mississippi (24 counties) and Alabama (18 counties) form the core of the Black Belt. The region runs in a crescent from Virginia through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and into East Texas, ending with Florida's northern panhandle.

Black Belt States Table

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Print-ready table — Black Belt States

What Is the Black Belt Region?

Cotton field stretching across the Mississippi Delta in Coahoma County under a broad summer sky
Coahoma County sits in the Mississippi Delta, where fertile alluvial soils and long growing seasons made cotton the defining crop of the regional economy.

The Black Belt is a crescent-shaped geographic region in the American South, spanning 11 states and approximately 141 counties. It runs from Virginia in the northeast through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, reaching its southwestern edge in East Texas and its southeastern tip in Florida's northern panhandle. Mississippi (24 counties) and Alabama (18 counties) make up the region's geographic core.

The region is defined by a distinctive dark, calcareous clay soil — a Vertisol — that retains moisture and is highly fertile. This soil type proved ideal for cotton cultivation, which made the Black Belt the agricultural and economic center of the antebellum South. After the Civil War, the same soil geography that once concentrated enslaved labor continued to shape the region's demographics, economy, and political history for more than a century.

Why Is It Called the Black Belt?

The name has two distinct meanings that became inseparable over time. The first is geological: the region's dark black clay soil — a Vertisol also called 'buckshot' or 'prairie' soil — gave the belt its original name in the 1850s. Journalist Frederick Law Olmsted used the term to describe the soil's color in his antebellum travel writings about Alabama and Mississippi.

The second meaning is demographic. Because the Black Belt's cotton economy depended on enslaved labor, the region became home to the largest concentration of African Americans in the United States. Booker T. Washington described both meanings directly in 'Up from Slavery' (1901): 'I have often been asked to define the term Black Belt. So far as I can learn, the term was first used to designate a part of the country which was distinguished by the colour of the soil. The part of the country possessing this thick, dark, and naturally rich soil was, of course, the part of the South where the slaves were most profitable, and at the same time the part where the black man in slavery was most largely concentrated.' W.E.B. Du Bois extended this analysis in 'The Souls of Black Folk' (1903), where he devoted an entire chapter — titled 'Of the Black Belt' — to the region's geography and racial conditions.

Black Belt States with the Most Counties

Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma arcing over the Alabama River
Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, opened in 1940, became a national civil rights landmark after the March 7, 1965 voting-rights march known as Bloody Sunday.

Mississippi's 24 Black Belt counties are the most of any state, concentrated in the Delta and central hill counties. Alabama's 18 counties are the region's historical core — the state that gave the Black Belt its name — with Greene County recording the highest African American population share in Alabama at roughly 80 percent. North Carolina's 17 eastern coastal plain counties represent the region's largest northern extension.

Florida (4 counties) and Texas (6 counties) represent the geographic extremes where the Black Belt thins out at its edges. Gadsden County in Florida is the southernmost Black Belt county and the only majority-African American county in the state. Harrison County in Texas, at the region's southwestern edge, is separated from Gadsden County by roughly 700 miles.

Quick Answers

What states are in the Black Belt region?
Eleven states are part of the Black Belt region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Mississippi (24 counties) and Alabama (18 counties) have the most Black Belt counties of any state.
What is the Black Belt region in the United States?
The Black Belt is a crescent-shaped geographic region in the American South defined by dark, calcareous clay soil. It spans 11 states and approximately 141 counties, running from Virginia through the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, and into East Texas. The region was the center of American cotton production and has the highest concentration of African American residents of any part of the country.
Why is it called the Black Belt?
The Black Belt is named for two things. The first is the dark, black clay soil (a Vertisol) that made the region ideal for cotton farming. The second is the African American population concentrated there as a result of slavery. Booker T. Washington documented both meanings in 'Up from Slavery' (1901). W.E.B. Du Bois gave an entire chapter of 'The Souls of Black Folk' (1903) to the region.
What is the Black Belt in Alabama?
Alabama's Black Belt is an 18-county crescent of dark clay soil running across the center of the state. Dallas County, home to Selma, is the most historically significant; it was the site of the 1965 Voting Rights March. Greene County has the highest African American population share in Alabama at roughly 80 percent. Alabama is the state that gave the Black Belt its name.
What is the Black Belt in Mississippi?
Mississippi has 24 Black Belt counties, more than any other state, concentrated in the Mississippi Delta and central counties. Sunflower County was home to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. Mississippi Delta counties including Bolivar, Humphreys, Sharkey, Issaquena, and Washington are among the most economically distressed rural counties in the United States.
Is the Black Belt a political region?
The Black Belt has both geographic and political dimensions. Geographically it is defined by soil type. Politically, its high African American population has shaped southern electoral maps since Reconstruction. Because African Americans in the Black Belt were systematically disenfranchised for much of the 20th century, the region became a focal point of the civil rights movement, particularly in Alabama (Selma, 1965) and Mississippi.

Methodology

Black Belt counties are defined using the geographic and traditional demographic definition: counties within the historic crescent of dark, calcareous Vertisol clay soil running through the Deep South, as established in academic and USDA literature. County counts are approximate; exact boundaries vary by source. States outside the 11-state traditional Black Belt are listed with 0 counties.

Sources

Information is cross-referenced with official state archives.
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