The title "Catfish Capital" is also claimed by Savannah, Tennessee, Des Allemands, Louisiana, and Selkirk, Manitoba.

[5] The area that eventually became Belzoni was originally known as "Greasy Row" because of saloons along the bank of the Yazoo River, which was the main transportation route until replaced by railroads.

[7] His killers were never found, as the governor of Mississippi, Hugh L. White, refused to investigate the case.

[8] As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Margot Adler, later a National Public Radio correspondent, was active in the voter registration drive in Humphreys County (Belzoni) in the summer of 1965, before the passage of the Voting Rights Act on August 6 of that year.

I remember that after one month of daily work there were only seven people registered, and a bunch of us almost got ourselves killed after being chased onto private property by a group of men who belonged to the White Citizens' Council".

She said that the civil rights movement changed Humphreys County, and bettered the lot of African Americans.

[citation needed] Belzoni's role in history has been recognized primarily through historical marker campaigns.

The Mississippi Blues Trail has two markers located in city limits: one for Denise LaSalle, who spent her childhood in Belzoni;[10] and another for Turner's Drug Store, an early sponsor for radio shows that broadcast Delta blues, and location of some performances by native artists Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James.

[12] In 1990, the local African-American community placed concrete markers on each side of George Lee Avenue.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.6 km2), all land.

The climate in this area is characterized by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year.