Marks, a Jew, became Quitman County's first representative to the state legislature and served for eight years.

Leopold Marks' son Henry donated land to the town to be used as a cemetery.

[citation needed] On September 26, 1913, a black man named Walter Brownloe, accused of attacking a white farmer's wife, was taken from the town prison by a mob and hanged.

[5] Marks was the starting point of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Poor People's Campaign in 1968.

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

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,444 people, 699 households, and 425 families residing in the city.