The bill for its creation was introduced into the Mississippi Legislature by Leopold Marks while he was serving as a representative from Tunica County.

Much of the bottomlands behind the riverfront were not developed until the late 19th century, and population continued to increase as the frontier was cleared and cultivated.

Agricultural mechanization reduced the need for farm labor, and workers were recruited to northern and midwestern industrial cities.

Martin Luther King Jr. originally wanted the Poor People's Campaign to start in Quitman County because of the intense and visible economic disparity there.

He watched a teacher feeding black schoolchildren their lunch, consisting only of a slice of apple and some crackers, and was moved to tears.

[4] According to wagonmaster Willie Bolden, white citizens of Marks harassed the mule train on its way out of town.

Quitman County has the fifth-lowest per capita income in Mississippi and the 51st lowest in the United States.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) operates the Quitman County Community Work Center (CWC) in an area near Lambert.

Camp B, an inmate housing unit, was a satellite complex located away from the main Parchman prison property in unincorporated Quitman County,[16] near Lambert.

[18] The Mississippi Code (§ 47-5-131) gives Quitman County the right to "not over twenty (20) offenders from the Parchman facility for five (5) workdays of each week for the purpose of working the roads of Quitman County", and goes on to state that the "board of supervisors of Quitman County shall lay out and designate roads to be worked by the offenders, and the board of supervisors shall furnish transportation to and from the Parchman facility for offenders.

[21] By 1975, the majority of African-American students in Quitman County were attending public schools, which had earlier been segregated.

[5] This situation has continued; in 2007 the Mississippi Department of Education found that the students in the district were 97.92% African American, 1.81% White, and 0.27% Hispanic.