Tate County is part of the Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area.

It is located about 40 miles (64 km) south of Memphis and one county east of the Mississippi River.

This fertile river valley was developed for cotton cultivation in the 19th century.

As it was developed for cotton culture in the antebellum years, planters in the county depended on the labor of African American slaves.

After Reconstruction, whites sometimes enforced their dominance through political intimidation or violence against blacks.

Sheriff Williams illegally organized a posse and murdered at least five and possibly as many as seven black people, family members of a man known as "Judge" Crawford.

As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 28,064 people, 10,324 households, and 7,580 families residing in the county.