The city was named in 1810 for James B. White, the original owner of the town site. A post office called Whiteville has been in operation since 1821. In 1950, Whiteville fielded a professional minor league baseball team in the Class D Tobacco State League. Named the Tobs, the club lasted only one season before disbanding with the entire league. The Columbus County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,148 people, 2,191 households, and 1,336 families residing in the city. The population density was 957.5 people per square mile. There were 2,450 housing units at an average density of 455.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 60.51% White, 36.67% African American, 0.64% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.56% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.93% of the population. There were 2,191 households out of which 27.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.1% were married couples living together, 20.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.0% were non-families. 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.88. In the city, the population was spread out with 24.1% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 77.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.9 males. Less than a fourth of the citizens hold a bachelor's degree. The median income for a household in the city was $25,455, and the median income for a family was $34,128. Males had a median income of $35,074 versus $23,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,337. About 19.0% of families and 26.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.0% of those under age 18 and 33.7% of those age 65 or over, resulting in over a third of the residents living in poverty.
Education
The Whiteville City School system includes the following schools:
Whiteville High School, home of the Wolfpack, competes in the NCHSAA 2A sports division and has won 19 state championships: nine in baseball, four individual track championships, one in team golf, two in football, and three in basketball. Waccamaw Academy, which opened in 1968, closed in 2012. Southeastern Community College is located a few miles to the west of Whiteville.
Arts and culture
The city is the site of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Whiteville, a satellite museum of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Annual events include the North Carolina Pecan Harvest Festival. In addition, the state-recognized Waccamaw Siouan tribe holds an annual powwow in October with numerous public events. The News Reporter, the official newspaper that serves Columbus County, is based in Whiteville. It has been published since 1896. The stretch of U.S. Route 701 through Columbus County is named for Whiteville's founder, James B. White, who was elected as Columbus County's first state senator. State senators were originally elected from counties as jurisdictions. As a result, the more densely populated and industrialized counties were underrepresented in state government, in terms of their population and economic contributions, for many decades, leading to a rural bias. In the late 20th century, the geographic model at the state level was ruled to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court required reapportionment of legislative seats and establishment of districts that were roughly equal in population, in order to ensure the one man, one vote principle of fair representation. These were to be reappraised after every census and adjusted as necessary. These changes affected numerous state legislatures.
Representation in other media
Whiteville was the site of filming for the courthouse-burning scene in the 1996 Bastard out of Carolina, adapted from Dorothy Allison's novel of the same name.
