Southaven, MS

Southaven, a city in DeSoto County, Mississippi, is a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 28,977. The 2010 census reflected a population of 48,982, making Southaven the third largest city in Mississippi. Southaven is traversed from north to south by the I-55 freeway. While its name would indicate otherwise, the city of Southaven is actually in the northernmost corner of Mississippi. The name derives from the fact that Southaven is located south of Whitehaven, Memphis.
Southaven hosts the Central Hockey League team, the Mississippi RiverKings, who play at the DeSoto Civic Center.
Southaven began as Memphis homebuilder Kemmons Wilson (founder of Holiday Inn) developed a few residential subdivisions featuring small starter homes just inside the Mississippi border with Whitehaven, Tennessee, an unincorporated suburb of Memphis. Whitehaven was eventually annexed by the central city, becoming part of Memphis-proper. Southaven is one of the fastest growing cities in the southeast United States.[citation needed] In just 20 years, Southaven doubled its land area while its population tripled. Like the rest of Desoto County, Southaven's growth has been attributed mostly to the white flight from Memphis, though the percentage of blacks has risen sharply since the 2000 census resulting from a recent trend called Black flight.