The state's history traces back to around 9500 BC with the arrival ofPaleo-Indians, evolving through periods marked by the development of agricultural societies, rise of theMound Builders, and flourishing of theMississippian culture. European exploration began with the Spanish in the 16th century, followed by French colonization in the 17th century. Mississippi's strategic location along the Mississippi River made it a site of significant economic and strategic importance, especially during the era of cotton plantation agriculture, which led to its wealth pre-Civil War, but entrenched slavery and racial segregation. On December 10, 1817, Mississippi became the20th state admitted to the Union. By 1860, Mississippi was the nation's topcotton-producing state andslaves accounted for 55% of the state population.[10] Mississippi declared itssecession fromthe Union on January 9, 1861, and was one of the seven originalConfederate States, which constituted the largest slaveholding states in the nation. Following theCivil War, it was restored to the Union on February 23, 1870.[11] Mississippi's political and social landscape was dramatically shaped by the Civil War,Reconstruction era, andcivil rights movement, with the state playing a pivotal role in the struggle for civil rights. From the Reconstruction era to the 1960s, Mississippi was dominated bysocially conservative andsegregationistSouthern Democrats dedicated to upholdingwhite supremacy.
Despite progress, Mississippi continues to grapple with challenges related to health, education, and economic development, often ranking among the lowest in the United States in national metrics for wealth, health care quality, and educational attainment.[12][13][14][15] Economically, it relies onagriculture, manufacturing, and an increasing focus on tourism, highlighted by its casinos and historical sites. Mississippi produces more than half of the country'sfarm-raised catfish, and is a top producer ofsweet potatoes, cotton andpulpwood. Others include advanced manufacturing,utilities,transportation, andhealth services.[16] Mississippi is almost entirely within the eastGulf Coastal Plain, and generally consists oflowlandplains and low hills. The northwest remainder of the state consists of theMississippi Delta. Mississippi's highest point isWoodall Mountain at 807 feet (246 m) above sea level adjacent to theCumberland Plateau; the lowest is the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi has ahumid subtropical climate classification.
Mississippi is known for its deep religious roots, which play a central role in its residents' lives. The state ranks among the highest ofU.S. states inreligiosity. Mississippi is also known for being the state with the highest proportion ofAfrican-American residents. The state's governance structure is based on the traditional separation of powers, with political trends showing a strong alignment with conservative values. Mississippi boasts a rich cultural heritage, especially in music, being the birthplace of theblues and contributing significantly to the development of themusic of the United States as a whole.
The state's name is derived from theMississippi River, which flows along and defines its western boundary. European-American settlers named it after theOjibwe word ᒥᓯ-ᓰᐱmisi-ziibi (English:great river).
This section should include only abrief summary ofHistory of Mississippi. SeeWikipedia:Summary style for information on how to properly incorporate it into this article's main text.(April 2023)
Near 9500 BCNative Americans orPaleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as theAmerican South.[17] Paleo-Indians in the South werehunter-gatherers who pursued themegafauna that became extinct following the end of thePleistocene age. In theMississippi Delta, Native American settlements and agricultural fields were developed on the natural levees, higher ground in the proximity of rivers. The Native Americans developed extensive fields near their permanent villages. Together with other practices, they created some localizeddeforestation but did not alter the ecology of theMississippi Delta as a whole.[18]
After thousands of years, succeeding cultures of theWoodland andMississippian culture eras developed rich and complex agricultural societies, in which surplus supported the development of specialized trades. Both weremound builder cultures. Those of theMississippian culture were the largest and most complex, constructed beginning about 950 AD. The peoples had a trading network spanning the continent from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Their large earthworks, which expressed their cosmology of political and religious concepts, still stand throughout theMississippi andOhio River valleys.
Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, by Francois Bernard, 1869, Peabody Museum—Harvard University. The women are preparing dye in order to color cane strips for making baskets.
DescendantNative American tribes of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast include theChickasaw andChoctaw. Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi (and whose names were honored by colonists in local towns) include theNatchez, theYazoo, and theBiloxi.
The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of the Spanish explorer,Hernando de Soto, who passed through the northeast part of the state in 1540, in his second expedition to the New World.
In April 1699, French colonists established the first European settlement atFort Maurepas (also known as Old Biloxi), built in the vicinity of present-dayOcean Springs on the Gulf Coast. It was settled byPierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In 1716, the French foundedNatchez on the Mississippi River (asFort Rosalie); it became the dominant town and trading post of the area. The French called the greater territory "New France"; the Spanish continued to claim part of theGulf coast area (east ofMobile Bay) of present-day southernAlabama, in addition to the entire area of present-dayFlorida. The British assumed control of the French territory after theFrench and Indian War.
During thecolonial era, European (chiefly French and Spanish) settlers importedenslaved Africans to work on cash cropplantations. Under French and Spanish rule, there developed a class offree people of color (gens de couleur libres), mostlymultiracial descendants of European men and enslaved or free black women, and theirmixed-race children. In the early days the French and Spanish colonists were chiefly men. Even as more European women joined the settlements, the men had interracial unions among women of African descent (and increasingly, multiracial descent), both before and after marriages to European women. Often the European men would help their multiracial children get educated or gain apprenticeships for trades, and sometimes they settled property on them; they often freed the mothers and their children if enslaved, as part of contracts ofplaçage. With thissocial capital, the free people of color became artisans, and sometimes educated merchants and property owners, forming a third class between the Europeans and most enslaved Africans in the French and Spanish settlements, although not so large a free community as in the city ofNew Orleans, Louisiana.
After Great Britain's victory in theFrench and Indian War (Seven Years' War), the French surrendered the Mississippi area to them under the terms of theTreaty of Paris (1763). They also ceded their areas to the north that were east of the Mississippi River, including the Illinois Country and Quebec. After thePeace of Paris (1783), the lower third of Mississippi came under Spanish rule as part ofWest Florida. In 1819 the United States completed the purchase of West Florida and all ofEast Florida in theAdams–Onís Treaty, and in 1822 both were merged into theFlorida Territory.
After theAmerican Revolution (1775–83), Britain ceded this area to the new United States of America. TheMississippi Territory wasorganized on April 7, 1798, from territory ceded byGeorgia andSouth Carolina to the United States. Their original colonial charters theoretically extended west to the Pacific Ocean. The Mississippi Territory was later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain.
From 1800 to about 1830, the United States purchased some lands (Treaty of Doak's Stand) from Native American tribes for new settlements of European Americans. The latter were mostly migrants from other Southern states, particularly Virginia and North Carolina, where soils were exhausted.[19] New settlers kept encroaching on Choctaw land, and they pressed the federal government to expel the Native Americans. On September 27, 1830, theTreaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed between the U.S. Government and theChoctaw. The Choctaw agreed to sell their traditional homelands in Mississippi and Alabama, for compensation andremoval to reservations inIndian Territory (now Oklahoma). This opened up land for sale toEuropean-American migrant settlement.
Article 14 in the treaty allowed those Choctaw who chose to remain in the states to become U.S. citizens, as they were considered to be giving up their tribal membership. They were the second major Native American ethnic group to do so (some Cherokee were the first, who chose to stay inNorth Carolina and other areas during rather than join the removal).[20][21] Today their descendants include approximately 9,500 persons identifying as Choctaw, who live in Neshoba, Newton, Leake, and Jones counties. TheMississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reorganized in the 20th century and is a Federally recognized tribe.
Many slaveholders brought enslavedAfrican Americans with them or purchased them through the domestic slave trade, especially inNew Orleans. Through the trade, an estimated nearly one million slaves were forcibly transported to theDeep South, including Mississippi, in an internal migration that broke up many slave families of the Upper South, whereplanters were selling excess slaves. The Southerners imposed slave laws in the Deep South and restricted the rights of free blacks.
Beginning in 1822, slaves in Mississippi were protected by law from cruel and unusual punishment by their owners.[22] The Southernslave codes made the willful killing of a slave illegal in most cases.[23] For example, the 1860 Mississippi case ofOliver v. State charged the defendant with murdering his own slave.[24]
Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10, 1817.David Holmes was the first governor.[25] The state was still occupied as ancestral land by several Native American tribes, including Choctaw, Natchez, Houma, Creek, and Chickasaw.[26][27]
Plantations were developed primarily along the major rivers, where the waterfront provided access to the major transportation routes. This is also where early towns developed, linked by thesteamboats that carried commercial products and crops to markets. The remainder of Native American ancestral land remained largely undeveloped but was sold through treaties until 1826, when the Choctaws and Chickasaws refused to sell more land.[28] The combination of the Mississippi state legislature's abolition of Choctaw Tribal Government in 1829,[29] President Andrew Jackson'sIndian Removal Act and theTreaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830,[30] the Choctaw were effectively forced to sell their land and were transported to Oklahoma Territory. The forced migration of the Choctaw, together with other southeastern tribes removed as a result of the Act, became known as theTrail of Tears.
Whencotton was king during the 1850s, Mississippi plantation owners—especially those of the Delta and Black Belt central regions—became wealthy due to the high fertility of the soil, the high price of cotton on the international market, and free labor gained through their holding enslaved African Americans. They used some of their profits to buy more cotton land and more slaves. The planters' dependence on hundreds of thousands of slaves for labor and the severe wealth imbalances among whites, played strong roles both in state politics and in planters' support forsecession. Mississippi was a slave society, with the economy dependent on slavery. The state was thinly settled, with population concentrated in the riverfront areas and towns.
By 1860, the enslaved African-American population numbered 436,631 or 55% of the state's total of 791,305 persons. Fewer than 1000 werefree people of color.[31] The relatively low population of the state before theAmerican Civil War reflected the fact that land and villages were developed only along the riverfronts, which formed the main transportation corridors. Ninety percent of the Delta bottomlands were still frontier and undeveloped.[32] The state needed many more settlers for development. The land further away from the rivers was cleared by freedmen and white migrants during Reconstruction and later.[32]
Confederate lines,Vicksburg, May 19, 1863. Shows assault by US 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry.
On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to declare its secession from theUnion, and it was one of the founding members of theConfederate States. The first six states to secede were those with the highest number of slaves. During the war, Union and Confederate forces struggled for dominance on the Mississippi River, critical to supply routes and commerce. More than 80,000 Mississippians fought in theCivil War for theConfederate Army. Around 17,000 black and 545 white Mississippians would serve in theUnion Army. Pockets ofUnionism in Mississippi were in places such as the northeastern corner of the state andJones County, whereNewton Knight formed a revolt with Unionist leanings, known as the "Free State of Jones".[33] Union GeneralUlysses S. Grant's long siege ofVicksburg finally gained the Union control of the river in 1863.
In the postwar period,freedmen withdrew from white-run churches to set up independent congregations. The majority of blacks left theSouthern Baptist Convention, sharply reducing its membership. They created independent black Baptist congregations. By 1895 they had established numerous black Baptist state associations and theNational Baptist Convention of black churches.[34]
In addition, independent black denominations, such as theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church (established inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 19th century) and theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (established in New York City), sentmissionaries to the South in the postwar years. They quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of converts and founded new churches across the South. Southern congregations brought their own influences to those denominations as well.[34][35]
DuringReconstruction, the first Mississippi constitutional convention in 1868, with delegates both black and white, framed a constitution whose major elements would be maintained for 22 years.[36] The convention was the first political organization in the state to include African-American representatives, 17 among the 100 members (32 counties had black majorities at the time). Some among the black delegates werefreedmen, but others were educated free blacks who had migrated from the North. The convention adopted universal suffrage; did away with property qualifications forsuffrage or for office, a change that also benefited both blacks and poor whites; provided for the state's first public school system; forbade race distinctions in the possession and inheritance of property; and prohibited limiting civil rights in travel.[36] Under the terms of Reconstruction, Mississippi was restored to the Union on February 23, 1870.
Because the Mississippi Delta contained so much fertile bottomland that had not been developed before the American Civil War, 90 percent of the land was still frontier. After the Civil War, tens of thousands of migrants were attracted to the area by higher wages offered by planters trying to develop land. In addition, black and white workers could earn money by clearing the land and selling timber, and eventually advance to ownership. The new farmers included many freedmen, who by the late 19th century achieved unusually high rates of land ownership in the Mississippi bottomlands. In the 1870s and 1880s, many black farmers succeeded in gaining land ownership.[32]
The legislature of the state of Mississippi in 1890
Around the start of the 20th century, two-thirds of the Mississippi farmers who owned land in the Delta wereAfrican American.[32] But many had become overextended with debt during the falling cotton prices of the difficult years of the late 19th century. Cotton prices fell throughout the decades following the Civil War. As anotheragricultural depression lowered cotton prices into the 1890s, numerous African-American farmers finally had to sell their land to pay off debts, thus losing the land which they had developed by hard, personal labor.[32]
Democrats had regained control of the state legislature in 1875, after a year of expanded violence against blacks and intimidation of whites in what was called the "white line" campaign, based on assertingwhite supremacy. Democratic whites were well armed and formedparamilitary organizations such as theRed Shirts to suppress black voting. From 1874 to the elections of 1875, they pressured whites to join the Democrats, and conducted violence against blacks in at least 15 known "riots" in cities around the state to intimidate blacks. They killed a total of 150 blacks, although other estimates place the death toll at twice as many. A total of three white Republicans and five white Democrats were reported killed. In rural areas, deaths of blacks could be covered up. Riots (better described as massacres of blacks) took place in Vicksburg, Clinton, Macon, and in their counties, as well-armed whites broke up black meetings andlynched known black leaders, destroying local political organizations.[37] Seeing the success of this deliberate "Mississippi Plan", South Carolina and other states followed it and also achieved white Democratic dominance. In 1877 by a national compromise, the last of federal troops were withdrawn from the region.
Even in this environment, black Mississippians continued to be elected to local office. However, black residents were deprived of all political power after white legislators passed a new state constitution in 1890 specifically to "eliminate the nigger from politics", according to the state'sDemocratic governor,James K. Vardaman.[38] It erected barriers to voter registration and instituted electoral provisions that effectivelydisenfranchised most black Mississippians and many poor whites. Estimates are that 100,000 black and 50,000 white men were removed from voter registration rolls in the state over the next few years.[39]
The loss of political influence contributed to the difficulties of African Americans in their attempts to obtain extended credit in the late 19th century. Together with imposition ofJim Crow and racial segregation laws, whites increased violence against blacks, with lynchings occurring through the period of the 1890s and extending to 1930.
In 1900, blacks made up more than half of the state's population. By 1910, a majority of black farmers in the Delta had lost their land and becamesharecroppers. By 1920, the third generation after freedom, most African Americans in Mississippi were landless laborers again facing poverty.[32] Starting about 1913, tens of thousands of black Americans left Mississippi for theNorth in theGreat Migration to industrial cities such asSt. Louis,Chicago,Detroit,Cleveland,Philadelphia andNew York. They sought jobs, better education for their children, the right to vote, relative freedom from discrimination, and better living. In the migration of 1910–1940, they left a society that had been steadily closing off opportunity. Most migrants from Mississippi took trains directly north to Chicago and often settled near former neighbors.
Cotton crops failed due toboll weevil infestation and successive severe flooding in 1912 and 1913, creating crisis conditions for many African Americans. With control of the ballot box and more access to credit, white planters bought out such farmers, expanding their ownership of Delta bottomlands. They also took advantage of new railroads sponsored by the state.[32] Blacks also faced violence in the form of lynching, shooting, and the burning of churches. In 1923, theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People stated "the Negro feels that life is not safe in Mississippi and his life may be taken with impunity at any time upon the slightest pretext or provocation by a white man".[40]
In the early 20th century, some industries were established in Mississippi, but jobs were generally restricted to whites, including child workers. The lack of jobs also drove some southern whites north to cities such as Chicago and Detroit, seeking employment, where they also competed with European immigrants. The state depended on agriculture, but mechanization put many farm laborers out of work.
By 1900, many white ministers, especially in the towns, subscribed to theSocial Gospel movement, which attempted to apply Christian ethics to social and economic needs of the day. Many strongly supportedProhibition, believing it would help alleviate and prevent many sins.[41] Mississippi became adry state in 1908 by an act of thestate legislature.[42] It remained dry until the legislature passed alocal option bill in 1966.[43]
African-American Baptist churches grew to include more than twice the number of members as their white Baptist counterparts. The African-American call for social equality resonated throughout theGreat Depression in the 1930s andWorld War II in the 1940s.
TheSecond Great Migration from the South started in the 1940s, lasting until 1970. Almost half a million people left Mississippi in the second migration, three-quarters of them black. Nationwide during the first half of the 20th century, African Americans became rapidly urbanized and many worked in industrial jobs. The Second Great Migration included destinations in theWest, especiallyCalifornia, where the buildup of the defense industry offered higher-paying jobs to both African Americans and whites.
Blacks and whites in Mississippi generated rich, quintessentially American music traditions:gospel music,country music,jazz,blues androck and roll. All were invented, promulgated or heavily developed by Mississippi musicians, many of them African American, and most came from theMississippi Delta. Many musicians carried their music north to Chicago, where they made it the heart of that city's jazz and blues.
So many African Americans left in the Great Migration that after the 1930s, they became a minority in Mississippi. In 1960 they made up 42% of the state's population.[44] The whites maintained their discriminatory voter registration processes established in 1890, preventing most blacks from voting, even if they were well educated. Court challenges were not successful until later in the century. After World War II, African-American veterans returned with renewed commitment to be treated as full citizens of the United States and increasingly organized to gain enforcement of their constitutional rights.
TheCivil Rights movement had many roots in religion, and the strong community of churches helped supply volunteers and moral purpose for their activism. Mississippi was a center of activity, based in black churches, to educate and register black voters, and to work for integration. In 1954 the state had created theMississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a tax-supported agency, chaired by the Governor, that claimed to work for the state's image but effectively spied on activists and passed information to the local White Citizens' Councils to suppress black activism.White Citizens Councils had been formed in many cities and towns to resist integration of schools following the unanimous 1954United States Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of Education) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. They used intimidation and economic blackmail against activists and suspected activists, including teachers and other professionals. Techniques included loss of jobs and eviction from rental housing.
In the summer of 1964 students and community organizers from across the country came to help register black voters in Mississippi and establishFreedom Schools. TheMississippi Freedom Democratic Party was established to challenge the all-white Democratic Party of theSolid South. Most white politicians resisted such changes. Chapters of theKu Klux Klan and its sympathizers used violence against activists, most notably themurders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964 during theFreedom Summer campaign. This was a catalyst for Congressional passage the following year of theVoting Rights Act of 1965. Mississippi earned a reputation in the 1960s as a reactionary state.[45][46]
After decades of disenfranchisement, African Americans in the state gradually began to exercise their right to vote again for the first time since the 19th century, following the passage of federal civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965, which endedde jure segregation and enforced constitutional voting rights. Registration of African-American voters increased and black candidates ran in the 1967 elections for state and local offices. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party fielded some candidates. TeacherRobert G. Clark of Holmes County was the first African American to be elected to the State House since Reconstruction. He continued as the only African American in the state legislature until 1976 and was repeatedly elected into the 21st century, including three terms as Speaker of the House.[47]
In 1966, the state was the last to repeal officially statewideprohibition of alcohol. Before that, Mississippi had taxed the illegal alcohol brought in bybootleggers. GovernorPaul Johnson urged repeal and the sheriff "raided the annualJunior LeagueMardi Gras ball at the Jackson Country Club, breaking open the liquor cabinet and carting off the Champagne before a startled crowd ofnobility and high-ranking state officials".[48]
The end of legal segregation andJim Crow led to the integration of some churches, but most today remain divided along racial and cultural lines, having developed different traditions. After the Civil War, most African Americans left white churches to establish their own independent congregations, particularly Baptist churches, establishing state associations and a national association by the end of the 20th century. They wanted to express their own traditions of worship and practice.[49] In more diverse communities, such asHattiesburg, some churches have multiracial congregations.[50]
In 1987, 20 years after theU.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1967'sLoving v. Virginia that a similar Virginian law was unconstitutional, Mississippi repealed its ban on interracial marriage (also known asmiscegenation), which had been enacted in 1890. It also repealed thesegregationist-erapoll tax in 1989. In 1995, the state symbolically ratified theThirteenth Amendment, which had abolished slavery in 1865. In 2009, the legislature passed a bill to repeal other discriminatory civil rights laws, which had been enacted in 1964, the same year as the federalCivil Rights Act, but ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by federal courts. Republican GovernorHaley Barbour signed the bill into law.[52]
On August 29, 2005,Hurricane Katrina, though aCategory 3 storm upon final landfall, caused even greater destruction across the entire 90 miles (145 km) of theMississippi Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama.
The previousflag of Mississippi, used until June 30, 2020, featured the Confederate battle flag.
The previousflag of Mississippi, used until June 30, 2020, featured theConfederate battle flag. Mississippi became the last state to remove the Confederate battle flag as an official state symbol on June 30, 2020, when GovernorTate Reeves signed a law officially retiring thesecond state flag. The current flag, The "New Magnolia" flag, was selected via referendum as part of the general election on November 3, 2020.[53][54] It officially became the state flag on January 11, 2021, after being signed into law by the state legislature and governor.
Bottomland hardwood swamp nearAshlandMap of the Mississippi Delta Region (outlined in green)
Mississippi is bordered to the north byTennessee, to the east byAlabama, to the south byLouisiana and a narrow coast on theGulf of Mexico; and to the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana andArkansas.
Mississippi is entirely composed oflowlands, the highest point beingWoodall Mountain, at 807 ft (246 m) abovesea level, in the northeastern part of the state. The lowest point is sea level at theGulf Coast. The state's mean elevation is 300 ft (91 m) above sea level.
Most of Mississippi is part of the eastGulf Coastal Plain. Thecoastal plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. The Pontotoc Ridge and theFall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations. Yellow-brownloess soil is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of fertile black earth uplands, a geology that extend into theAlabama Black Belt.
The northwest remainder of the state consists of theMississippi Delta, a section of theMississippi Alluvial Plain. The plain is narrow in the south and widens north ofVicksburg. The region has rich soil, partly made up ofsilt which had been regularly deposited by theflood waters of the Mississippi River.
Mississippi has ahumid subtropical climate with long, hot and humid summers, and short, mild winters. Temperatures average about 81 °F (27 °C) in July and about 42 °F (6 °C) in January. The temperature varies little statewide in the summer; however, in winter, the region nearMississippi Sound is significantly warmer than the inland portion of the state. The recorded temperature in Mississippi has ranged from −19 °F (−28 °C), in 1966, atCorinth in the northeast, to 115 °F (46 °C), in 1930, atHolly Springs in the north. Snowfall is scant throughout the state, occurring only rarely in the south. Yearlyprecipitation generally increases from north to south, with the regions closer to the Gulf being the most humid. Thus,Clarksdale, in the northwest, gets about 50 in (1,300 mm) of precipitation annually andBiloxi, in the south, about 61 in (1,500 mm). Small amounts of snow fall in northern and central Mississippi; snow is occasional in the southern part of the state.
Hurricanes Camille (left) and Katrina from satellite imagery, as they approached the Mississippi Gulf Coast
The late summer and fall is the seasonal period of risk forhurricanes moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico, especially in the southern part of the state.Hurricane Camille in 1969 andHurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed 238 people in the state, were the most devastating hurricanes to hit the state. Both caused nearly totalstorm surge destruction of structures in and aroundGulfport,Biloxi, andPascagoula.
As in the rest of theDeep South, thunderstorms are common in Mississippi, especially in the southern part of the state. On average, Mississippi has around 27tornadoes annually; the northern part of the state has more tornadoes earlier in the year and the southern part a higher frequency later in the year. Two of the five deadliest tornadoes in United States history have occurred in the state. These storms struckNatchez, in southwest Mississippi (seeThe Great Natchez Tornado) andTupelo, in the northeast corner of the state. About seven F5 tornadoes have been recorded in the state.
Monthly normal high and low temperatures (°F) for various Mississippi cities
"In the coming decades, Mississippi will become warmer, and both floods and droughts may be more severe. Unlike most of the nation, Mississippi did not become warmer during the last 50 to 100 years. But soils have become drier, annual rainfall has increased, more rain arrives in heavy downpours, and sea level is rising about one inch every seven years. The changing climate is likely to increase damages from tropical storms, reduce crop yields, harm livestock, increase the number of unpleasantly hot days, and increase the risk of heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses".[60]
Leaving Tennessee on US Highway 61Clark Creek Natural Area, Wilkinson County
Mississippi is heavily forested, with over half of the state's area covered by wild or cultivated trees. The southeastern part of the state is dominated bylongleaf pine, in both uplands and lowlandflatwoods andSarraceniabogs. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, orDelta, is primarily farmland and aquaculture ponds but also has sizeable tracts ofcottonwood,willows,bald cypress, andoaks. A belt ofloess extends north to south in the western part of the state, where the Mississippi Alluvial Plain reaches the first hills; this region is characterized by rich, mesic mixed hardwood forests, with some speciesdisjunct from Appalachian forests.[61] Two bands of historicalprairie, theJackson Prairie and the Black Belt, run northwest to southeast in the middle and northeastern part of the state. Although these areas have been highly degraded by conversion to agriculture, a few areas remain, consisting of grassland with interspersed woodland ofeastern redcedar,oaks,hickories,osage-orange, andsugarberry. The rest of the state, primarily north ofInterstate 20 not including the prairie regions, consists of mixed pine-hardwood forest, common species beingloblolly pine,oaks (e.g.,water oak),hickories,sweetgum, andelm. Areas along large rivers are commonly inhabited bybald cypress,water tupelo,water elm, andbitter pecan. Commonly cultivated trees include loblolly pine, longleaf pine,cherrybark oak, and cottonwood.
Due to seasonal flooding, possible from December to June, theMississippi andYazoo rivers and their tributaries created a fertilefloodplain in the Mississippi Delta. The river's flooding created natural levees, which planters had built higher to try to prevent flooding of land cultivated for cotton crops. Temporary workers builtlevees along the Mississippi River on top of the natural levees that formed from dirt deposited after the river flooded.
From 1858 to 1861, the state took over levee building, accomplishing it through contractors and hired labor. In those years, planters considered their slaves too valuable to hire out for such dangerous work. Contractors hired gangs of Irish immigrant laborers to build levees and sometimes clear land. Many of the Irish were relatively recent immigrants from the famine years who were struggling to get established.[68] Before theAmerican Civil War, the earthwork levees averaged six feet in height, although in some areas they reached twenty feet.
Flooding has been an integral part of Mississippi history, but clearing of the land for cultivation and to supply wood fuel for steamboats took away the absorption of trees and undergrowth. The banks of the river were denuded, becoming unstable and changing the character of the river. After the Civil War, major floods swept down the valley in 1865, 1867, 1874 and 1882. Such floods regularly overwhelmed levees damaged by Confederate and Union fighting during the war, as well as those constructed after the war.[69] In 1877, the state created the Mississippi Levee District for southern counties.
In 1879, theUnited States Congress created theMississippi River Commission, whose responsibilities included aiding state levee boards in the construction of levees. Both white and black transient workers were hired to build the levees in the late 19th century. By 1882, levees averaged seven feet in height, but many in the southern Delta were severely tested by the flood that year.[69] After the 1882 flood, the levee system was expanded. In 1884, the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District was established to oversee levee construction and maintenance in the northern Delta counties; also included were some counties inArkansas which were part of the Delta.[70]
Flooding overwhelmed northwestern Mississippi in 1912–1913, causing heavy damage to the levee districts. Regional losses and the Mississippi River Levee Association's lobbying for a flood control bill helped gain passage of national bills in 1917 and 1923 to provide federal matching funds for local levee districts, on a scale of 2:1. Although U.S. participation inWorld War I interrupted funding of levees, the second round of funding helped raise the average height of levees in the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta to 22 feet (6.7 m) in the 1920s.[71] Scientists now understand the levees have increased the severity of flooding by increasing the flow speed of the river and reducing the area of the floodplains. The region was severely damaged due to theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927, which broke through the levees. There were losses of millions of dollars in property, stock and crops. The most damage occurred in the lower Delta, includingWashington andBolivar counties.[72]
Even as scientific knowledge about the Mississippi River has grown, upstream development and the consequences of the levees have caused more severe flooding in some years. Scientists now understand that the widespread clearing of land and building of the levees have changed the nature of the river. Such work removed the natural protection and absorption of wetlands and forest cover, strengthening the river's current. The state and federal governments have been struggling for the best approaches to restore some natural habitats in order to best interact with the original riverine ecology.
From 2000 to 2010, the United States Census Bureau reported that Mississippi had the highest rate of increase in people identifying as mixed-race, up 70 percent in the decade; it amounts to a total of 1.1 percent of the population.[50] In addition, Mississippi led the nation for most of the last decade in the growth of mixed marriages among its population. The total population has not increased significantly, but is young. Some of the above change in identification as mixed-race is due to new births. But, it appears mostly to reflect those residents who have chosen to identify as more than one race, who in earlier years may have identified by just one race or ethnicity. A binary racial system had been in place since slavery times and the days of official governmentracial segregation. In the civil rights era, people of African descent banded together in an inclusive community to achieve political power and gain restoration of their civil rights.
As the demographerWilliam H. Frey noted, "In Mississippi, I think it's [identifying as mixed race] changed from within."[50] Historically in Mississippi, afterIndian removal in the 1830s, the major groups were designated as black (African American), who were then mostly enslaved, and white (primarily European American). Matthew Snipp, also a demographer, commented on the increase in the 21st century in the number of people identifying as being of more than one race: "In a sense, they're rendering a more accurate portrait of their racial heritage that in the past would have been suppressed."[50]
After having accounted for a majority of the state's population since well before the American Civil War and through the 1930s, todayAfrican Americans constitute approximately 37.8 percent of the state's population. Most have ancestors who wereenslaved, with many forcibly transported from the Upper South in the 19th century to work on the area's new plantations. Many of these slaves were mixed race, with European ancestors, as there were many children born into slavery with white fathers. Some also have Native American ancestry.[80] During the first half of the 20th century, a total of nearly 400,000 African Americans left the state during theGreat Migration, for opportunities in the North, Midwest and West. They became a minority in the state for the first time since early in its development.[81]
Americans ofScots-Irish,English andScottish ancestry are present throughout the state. It is believed that there are more people with such ancestry than identify as such on the census, in part because their immigrant ancestors are more distant in their family histories.English,Scottish andScots-Irish are generally the most under-reported ancestry groups in both theSouth Atlantic states and theEast South Central states. The historianDavid Hackett Fischer estimated that a minimum 20% of Mississippi's population is of English ancestry, though the figure is probably much higher, and another large percentage is of Scottish ancestry. Many Mississippians of such ancestry identify simply asAmerican on questionnaires, because their families have been in North America for centuries.[87][88] In the 1980 U.S. census, 656,371 Mississippians of a total of 1,946,775 identified as being of English ancestry, making them 38% of the state at the time.[89]
The state in 2010 had the highest proportion of African Americans in the nation. The African American percentage of population has begun to increase due mainly to a younger population than the whites (thetotal fertility rates of the two races are approximately equal). Due to patterns of settlement and whites putting their children in private schools, in almost all of Mississippi's public school districts, a majority of students are African American. African Americans are the majority ethnic group in the northwesternYazoo Delta, and the southwestern and the central parts of the state. These are areas where, historically, African Americans owned land as farmers in the 19th century following the Civil War, or worked on cotton plantations and farms.[90]
The Chinese first came to Mississippi ascontract workers fromCuba andCalifornia in the 1870s, and they originally worked as laborers on the cotton plantations. However, most Chinese families came later between 1910 and 1930 from other states, and most operated small family-owned groceries stores in the many small towns of the Delta.[91] In these roles, the ethnic Chinese carved out a niche in the state between black and white, where they were concentrated in the Delta. These small towns have declined since the late 20th century, and many ethnic Chinese have joined the exodus to larger cities, including Jackson. Their population in the state overall has increased in the 21st century.[92][93][94][95]
In the early 1980s manyVietnamese immigrated to Mississippi and other states along theGulf of Mexico, where they became employed in fishing-related work.[96]
Italians were one of the largest immigrant groups in the state during the first three decades of the twentieth century.[97]
Mexicans have been in the state since the early 20th century.[98]
As of 2011, 53.8% of Mississippi's population younger than age 1 were minorities, meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white.[100]
Since 2016, data for births ofWhite Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in oneHispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
In 2022, Mississippi had the highest teen birth rate of any state, at 26.4 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 years of age.[111]
The 2010 United States census counted 6,286 same-sex unmarried-partner households in Mississippi, an increase of 1,512 since the2000 United States census.[112] Of those same-sex couples roughly 33% contained at least one child, giving Mississippi the distinction of leading the nation in the percentage of same-sex couples raising children.[113] Mississippi has the largest percentage ofAfrican American same-sex couples among total households. The state capital, Jackson, ranks tenth in the nation in concentration of African American same-sex couples. The state ranks fifth in the nation in the percentage ofHispanic same-sex couples among all Hispanic households and ninth in the highest concentration of same-sex couples who areseniors.[114]
In 2000, 96.4% of Mississippi residents five years old and older spoke only English in the home, a decrease from 97.2% in 1990.[116] English is largelySouthern American English, with some South Midland speech in northern and eastern Mississippi. There is a common absence of final /r/, particularly in the elderly natives and African Americans, and the lengthening and weakening of the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ as in 'ride' and 'oil'. South Midland terms in northern Mississippi include: tow sack (burlap bag), dog irons (andirons), plum peach (clingstone peach), snake doctor (dragonfly), and stone wall (rock fence).[116]
Under French and Spanish rule beginning in the 17th century, European colonists were mostlyRoman Catholics. The growth of the cotton culture after 1815 brought in tens of thousands of Anglo-American settlers each year, most of whom were Protestants from Southeastern states. Due to such migration, there was rapid growth in the number of Protestant denominations and churches, especially among theMethodists,Presbyterians andBaptists.[118]
The revivals of theGreat Awakening in the late 18th and early 19th centuries initially attracted the"plain folk" by reaching out to all members of society, including women and blacks. Both slaves and free blacks were welcomed into Methodist and Baptist churches. Independent black Baptist churches were established before 1800 in Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Georgia, and later developed in Mississippi as well.
In the post-Civil War years, religion became more influential as the South became known as the "Bible Belt". By 2014, the Pew Research Center determined 83% of its population was Christian.[119] In a separate study by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020, 80% of the population was Christian.[120] In another Public Religion study in 2022, 84% of the population was Christian spread throughout Protestants (74%), Catholics (8%),Jehovah's Witnesses (1%), andMormons (1%).
Since the 1970s, fundamentalist conservative churches have grown rapidly, fueling Mississippi's conservative political trends among whites.[118] In 1973 thePresbyterian Church in America attracted numerous conservative congregations. As of 2010, Mississippi remained a stronghold of the denomination, which originally was brought by Scots immigrants. The state has the highest adherence rate of the PCA in 2010, with 121 congregations and 18,500 members. It is among the few states where the PCA has higher membership than the PC(USA).[121]
Public opinion polls have consistently ranked Mississippi as the most religious state in the United States, with 59% of Mississippians considering themselves "very religious". The same survey also found that 11% of the population were non-Religious.[123] In a 2009 Gallup poll, 63% of Mississippians said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly—the highest percentage of all states (U.S. average was 42%, and the lowest percentage was in Vermont at 23%).[124] Another 2008 Gallup poll found that 85% of Mississippians considered religion an important part of their daily lives, the highest figure among all states (U.S. average 65%).[125]
The state is ranked 50th or last place among all the states for health care, according to theCommonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation working to advance performance of the health care system.[126]
In 2011, Mississippi (and Arkansas) had the fewest dentists per capita in the United States.[128]
For three years in a row, more than 30 percent of Mississippi's residents have been classified asobese. In a 2006 study, 22.8 percent of the state's children were classified as such. Mississippi had thehighest rate of obesity of any U.S. state from 2005 to 2008, and also ranks first in the nation forhigh blood pressure,diabetes, andadult inactivity.[129][130] In a 2008 study ofAfrican-American women, contributing risk factors were shown to be: lack of knowledge aboutbody mass index (BMI), dietary behavior, physical inactivity and lack of social support, defined as motivation and encouragement by friends.[131] A 2002 report on African-American adolescents noted a 1999 survey which suggests that a third of children were obese, with higher ratios for those in the Delta.[132]
The study stressed that "obesity starts in early childhood extending into the adolescent years and then possibly into adulthood". It noted impediments to needed behavioral modification, including the Delta likely being "the mostunderserved region in the state" with African Americans the major ethnic group; lack of accessibility and availability of medical care; and an estimated 60% of residents living below thepoverty level. Additional risk factors were that most schools had nophysical education curriculum andnutrition education is not emphasized. Previous intervention strategies may have been largely ineffective due to not beingculturally sensitive or practical.[132] A 2006 survey found nearly 95 percent of Mississippi adults consideredchildhood obesity to be a serious problem.[133]
A 2017 study found that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi was the leading health insurer with 53% followed byUnitedHealth Group at 13%.[134]
TheBureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi's total state product in 2024 was $150 billion.[135] GDP growth was .5 percent in 2015 and is estimated to be 2.4 in 2016 according to Darrin Webb, the state's chief economist, who noted it would make two consecutive years of positive growth since the recession.[136] Per capita personal income in 2006 was $26,908, the lowest per capita personal income of any state, but the state also has the nation's lowest living costs. 2015 data records the adjusted per capita personal income at $40,105.[136] Mississippians consistently rank as one of the highest per capita in charitable contributions.[137]
At 56 percent, the state has one of the lowest workforce participation rates in the country. Approximately 70,000 adults are disabled, which is 10 percent of the workforce.[136]
Mississippi's rank as one of the poorest states is related to its dependence on cotton agriculture before and after the Civil War, late development of its frontier bottomlands in the Mississippi Delta, repeated natural disasters of flooding in the late 19th and early 20th century that required massive capital investment in levees, and ditching and draining the bottomlands, and slow development of railroads to link bottomland towns and river cities.[138] In addition, when Democrats regained control of the state legislature, they passed the 1890 constitution that discouraged corporate industrial development in favor of rural agriculture, a legacy that would slow the state's progress for years.[139]
Slaves picking cotton while being observed by an overseer on horseback, c. 1850
Before the Civil War, Mississippi was the fifth-wealthiest state in the nation, its wealth generated by the labor of slaves in cotton plantations along the rivers.[140]Slaves were counted as property and the rise in the cotton markets since the 1840s had increased their value. By 1860, a majority—55 percent—of the population of Mississippi was enslaved.[141] Ninety percent of the Delta bottomlands were undeveloped and the state had low overall density of population.
Largely due to the domination of theplantation economy, focused on the production ofagriculturalcotton, the state's elite was reluctant to invest in infrastructure such as roads and railroads. They educated their children privately.Industrialization did not reach many areas until the late 20th century. The planter aristocracy, the elite ofantebellum Mississippi, kept the tax structure low for their own benefit, making only private improvements. Before the war the most successful planters, such asConfederate PresidentJefferson Davis, owned riverside properties along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers in the Mississippi Delta. Away from the riverfronts, most of the Delta was undeveloped frontier.
During the Civil War, 30,000 Mississippi soldiers, mostly white, died from wounds and disease, and many more were left crippled and wounded. Changes to the labor structure and an agricultural depression throughout the South caused severe losses in wealth. In 1860 assessed valuation of property in Mississippi had been more than $500 million, of which $218 million (43 percent) was estimated as the value of slaves. By 1870, total assets had decreased in value to roughly $177 million.[142]
Poor whites and landless former slaves suffered the most from the postwar economic depression. The constitutional convention of early 1868 appointed a committee to recommend what was needed for relief of the state and its citizens. The committee found severe destitution among the laboring classes.[143] It took years for the state to rebuild levees damaged in battles. The upset of the commodity system impoverished the state after the war. By 1868 an increased cotton crop began to show possibilities for free labor in the state, but the crop of 565,000 bales produced in 1870 was still less than half of prewar figures.[144]
Blacks cleared land, selling timber and developing bottomland to achieve ownership. In 1900, two-thirds of farm owners in Mississippi were blacks, a major achievement for them and their families. Due to the poor economy, low cotton prices and difficulty of getting credit, many of these farmers could not make it through the extended financial difficulties. Two decades later, the majority of African Americans were sharecroppers. The low prices of cotton into the 1890s meant that more than a generation of African Americans lost the result of their labor when they had to sell their farms to pay off accumulated debts.[32]
Sharecropper's daughter, Lauderdale County, 1935
After the Civil War, the state refused for years to build human capital by fully educating all its citizens. In addition, the reliance on agriculture grew increasingly costly as the state suffered loss of cotton crops due to the devastation of theboll weevil in the early 20th century, devastating floods in 1912–1913 and 1927, collapse of cotton prices after 1920, and drought in 1930.[138]
It was not until 1884, after the flood of 1882, that the state created the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta District Levee Board and started successfully achieving longer-term plans for levees in the upper Delta.[70] Despite the state's building and reinforcing levees for years, theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke through and caused massive flooding of 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) throughout the Delta, homelessness for hundreds of thousands, and millions of dollars in property damages. With the Depression coming so soon after the flood, the state suffered badly during those years. In theGreat Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated North and West for jobs and chances to live as full citizens.
Mississippi has substantial potential for solar power, though it remains an underutilized generation method. The rate of installations has increased in recent years, reaching 438 MW of installed capacity in early 2023, ranking 36th among the states.[145] Rooftopphotovoltaics could provide 31.2% of all electricity used in Mississippi from 11,700 MW if solar panels were installed on every available roof.[146]
In 2011, theSierra Club sued theUnited States Department of Energy which was providing investment in acoal gasification plant being built byMississippi Power.[147] In 2012 Mississippi Power had only 0.05% renewables in its power mix. In a settlement in 2014, Mississippi Power agreed to allow net metering, and to offer 100 MW of wind or solar power purchase agreements. Mississippi is one of only two states, along with Florida, to have no potential for standard commercial wind power, having no locations that would provide at least 30% capacity factor, although 30,000 MW of 100 meter high turbines would operate at 25% capacity factor.[148]
Mississippi Power which provides energy in southeast Mississippi has started a program to contract for 210 MW of solar power in 2014, possibly increasing to 525 MW. 100 MW would be from small scale distributed installations.[149]
Offeringnet metering is required by federal law, but Mississippi is one of only four states to not have adopted a statewide policy on net metering, which means it needs to be negotiated with the utility.[150][151]
The legislature's 1990 decision to legalize casino gambling along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast has led to increased revenues and economic gains for the state. Gambling towns in Mississippi have attracted increased tourism: they include the Gulf Coast resort towns ofBay St. Louis,Gulfport andBiloxi, and the Mississippi River towns ofTunica (the third largest gaming area in the United States),Greenville,Vicksburg andNatchez.
BeforeHurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Mississippi was the second-largest gambling state in the Union, afterNevada and ahead ofNew Jersey.[citation needed] In August 2005, an estimated $500,000 per day in tax revenue, equivalent to $804,992 in 2024, was lost following Hurricane Katrina's severe damage to several coastal casinos in Biloxi.[152] Because of the destruction from this hurricane, on October 17, 2005, GovernorHaley Barbour signed a bill into law that allows casinos in Hancock and Harrison counties to rebuild on land (but within 800 feet (240 m) of the water). The only exception is inHarrison County, where the new law states that casinos can be built to the southern boundary ofU.S. Route 90.[citation needed]
In 2012, Mississippi had the sixth largest gambling revenue of any state, at $2.25 billion.[153] The federally recognizedMississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has established a gaming casino on its reservation, which yields revenue to support education and economic development.[citation needed] While regulated sports betting has been active since 2018, the lack of mobile sports betting laws has limited the tax revenue paid by sportsbooks to the state.[154] From 2018 to September 2024, Mississippi sports betting was responsible for $37 million in tax benefits.
Momentum Mississippi, a statewide, public–private partnership dedicated to the development of economic and employment opportunities in Mississippi, was adopted in 2005.[155]
GreenTech Automotive received $6 million of incentive financing from the state of Mississippi and Tunica County to build an automotive plant in the county.[156][157] The facility was shut down in January 2017.[158] GreenTech had promised to invest $60 million in the manufacturing plant, but it produced few cars if any.[156] A Mississippi state auditor's review begun in 2016 found documentation reflecting only $3 million spent by GreenTech on automotive assembly equipment and parts.[156] While the company had promised to create 350 full-time jobs, it was found to never have created more than 94 active, full-time jobs in Mississippi at any time.[156][159]
In July 2017, the Mississippi state auditor demanded that GreenTech and its CEOCharlie Wang pay Mississippi $6 million because Greentech had not lived up to its promises.[159][160] The auditor said: "I would venture that there isn’t really much of an operation in Tunica at all. This appears to have been a game of smoke and mirrors, and a corporate entity that never had any intention to deliver on the promises it made."[160] In November 2017, Mississippi Attorney GeneralJim Hood sued the company.[159] GreenTech declared bankruptcy in February 2018.[161][162] In a 2020 final settlement, it paid Mississippi and Tunica County only $575,000.[156]
As of August 2024[update], Mississippi collects personalincome tax at aflat rate of 5% for all income over $10,000.[163] The retailsales tax rate in Mississippi is 7%.[164] This rate is applied also to groceries, making it the highest grocery tax in the United States.[165] Tupelo levies a local sales tax of 2.5%.[166] State sales tax growth was 1.4 percent in 2016 and estimated to be slightly less in 2017.[136] For purposes of assessment forad valorem taxes, taxableproperty is divided into five classes.[167]
On August 30, 2007, a report by theUnited States Census Bureau indicated that Mississippi was the poorest state in the country. Major cotton farmers in the Delta have large, mechanized plantations, and they receive the majority of extensive federal subsidies going to the state, yet many other residents still live as poor, rural, landless laborers. The state's sizable poultry industry has faced similar challenges in its transition from family-run farms to large mechanized operations.[168] Of $1.2 billion from 2002 to 2005 in federal subsidies to farmers in the Bolivar County area of the Delta, only 5% went to small farmers. There has been little money apportioned for rural development. Small towns are struggling. More than 100,000 people have left the region in search of work elsewhere.[169] The state had a median household income of $34,473.[170]
As of February 2023, the state's unemployment rate was 3.7%, the eleventh-highest in the country, tied withArizona,Massachusetts, andWest Virginia.[171] This is an improvement over the 3.9% rate in January 2023, and 4% over the previous year. The highest unemployment rate recorded in the state was in April 2020, during the start of theCOVID-19 pandemic, at 15.6%.[172]
Mississippi ranks as having the second-highest ratio of spending to tax receipts of any state. In 2005, Mississippi citizens received approximately $2.02 per dollar of taxes in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state second-highest nationally, and represents an increase from 1995, when Mississippi received $1.54 per dollar of taxes in federal spending and was 3rd highest nationally.[173] This figure is based on federal spending after large portions of the state were devastated byHurricane Katrina, requiring large amounts of federal aid from theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, from 1981 to 2005, it was at least number four in the nation for federal spending vs. taxes received.[174]
As with all other U.S. states and the federal government, Mississippi's government is based on the separation of legislative, executive and judicial power. Executive authority in the state rests with the Governor, currentlyTate Reeves (R). The lieutenant governor, currentlyDelbert Hosemann (R), is elected on a separate ballot. Both the governor and lieutenant governor are elected to four-year terms of office. Unlike the federal government, but like many other U.S. states, most of the heads of major executive departments are elected by the citizens of Mississippi rather than appointed by the governor.
Mississippi is one of five states that elects its state officials in odd-numbered years (the others areKentucky,Louisiana,New Jersey andVirginia). Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years, always in the year preceding presidential elections.
In a 2020 study, Mississippi was ranked as the 4th hardest state for citizens to vote in.[175]
Mississippi is also the last state in the United States to have never elected a woman to theHouse of Representatives. However, it has electedone to theSenate.[176]
In 2004, Mississippi voters approved a stateconstitutional amendment banningsame-sex marriage and prohibiting Mississippi from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. The amendment passed 86% to 14%, the largest margin in any state.[177][178] Same-sex marriage became legal in Mississippi on June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court invalidated all state-level bans on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in the landmark caseObergefell v. Hodges.[179]
With the passing of HB 1523 in April 2016, from July it became legal in Mississippi to refuse service to same-sex couples, based on one's religious beliefs.[180][181] The bill has become the subject of controversy.[182] A federal judge blocked the law in July of that year;[183] however, it was challenged, and a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the law in October 2017.[184][185]
Mississippi's regulations onabortion are among the most restrictive in the United States. A 2014 poll byPew Research Center found that 59% of the state's population thinksabortion should be illegal in all/most cases, while only 36% of the state's population thinks abortion should be legal in all/most cases.[186]
Section 265 of theConstitution of the State of Mississippi declares that "No person who denies the existence of a Supreme Being shall hold any office in this state."[190] However, this religious test restriction was held to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court inTorcaso v. Watkins (1961).
Gun laws in Mississippi are among the most permissive in the country, with no license or background check required to openly carry handguns in most places in the state.
In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6−3 decision inJones v. Mississippi that a Mississippi law allowing mandatory sentencing of children to life imprisonment without parole is valid and that states and judges can impose such sentences without separately deciding if the child can be rehabilitated.
Mississippi led the South in developing adisenfranchising constitution, passing it in 1890. By raising barriers to voter registration, the state legislature disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, excluding them from politics until the late 1960s. It established a one-party state dominated by white Democrats, particularly those politicians who supported poor whites and farmers. Although the state was dominated by one party, there were a small number of Democrats who fought against most legislative measures that disenfranchised most blacks.[191] They also side with the small group of Mississippi Republicans that still existed in the state and Republicans at the federal level on legislative measures that benefited them.
Most blacks were still disenfranchised under the state's 1890 constitution and discriminatory practices, until passage of theVoting Rights Act of 1965 and concerted grassroots efforts to achieve registration and encourage voting.[citation needed] In the 1980s, whites divided evenly between the parties. In the 1990s, those voters largely shifted their allegiance to theRepublican Party, first for national and then for state offices.[192]
In 2019, a lawsuit was filed against an 1890 election law known as The Mississippi Plan, which requires that candidates must win the popular vote and a majority of districts.[193] Inthe following year, 79% of Mississippians voted to remove the requirement of doing so.[194]
Mississippi is the only American state where people in cars may legally consume beer. Some localities have laws restricting the practice.[195] In 2018, the state was ranked number eight in the Union in terms of impaired driving deaths.[196]
TheVicksburg Bridge carries I-20 and U.S. 80 across the Mississippi River at Vicksburg.
Amtrak provides scheduled passenger service along two routes, theCrescent andCity of New Orleans. Prior to severe damage fromHurricane Katrina, theSunset Limited traversed the far south of the state; the route originated inLos Angeles, California and it terminated inFlorida. Restoration of services on the portion of this line from New Orleans, LA to Mobile, AL has been approved[197] but actual resumption of services have been delayed.[198]
Arkabutla Lake 19,550 acres (79.1 km2) of water; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District[199]
Bay Springs Lake 6,700 acres (27 km2) of water and 133 miles (214 km) of shoreline; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Grenada Lake 35,000 acres (140 km2) of water; became operational in 1954; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District[200]
Ross Barnett Reservoir 33,000 acres (130 km2) of water; named forRoss Barnett, the 52ndGovernor of Mississippi; became operational in 1966; constructed and managed by The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District, a state agency; provides water supply for the City of Jackson.
Sardis Lake 98,520 acres (398.7 km2) of water; became operational in October 1940; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District[201]
Enid Lake 44,000 acres (180 km2) of water; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army
Until theCivil War era, Mississippi had a small number of schools and no educational institutions forAfrican Americans. The first school for black students was not established until 1862.
During Reconstruction in 1871, black and white Republicans drafted a constitution that was the first to provide for a system of freepublic education in the state. The state's dependence on agriculture and resistance to taxation limited the funds it had available to spend on any schools. In the early 20th century, there were still few schools in rural areas, particularly for black children. With seed money from theJulius Rosenwald Fund, many rural black communities across Mississippi raised matching funds and contributed public funds to build new schools for their children. Essentially, many black adults taxed themselves twice and made significant sacrifices to raise money for the education of children in their communities, in many cases donating land or labor to build such schools.[202]
Blacks and whites attended separate,segregatedpublic schools in Mississippi until the late 1960s, although such segregation had been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in its 1954 ruling inBrown v. Board of Education. In the majority-black Mississippi Delta counties, white parents worked throughWhite Citizens' Councils to set up privatesegregation academies, where they enrolled their children. Often funding declined for the public schools.[203] But in the state as a whole, only a small minority of white children were withdrawn from public schools. State officials believed they needed to maintain public education to attract new businesses. Many black parents complained that they had little representation in school administration, and that many of their former administrators and teachers had been pushed out. They have had to work to have their interests and children represented.[203]
In the late 1980s, Mississippi's 954 public schools enrolled about 369,500 elementary and 132,500secondary students. Some 45,700 students attendedprivate schools.
TheUniversity of Mississippi,usually referred to as Ole Miss, is the state's oldest and largest university.
In the 21st century, 91% of white children and most of the black children in the state attend public schools.[204] In 2008, Mississippi was ranked last among the fifty states in academic achievement by theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council'sReport Card on Education,[205] with the lowest averageACT scores and sixth-lowest spending per pupil in the nation. In contrast, Mississippi had the 17th-highest averageSAT scores in the nation. As an explanation, the Report noted that 92% of Mississippi high school graduates took the ACT, but only 3% of graduates took the SAT, apparently a self-selection of higher achievers. This breakdown compares to the national average of high school graduates taking the ACT and SAT, of 43% and 45%, respectively.[205]
Generally prohibited in theWest at large,school corporal punishment is not unusual in Mississippi, with 31,236 public school students[c] paddled at least one timec. 2016.[206] A greater percentage of students werepaddled in Mississippi than in any other state, according to government data for the 2011–2012 school year.[206]
In 2007, Mississippi students scored the lowest of any state on the National Assessments of Educational Progress in both math and science.[207]
Jackson, the state's capital city, is the site of the state residential school for deaf and hard of hearing students.The Mississippi School for the Deaf was established by the state legislature in 1854 before the civil war.
While Mississippi has been especially known for its music and literature, it has embraced other forms of art. Its strong religious traditions have inspired striking works byoutsider artists who have been shown nationally.[citation needed]
Jackson established theUSA International Ballet Competition, which is held every four years. This ballet competition attracts the most talented young dancers from around the world.[208]
Musicians of the state's Delta region were historically significant to the development of theblues. Although by the end of the 19th century, two-thirds of the farm owners were black, continued low prices for cotton and national financial pressures resulted in most of them losing their land. More problems built up with the boll weevil infestation, when thousands of agricultural jobs were lost.
Jimmie Rodgers, a native of Meridian and guitarist/singer/songwriter known as the "Father of Country Music", played a significant role in the development of the blues. He andChester Arthur Burnett were friends and admirers of each other's music. Their friendship and respect is an important example of Mississippi's musical legacy. While the state has had a reputation for being racist, Mississippi musicians created new forms by combining and creating variations on musical traditions from African American traditions, and the musical traditions of white Southerners strongly shaped by Scots-Irish and other styles.
The state is creating aMississippi Blues Trail, with dedicated markers explaining historic sites significant to the history of blues music, such asClarksdale's Riverside Hotel, whereBessie Smith died after her auto accident onHighway 61. The Riverside Hotel is just one of many historical blues sites in Clarksdale. TheDelta Blues Museum there is visited by tourists from all over the world. Close by is "Ground Zero", a contemporary blues club and restaurant co-owned by actorMorgan Freeman.
^Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry.
^Please note this figure refers to only the number of students paddled, regardless of whether a student was spanked multiple times in a year, and does not refer to the number of instances of corporal punishment, which would be substantially higher.
^Baird, W. David (1973). "The Choctaws Meet the Americans, 1783 to 1843".The Choctaw People. United States: Indian Tribal Series. p. 36.ASINB001G42A16. Library of Congress 73-80708.
^Fede, Andrew (2012).People Without Rights (Routledge Revivals): An Interpretation of the Fundamentals of the Law of Slavery in the U.S. South.Routledge. p. 79.ISBN978-1136716102.
^McCain, William D (1967). "The Administrations of David Holmes, Governor of the Mississippi Territory, 1809–1817".Journal of Mississippi History.29 (3):328–347.
^abcdefghJohn C. Willis,Forgotten Time: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000,ISBN978-0813919829.
^abDuBois, W. E. B. (1998).Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880. New York: The Free Press. p. 437.
^Wharton, V. L. (1941). "The Race Issue in the Overthrow of Reconstruction in Mississippi: A Paper Read before the American Historical Association, 1940".Phylon.2 (4):362–370.doi:10.2307/271241.JSTOR271241.
^Stephen Edward Cresswell,Rednecks, Redeemers and Race: Mississippi after Reconstruction, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 124,ISBN978-1578068470.
^"Mississippi". National Park Service. RetrievedJuly 16, 2008.
^abc"Archived copy". RetrievedMarch 2, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2013 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
^Delcourt, Hazel R.; Delcourt, Paul A. (1975). "The Blufflands: Pleistocene pathway into the Tunica Hills".The American Midland Naturalist.94 (2):385–400.doi:10.2307/2424434.JSTOR2424434.
^"Mississippi Crayfishes".Crayfishes of Mississippi. U.S. Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Archived fromthe original on March 23, 2018. RetrievedMarch 23, 2018.
^Wong, Vivian Wu (Summer 1996). "Somewhere between White and Black: The Chinese in Mississippi".OAH Magazine of History.10 (4):33–36.doi:10.1093/maghis/10.4.33.JSTOR25163098.
^Thornell, John G. 2008. "A Culture in Decline: The Mississippi Delta Chinese",Southeast Review of Asian Studies 30: 196–202
^abHughes, Gail D., DrPH, MPH, Department of Preventive Medicine-Epidemiology, University of Mississippi Medical Centre; Areghan, Gloria, MSN; Knight, Bern'Nadette, MSPH with Department of General Internal Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center; Oyebola, Abiodun A., MD with Department of Public Health, Jackson State University (November 11, 2008)."Obesity and the African American Adolescent".The Mississippi Delta Report. American Public Health Association: 2002 130th Annual APHA Meeting. RetrievedDecember 20, 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Zhang, Lei, PhD MBA, Office of Health Data and Research, Mississippi State Department of Health; Kolbo, Jerome, PhD ACSW, College of Health, Bonnie Harbaugh, PhD RN, School of Nursing; Anderson-Lewis, Charkarra, PhD MPH, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi (October 29, 2008)."Public Perception of Childhood Obesity among Mississippi Adults".136st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition 2008. American Public Health Association: : APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing at 2008 136th Annual Meeting. RetrievedDecember 20, 2008.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^abJohn Otto Solomon,The Final Frontiers, 1880–1930: Settling the Southern Bottomlands. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999, pp.10–11, 42–43, 50–51, and 70
^Naipaul, V.S. (1990).A Turn in the South. Vintage. p. 216.ISBN978-0679724889.The people who wrote the constitution wanted the state to remain 'a pastoral state, an agricultural state'. They didn't want big business or the corporations coming in, encouraging 'unfavorable competition for jobs with the agricultural community'.
^"Mississippi Almanac Entry".The New York Times. July 15, 2004. Archived fromthe original on May 26, 2012. RetrievedMay 12, 2010., The New York Times Travel Almanac (2004)
Mississippi State Databases, an annotated list of searchable databases compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association.
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