Mississippi
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State flag
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MISSISSIPPI,
one of the East South Central states of the U.S., bordered
on the N by Tennessee, on the E by Alabama, on the S by the Gulf
of Mexico and Louisiana, and on the W by Louisiana and Arkansas.
The Mississippi R. forms almost all of the W boundary, and the Pearl
R. forms part of the S boundary.
Mississippi entered the Union on Dec. 10, 1817, as the 20th
state. Its economy was mainly agricultural until the middle third
of the 20th century, when manufacturing became the dominant economic
sector; service industries have become increasingly important in
recent decades. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy
during the American Civil War, resided here. The name of the state
is taken from that of the Mississippi R., the name of which is derived
from an Algonquian Indian term for “big river.” Mississippi
is called the Magnolia State.
| MISSISSIPPI STATE FACTS |
| DATE OF STATEHOOD: |
December 10, 1817; 20th state |
| CAPITAL: |
Jackson |
| MOTTO: |
Virtute et armis (By valor and arms) |
| NICKNAME: |
Magnolia State |
| STATE SONG: |
“Go Mis-sis-sip-pi” (by Houston Davis) |
| STATE TREE: |
Magnolia |
| STATE FLOWER: |
Magnolia |
| STATE BIRD: |
Mockingbird |
| POPULATION (2000 census): |
2,844,658; 31st among the states |
| AREA: |
125,443 sq km (48,434 sq mi);
32d largest state; includes 3937 sq km (1520 sq mi) of inland water |
| COASTLINE: |
71 km (44 mi) |
| HIGHEST POINT: |
Woodall Mt., 246 m (806 ft) |
| LOWEST POINT: |
Sea level, at the Gulf coast |
| ELECTORAL VOTES: |
6 (as of the 2004 presidential election) |
| U.S. CONGRESS: |
2 senators; 4 representatives |
| GOVERNOR: |
Haley Barbour (Rep.)
Took office January 2004 |
Mississippi, with an area of 125,443 sq km (48,434 sq mi),
is the 32d largest state in the U.S.; 5.5% of its land area
is owned by the federal government. The state is roughly rectangular
in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 530 km (about 330
mi) from N to S and about 290 km (about 180 mi) from E to W. Elevations
range from sea level, along the Gulf of Mexico, to 246 m (806 ft),
atop Woodall Mt. in the NE. The approximate mean elevation is 91
m (300 ft). The state’s coastline is 71 km (44 mi) long;
its tidal shoreline encompasses 578 km (359 mi).
Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, and the rest of the state is made up of a section of the Mississippi
Alluvial Plain. The East Gulf Coastal Plain is generally composed
of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the S and the North Central
Hills. Somewhat higher elevations are in the Pontotoc Ridge and
the Fall Line Hills in the NE. Yellow-brown loess soil is in the
W, and a region of fertile black earth, part of the Black Belt,
is in the NE. The coastline, which includes large bays at Bay Saint
Louis, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, is separated from the Gulf of Mexico
proper by the shallow Mississippi Sound, which is partially enclosed
by Petit Bois, Horn, Ship, and Cat islands. The Mississippi Alluvial
Plain, known also as the Delta, is narrow in the S and widens N
of Vicksburg. The region has rich soil, partly made up of silt deposited
by floodwaters of the Mississippi R.
The most important river of the state is the Mississippi;
its chief tributaries in the state are the Yazoo and Big Black rivers.
Much of central and E Mississippi is drained by streams flowing
S to the Gulf of Mexico. These include the Pearl, Pascagoula, and
Tombigbee rivers.
Mississippi has many lakes, the largest of which have been
created by dams on rivers. Among such bodies of water are Ross Barnett
Reservoir, on the Pearl R.; Arkabutla Lake, on the Coldwater R.;
Grenada Lake, on the Yalobusha R.; and Pickwick Lake, on the Tennessee
R. In addition, changes in the course of the Mississippi have resulted
in the formation of numerous oxbow lakes, so named because of their
shape. (Oxbow lakes are formed when a river cuts through the neck
of one of its loops, or meanders, thus establishing a shorter course and
leaving the former loop as a lake separate from the river.)
Mississippi has a warm, humid climate, with long summers and
short, mild winters. Temperatures average about 28° C (about
82° F) in July and about 9° C (about 48° F)
in January. The temperature varies little across the state in summer,
but in winter the region near Mississippi Sound is significantly
warmer than most of the rest of the state. The recorded temperature
in Mississippi has ranged from –28.3° C (–19° F),
in 1966 at Corinth in the NE, to 46.1°C (115° F),
in 1930 at Holly Springs in the N. Yearly precipitation generally
increases from N to S. Thus, Clarksdale, in the NW, gets about 1270
mm (about 50 in) of moisture annually and Biloxi, in the S, about
1550 mm (about 61 in). Small amounts of snow fall in N and central
Mississippi. In the late summer and the fall, the state is occasionally
struck by hurricanes moving N from the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi
is also struck by tornadoes, especially from February to May.
| MISSISSIPPI AVERAGE CLIMATE |
| |
Jackson |
Meridian |
| Average January temperature range |
2.2° to 14.4° C |
36° to 58° F |
1.7° to 14.4° C |
35° to 58° F |
| Average July temperature range |
21.7° to 33.9° C |
71° to 93° F |
21.1° to 33.9° C |
70° to 93° F |
| Average annual temperature |
18.3° C |
65° F |
18.3° C |
65° F |
| Average annual precipitation |
1245 mm |
49 in |
1321 mm |
52 in |
| Average annual snowfall |
20 mm |
0.8 in |
33 mm |
1.3 in |
| Mean number of days per year with appreciable precipitation |
113 |
103 |
| Average daily relative humidity |
75% |
72% |
| Mean number of clear days per year |
109 |
111 |
About 55% of the land area of Mississippi is covered
with forests. In the N are such hardwoods as elm, hickory, and oak,
as well as cedar, shortleaf pine, and tupelo. In the S are loblolly,
longleaf, and slash pines. Other trees include live oak, magnolia,
pecan, and sweet gum. Flowering plants in Mississippi include azalea,
black-eyed Susan, camellia, dogwood, iris, Cherokee rose, trillium, and violet.
The white-tailed deer is the principal large animal of
Mississippi.
Other mammals found in abundance include beaver, fox, opossum, rabbit,
skunk, and squirrel. Among the state’s game birds are duck,
quail, and wild turkey. In the winter, migrating duck, egret, heron,
and tern nest on Horn and Petit Bois islands. Freshwater fish include
black bass, bream, catfish, croaker, and perch; crabs, oysters,
shrimp, Spanish mackerel, menhaden, and tarpon inhabit marine waters.
Mississippi has considerable deposits of petroleum and natural gas.
Other mineral resources include clay, sand and gravel, lignite,
iron ore, limestone, and salt.
According to the 2000 census, Mississippi had 2,844,658 inhabitants,
an increase of 10.5% over 1990 from the 2.1% in
1980. The average population density in 2000 was 60.6 persons per
sq mi of land area. Whites made up 61.4% of the population
(down from 63.5% in 1990); blacks represented 36.3%,
a higher proportion than in any other state, but less than in the
District of Columbia (60%). Other groups included 11,652
American Indians and 18,626 Asians. (These figures do not include
the 1.4% of the population who reported more than one
race.) A total of 39,569 persons claimed Hispanic ancestry. The
largest cities were Jackson, the capital; Gulfport; Biloxi; Hattiesburg; and Greenville.
According to the 1990 census, Baptists formed by far the largest
single religious group in the state (55%), followed by
Methodists (11.4%), Roman Catholics (7%), and
Pentecostals (3.9%). Mississippi is one of the least urbanized
states in the nation; in 1990 about 47% of all Mississipians
lived in areas defined as urban, and the rest lived in rural areas.
| POPULATION OF MISSISSIPPI SINCE 1800 |
| Year of Census |
Population |
Classified As Urban |
| 1800 |
8,000 |
0% |
| 1830 |
137,000 |
2% |
| 1860 |
791,000 |
3% |
| 1880 |
1,132,000 |
3% |
| 1900 |
1,551,000 |
8% |
| 1920 |
1,791,000 |
13% |
| 1940 |
2,184,000 |
20% |
| 1960 |
2,178,000 |
38% |
| 1980 |
2,521,000 |
47% |
| 1990 |
2,573,216 |
47% |
| 2000 |
2,844,658 |
-- |
| POPULATION OF TEN LARGEST CITIES IN MISSISSIPPI |
| |
2000 Census |
1990 Census |
| Jackson |
184,256 |
196,637 |
| Gulfport |
71,127 |
40,775 |
| Biloxi |
50,644 |
46,319 |
| Hattiesburg |
44,779 |
41,882 |
| Greenville |
41,633 |
45,226 |
| Meridian |
39,968 |
41,036 |
| Tupelo |
34,211 |
30,685 |
| Southhaven |
28,977 |
18,705 |
| Vicksburg |
26,407 |
26,886 |
| Pascagoula |
26,200 |
25,899 |
Mississippi has interesting historical sites, such as fine
antebellum homes and American Civil War battlefields. A number of
prominent museums and educational institutions are here as well.
Until the Civil War era, Mississippi had only a small number
of schools and no educational institutions for blacks. The first
school for blacks was established in 1862, and a system of public
education was started in 1870, but as late as the early 20th century
there were few schools in rural areas. Blacks and whites attended
separate public schools in Mississippi until the 1960s, when they
began to be integrated following a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling
that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional. In
the late 1980s the state had 954 public elementary and secondary
schools, with a total yearly enrollment of about 369,500 elementary
pupils and about 132,500 secondary students. Some 45,700 students
attended private schools.
In the same period Mississippi had 47 institutions of higher
learning, with a total annual enrollment of some 116,400 students.
The state’s oldest college or university is Mississippi
College, at Clinton, founded in 1826. Others include the University
of Mississippi, at University near Oxford; Mississippi State University (1878),
at Mississippi State; Mississippi University for Women (1884), at
Columbus; Jackson State University (1877) and Millsaps College (1890),
at Jackson; the University of Southern Mississippi (1910) and William Carey
College (1906), at Hattiesburg; Delta State University (1924), at
Cleveland; and Tougaloo College (1869), at Tougaloo.
Some of Mississippi’s leading museums are in Jackson.
These include the Mississippi State Historical Museum, housed in
the Old Capitol; the Mississippi Museum of Art; the Mississippi
Museum of Natural Science; and the Mississippi Crafts Center. Among
the other museums in the state are the Delta Blues Museum, at
Clarksdale,
with diverse holdings on the noted blues music of the Delta region;
the Lauren Rogers Library and Museum of Art, at Laurel; the Meridian
Museum of Art; the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, at Mississippi
State; and the Old Spanish Fort and Museum, in Pascagoula, with
displays
on Indian cultures, military history, and other topics. Major research
libraries include the library of the State Department of Archives and
History and the State Law Library, both at Jackson, and the
University of Mississippi Library. Performing-arts organizations
include the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Opera South, and the
Mississippi
Opera, all in Jackson.
Several historical landmarks in Mississippi commemorate
the
Civil War period. These include homes of the Confederate president
Jefferson Davis near Biloxi and near Woodville; Fort Massachusetts,
on Ship Island, used by Union forces as a prison during the war; and
Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, Tupelo National
Battlefield, and Vicksburg National Military Park, all encompassing
battle sites. Other landmarks are the Old Capitol, at Jackson, and
fine antebellum houses in and near Natchez, Vicksburg, Columbus,
Holly Springs, West Point, Oxford, and other communities. William
Faulkner’s
house, Rowan Oak, is in Oxford.
Mississippi’s coast and its inland rivers and lakes
provide ample opportunities for fishing, swimming, and boating.
Hunting also is a popular outdoor activity. Football is a favorite
sport, and the University of Mississippi often fields excellent
teams.
In the early 1990s, Mississippi had 112 AM radio stations,
123 FM radiobroadcasters, and 27 television stations. The state’s
first radio station was WFOR in Hattiesburg, which began broadcasting
in 1925, and its first television station was WJTV in Jackson, which
began operations in 1953. In the early 1990s, the state had 22 daily
newspapers with a combined daily circulation of about 403,200. Influential
dailies included the Hattiesburg American, the Clarion-Ledger of
Jackson, the Meridian Star, the Mississippi
Press of Pascagoula, and the Northeast Mississippi
Daily Journal of Tupelo. The state’s first newspaper,
the Mississippi Gazette, was started at Natchez
in 1799.
Mississippi is governed under a constitution of 1890, as amended.
Previous constitutions had been adopted in 1817, 1832, and 1869.
Constitutional amendments may be proposed by a two-thirds majority
of the legislature. To become effective, an amendment must be approved
by a majority of persons voting on the issue in a general election.
The chief executive of Mississippi is the governor, who is
elected to a 4-year term and may not serve two successive terms.
In case of death, removal from office, or incapacity to serve, the
governor is succeeded by the lieutenant governor, who is also elected
to a 4-year term. Other elected executive officials include the
secretary of state, the treasurer, the auditor of public accounts,
the attorney general, the commissioner of agriculture and commerce, and the commissioner of insurance.
The Mississippi legislature consists of a 52-member
senate and a 122-member house of representatives. All legislators are
elected
to 4-year terms.
Mississippi’s highest court, the supreme court, has
nine justices popularly elected to 8-year terms. The justice with
seniority of service becomes chief justice for the remainder of
his or her term. The major trial courts are chancery and circuit
courts, with a total of 79 judges popularly elected to 4-year terms.
Chancery courts hear civil cases, and circuit courts try both civil and
criminal cases. Other tribunals include county, municipal, justice, and
family courts.
Mississippi is divided into 82 counties, each of which is administered
by an elected five-member board of supervisors. The state also has
a total of more than 290 cities and towns.
Based on the 2000 census and effective with the election of
2002, Mississippi elects four representatives and two senators to
the U.S. Congress. The state has six electoral votes in presidential
elections.
In presidential contests Mississippi cast its electoral
votes for the Democratic nominee in all elections from 1876 to 1944.
Third-party candidates were successful in 1948, 1960, and 1968 in
elections in which racial issues were predominant; since then, the
state has usually voted for the Republican presidential nominee. The
Democratic party virtually dominated state and local politics in
Mississippi for more than a century. In 1978, however, Thad Cochran
(1937– ) became the first Mississippi Republican since the
Reconstruction period to win election to the U.S. Senate; he was
reelected in 1984, 1990, 1996, and 2002. The state’s junior senator,
Trent Lott (1941– ), also a Republican, defeated Cochran to become
Senate majority leader in June 1996. Lott, who was elected to the
Senate in 1988 and reelected in 1994 and 2000, was demoted to minority
leader after Vermont Republican Senator James M. (Jim) Jeffords (1934– ) left the Republican party in 2001 to become an independent, and the
majority in the Senate shifted in favor of the Democrats. Lott was
expected to resume the majority leadership after Republicans regained
control of the Senate in the November 2002 election; he was forced to
give up his leadership post in December, however, when his praise of
the retiring Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina suggested the
country would have been better off had Thurmond, a former
segregationist, won the 1948 presidential election, thereby undermining
Republican efforts to make their party more attractive to nonwhite
voters. Lott remained as senator.
For many years cotton dominated the Mississippi economy. Beginning
in the 1930s, however, various federal programs, and damage to the
cotton crop by insects called boll weevils, encouraged farmers to
diversify. They began to produce large amounts of commodities, such
as soybeans, and crops utilized for livestock feed. Major growth
in manufacturing began with the introduction of the state’s
Balance Agriculture with Industry program during the mid-1930s.
In the early 1990s, services and manufacturing provided more jobs and income than any other economic activity in Mississippi.
| MISSISSIPPI STATE ECONOMY |
| STATE BUDGET |
|
| General revenue |
$4.5 billion |
| General expenditure |
$4.4 billion |
| Accumulated debt |
$1.3 billion |
 |
| STATE AND LOCAL TAXES, PER CAPITA |
$1264 |
| PERSONAL INCOME, PER CAPITA |
$9648 |
| POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LEVEL |
25.2% |
| ASSETS, INSURED COMMERCIAL BANKS (123) |
$20.1 billion |
|
| LABOR FORCE (CIVILIAN NONFARM) |
921,000 |
| Employed in manufacturing |
26% |
| Employed in government |
22% |
| Employed in wholesale and retail trade |
21% |
| Employed in services |
17% |
|
| MAJOR INDUSTRIES |
% CONTRIBUTED TO GSP* |
| Commercial, financial, and professional services |
41% |
| Manufacturing and construction |
32% |
| Government |
13% |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
9% |
| Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries |
3% |
| Mining |
2% |
Gross State Product = total value of goods and services produced in a year.
Sources: U.S. government publications |
| PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF MISSISSIPPI |
|
Quantity Produced |
Value |
| FARM PRODUCTS |
|
$2.4 billion |
|
| CROPS |
|
$1.1 billion |
| Cotton |
403,000 metric tons |
$576 million |
| Soybeans |
1.1 million metric tons |
$239 million |
| Rice |
630,000 metric tons |
$101 million |
| Hay |
939,000 metric tons |
$54 million |
| Wheat |
425,000 metric tons |
$48 million |
|
| LIVESTOCK AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS |
|
$1.3 billion |
| Chickens (broilers) |
768,000 metric tons |
$533 million |
| Cattle |
174,000 metric tons |
$304 million |
| Milk |
337,000 metric tons |
$113 million |
| Eggs |
1.4 billion |
$105 million |
| Hogs |
29,000 metric tons |
$37 million |
|
| MINERALS |
|
$794 million |
| Petroleum |
28.5 million barrels |
$484 million |
| Natural gas |
2.9 billion cu m |
$202 million |
| Sand, gravel |
14.2 million metric tons |
$52 million |
| Clays |
899,000 metric tons |
$24 million |
|
| FISHING |
135,200 metric tons |
$44 million |
|
| |
|
Annual Payroll |
| FORESTRY |
|
$13 million |
|
| MANUFACTURING |
|
$4.3 billion |
| Transportation equipment |
|
$491 million |
| Apparel and textile mill products |
|
$480 million |
| Furniture and fixtures |
|
$388 million |
| Electronic equipment |
|
$379 million |
| Lumber and wood products |
|
$377 million |
| Food and kindred products |
|
$353 million |
| Industrial machinery and equipment |
|
$328 million |
| Fabricated metal products |
|
$294 million |
| Paper and allied products |
|
$289 million |
| Chemicals and allied products |
|
$181 million |
|
| OTHER |
|
$11.2 billion |
| Government |
|
$4.0 billion |
| Services |
|
$2.3 billion |
| Retail trade |
|
$1.5 billion |
| Transportation, communications, and public utilities |
|
$1.0 billion |
| Wholesale trade |
|
$817 million |
| Finance,insurance, and real estate |
|
$785 million |
| Construction |
|
$550 million |
| Sources: U.S. government publications |
Farm income is about $2.4 billion annually, representing
about 3% of the annual gross state product in Mississippi.
The state has approximately 38,000 farms, which average 136 ha (337
acres) in size.
Crops provide about 46% of Mississippi’s
annual farm income. Cotton is the state’s most important
crop, and Mississippi typically ranks as one of the top cotton-producing
states. The second most important crop is soybeans. Most of the
soybeans and cotton are produced in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
region. Other major crops include rice, hay, wheat, corn, sweet
potatoes, and pecans. Livestock and livestock products provide about
54% of Mississippi’s yearly farm income. Chickens and beef cattle are the state’s most valuable livestock.
Mississippi usually ranks among the top five states in marketing
broilers, and it also produces large numbers of hogs and chicken
eggs as well as substantial amounts of dairy products.
Forests cover more than half of Mississippi; the heaviest
concentration of forest is in the pinelands of the SE. Mississippi
typically ranks among the ten leading U.S. states in the value of forestry
production. Forest products include pine and hardwood lumber as
well as pulpwood for use in paper mills.
Mississippi’s annual commercial fish catch is valued
at about $44 million. Menhaden and shrimp dominate the
yearly marine harvest. Most of the saltwater catch is landed at Pascagoula–Moss
Point, which ranks among the nation’s leading fishing ports
by volume and by value of the catch. Biloxi is the state’s
chief shrimp port. Mississippi leads all states in the production
of freshwater catfish on farms, which yield an annual income of
more than $45 million. Catfish farming is centered in Humphreys Co.
Mining in Mississippi contributes about 2% of the
annual gross state product in Mississippi. Petroleum and natural
gas, which come mainly from the S half of the state, account for
more than 85% of the value of mineral products. Other minerals
produced include sand and gravel, clay, and cement.
Some 243,000 people in Mississippi are employed in
manufacturing,
which accounts for about 28% of the annual gross state
product. The annual value added by manufacture exceeds $10
billion. Pascagoula is the state’s principal industrial
center. Among Mississippi’s leading manufactures are transportation
equipment; clothing and textiles; lumber, furniture, and other wood
products;
electronic goods; and processed foods. Shipbuilding at Pascagoula
is the most important branch of the transportation-equipment industry.
Aerospace equipment and motor-vehicle parts also are manufactured. Wood
products, including household furniture, are manufactured in many
cities, including Tupelo, Columbus, Jackson, and Natchez. Corinth and
Jackson are the chief centers for producing electronic equipment.
Meat packing, poultry processing, the manufacture of cheese, and
the canning and freezing of fish are important food industries.
Other major manufactures include industrial machinery, chemicals,
fabricated metal products, and refined petroleum.
Each year several million travelers come to Mississippi; the
annual economic benefit to the state exceeds $1.6 billion.
Many visitors motor along the Natchez Trace Parkway, encompassing
a historic route connecting Natchez and Nashville, Tenn. Other National
Park Service areas in the state are Brices Cross Roads National
Battlefield Site (near Tupelo), Gulf Islands National Seashore,
Tupelo National Battlefield, and Vicksburg National Military Park.
The state maintains a system of 27 parks and recreation areas, including
several on major reservoirs. Casino gambling emerged in the 1990s
as a major tourist attraction along the Gulf Coast and in NW Mississippi.
Jackson is the hub of a network of about 116,710 km (about
72,520 mi) of roads that serves all sections of Mississippi. Some
1100 km (some 685 mi) of interstate highways connect the major cities
of the state, which also has about 2400 km (about 1490 mi) of Class
I railroad track. Jackson is the main rail junction. Pascagoula,
Gulfport, and Biloxi are important seaports on the Gulf of Mexico.
Greenville and Vicksburg, on the Mississippi R., are the state’s
leading river ports. Mississippi has 29 heliports and 178 airports,
of which the busiest is Jackson International Airport.
Electricity generating plants in Mississippi have a total
installed capacity of about 7 million kw and produce some 22.9 billion
kwh of electricity each year. In the early 1990s conventional thermal
plants, powered mainly by coal and natural gas, produced about 65% of
the electricity consumed in the state; the state’s first
nuclear plant began commercial operations in 1985. The Tennessee Valley
Authority is the supplier of power for areas in the NE region of
Mississippi.
In 1539, Hernando de Soto, with a band of Spanish adventurers,
crossed the northeastern part of the present state; in the early
part of 1541 he reached the Mississippi River. In 1673 the French
explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, passing down the
Mississippi, sailed as far as the mouth of the Arkansas River. In
1681–82, Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, sailed down
the Mississippi to its mouth and, taking possession of the entire
valley for Louis XIV, king of France, named the country Louisiana.
The first attempt to found a colony was made in 1699 by Pierre
le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville, who brought 200 French immigrants
to the site of present-day Biloxi. In 1716, Fort Rosalie was built
on the present site of Natchez. Indian outbreaks, notably by the
Natchez and Chickasaw tribes, made the frontier unsafe for white
settlers. In 1763, after the British victory in the French and Indian War,
France ceded to Great Britain its territories east of the Mississippi,
except New Orleans; Great Britain also received Florida from Spain.
The British divided these possessions into East Florida and West
Florida, in the latter of which was included a portion of the present
state of Mississippi. In 1781, however, during the American Revolution,
Spain took military possession of the Floridas; two years later,
by the Treaty of Paris, ending the war, Great Britain formally ceded
the area to Spain. By the Treaty of 1795 between the U.S. and Spain,
that part of the present state of Mississippi north of the 31st
parallel was ceded to the U.S. In 1798 the Territory of Mississippi
was formed. Between 1810 and 1813 the district south of the 31st
parallel (West Florida) was taken from Spain by the U.S., on the
ground that the area had originally been part of the Louisiana Purchase;
it was annexed to the territory in 1813, and Mississippi was admitted
to the Union as a state on Dec. 10, 1817.
The first serious conflict in the state over the slavery question occurred
in 1851, when a party advocating secession was defeated in an election
by the Union party. Ten years later, on Jan. 9, 1861, Mississippi
seceded from the Union. During the American Civil War much of the state
was devastated. Early in 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the
Union. The 20 years following the war were a period of depression,
but industrial advances of the late 19th century aided economic
recovery.
Mississippi’s lumber industry reached a peak in the
early 1900s, while drainage programs converted vast swampy areas
to agricultural use. Major steps were taken to reduce adult illiteracy
and to regulate child labor. In 1936, Mississippi’s legislature
passed special tax-incentive laws to help the state’s Balancing
Agriculture with Industry (BAWI) program, designed to attract new
industries. A few years later, petroleum was discovered at Tinsley and
Vaughan. Industrial development continued during World War II
with the opening of war plants and increased activity at the port
of Pascagoula. By 1963 an oil refinery had been completed there.
Mississippi resisted desegregation, and although its incidence
of crime is traditionally low, the state experienced violent racial
unrest in the 1960s. In 1963 Medgar Evers, a field secretary of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
was killed in Jackson, and a year later three civil rights workers
were murdered near Philadelphia, Miss. Nevertheless, progress was
made in several civil rights areas. In 1962 the University of Mississippi
was integrated by federal marshals, and in 1967 the first black
was elected to the state legislature.
During the 1980s the state government sought to stimulate
economic growth and improve education and other social services.
As Mississippi entered the 1990s, however, the state remained among
the nation’s poorest, although the legalization of gambling
brought increased prosperity to cities such as Biloxi and Bay St. Louis.
In 1991, Mississippi voters elected Kirk Fordice (1934–&2004)
as the state’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction;
he won a second term in 1995. The Democratic lieutenant governor,
Ronnie Musgrove (1956– ),
succeeded to the governorship in 2000, in a vote decided by the
state house of representatives when no candidate won an absolute
majority in the general election of November 1999. Musgrove lost the Mississippi governorship to Republican Haley Barbour (1947– ) in the November 2003 election.