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McComb, Mississippi
—  City  —
Location of McComb, Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°14′40.1022″N 90°28′17.7342″W / 31.244472833°N 90.471592833°W / 31.244472833; -90.471592833Coordinates: 31°14′40.1022″N 90°28′17.7342″W / 31.244472833°N 90.471592833°W / 31.244472833; -90.471592833
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Pike
Area
• Total	11.6 sq mi (30.1 km2)
• Land	11.6 sq mi (30.0 km2)
• Water	0.1 sq mi (0.2 km2)
Elevation	423 ft (129 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	13,644
• Density	1,184/sq mi (424.4/km2)
Time zone	Central (CST) (UTC−6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC−5)
ZIP codes	39648-39649
Area code(s)	601/ 769
FIPS code	28-43280
GNIS feature ID	0673307

McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, about 80 miles (130 km) south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 13,644. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History[link]

McComb was founded in 1872 after Henry Simpson McComb of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad (now part of the Canadian National Railway), decided to move the railroad's maintenance shops away from New Orleans, Louisiana, outside of the attractions of that city's saloons. Main Street is one of the main streets in the downtown area with all the shops, attractions, and business. The railroad purchased land in Pike County, and three nearby communities, Elizabeth town, Burglund, and Harveytown, agreed to consolidate.

During the 1960s, McComb played a critical role in the Civil Rights Movement. It was the location of SNCC's first voter registration project which was met with violence and intimidation on the part of authorities and the KKK. More than 100 McComb high school students were arrested in 1961 for protesting the murder of voter-registration activist Herbert Lee and the expulsion of Brenda Travis.^[1] McComb was the setting for several bombings involving racial strife. Malcolm Boyd took part of COFO's Freedom House as a member of a clerical delegation to assist African-American voter registration.

On October 20, 1977, a chartered plane carrying members and crew of rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a swamp near McComb, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Steve's sister Cassie (a backup singer), and road manager Dean Kilpatrick.

Geography[link]

McComb is located at 31°14'40.1022" North, 90°28'17.7342" West (31.2444739, -90.4715930).^[2]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.6 square miles (30 km²), of which 11.6 square miles (30 km²) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km²) (0.54%) is water.

Demographics[link]

As of the census^[3] of 2010, there were 13,644 people and 5,073 households in the city. The population density was 1,184 people per square mile (424/km²). There were 5,825 housing units at an average density of 500.6 per square mile (193.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 66.29% African American, 31.22% White, 0.91% Asian, 0.17% Native American, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.53% from other races, and 0.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.41% of the population.

As of the 2000 census, there were 5,265 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.5% were married couples living together, 25.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.2% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city the population was spread out with 29.0% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 78.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 71.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $26,507, and the median income for a family was $31,758. Males had a median income of $27,899 versus $17,402 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,790. About 27.4% of families and 31.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.7% of those under the age of 18 and 21.3% of those 65 and older.

Education[link]

The City of McComb is served by the McComb School District. There are 7 schools in the district, Otken Elementary, Kennedy Elementary, Higgins Middle School, Denman Jr. High School, McComb High School, Business & Technology Center, and Summit Academy. The McComb and the surrounding Pike County area has three separate school districts, three private schools, and a community college in the northern part of the county. St. Alphonsus Catholic Church is located in McComb and provides classes kindergarten through seventh grade. McComb is also the location of Parklane Academy, a K4 through 12th grade private Christian school. And Jubilee - Performing Arts - Center, a private school catered in the performing arts. It is the first of its kind in the Pike County Area. It is located in the central McComb region. Southwest Mississippi Community College is located seven miles north of McComb, and northeast of Summit,MS. McComb High School is one of the 100 National Model Schools.

Rail transportation[link]

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to McComb. Amtrak Train 59, the southbound City of New Orleans, is scheduled to depart McComb at 12:41pm daily with service to Hammond and New Orleans. Amtrak Train 58, the northbound City of New Orleans, is scheduled to depart McComb at 3:38pm daily with service to Brookhaven, Hazlehurst, Jackson, Yazoo City, Greenwood, Memphis, Newbern-Dyersburg, Fulton, Carbondale, Centralia, Effingham, Mattoon, Champaign-Urbana, Kankakee, Homewood, and Chicago.

Notable natives and residents[link]

• Jimmy Boyd, singer, musician, actor
• John Brady, head coach of the Arkansas State University men's basketball team, former head coach of the LSU Tigers men's basketball coach
• Steve Broussard, National Football League player for the Green Bay Packers
• Adrian Brown, Major League baseball player with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals
• Bo Diddley, blues singer^[4][5]
• Charles E. Dunbar, New Orleans attorney and civil service reformer^[6]
• Jarrod Dyson. Major League Baseball player with the Kansas City Royals
• Omar Kent Dykes, blues singer and guitarist
• King Solomon Hill, early blues musician
• Robert "Squirrel" Lester, singer in the soul music group The Chi-Lites.
• Bobby Lounge, blues pianist and songwriter
• Sam McCullum, NFL football player
• Brandy Norwood, singer and actress
• William "Ray J" Norwood, singer and actor; brother of Brandy Norwood
• Willie Norwood, singer; father of Brandy and Ray J Norwood
• Steven Ozment, American historian
• Edward Grady Partin, Teamsters Union figure, spent his last years in McComb but died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.^[7]
• Britney Spears, pop singer
• Jamie Lynn Spears, teen actress
• Matt Tolbert, Major League Baseball Player for the Minnesota Twins
• Cooper Carlisle, NFL Football player

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: McComb, Mississippi

• McComb Community Relations & Tourism Bureau
• Website about McComb
• The Mississippi-Tribune Newspaper
• WAKH-FM, 100,000 watt radio station in McComb
• The Enterprise-Journal Newspaper
• Map of McComb with links to local businesses
• McComb Police Department
• McComb City Railroad Depot Museum
• Percy Quin State Park, six miles south of McComb
• Civil Rights Movement Veterans ~ McComb Project
• History of Civil Rights Movement in McComb

v t e Municipalities and communities of Pike County, Mississippi, United States County seat: Magnolia Cities Magnolia McComb Towns Osyka Summit Unincorporated communities Chatawa Fernwood Pricedale

v t e  State of Mississippi Jackson (capital) Topics Mississippians Delegations Governors Lieutenant Governors Legislature State Parks State Landmarks Music History Geography Education Visitor Attractions Regions The Delta Golden Triangle Gulf Coast Mississippi Plain Natchez District Pine Belt Tennessee Valley Metros Gulfport-Biloxi Hattiesburg Jackson Memphis (TN) Pascagoula Larger cities Biloxi Clarksdale Clinton Columbus Greenville Gulfport Hattiesburg Jackson Meridian Olive Branch Pascagoula Pearl Ridgeland Southaven Starkville Tupelo Vicksburg Smaller cities Bay St. Louis Brandon Brookhaven Canton Cleveland Corinth Gautier Greenwood Grenada Horn Lake Indianola Itta Bena Laurel Long Beach Madison McComb Moss Point Natchez Ocean Springs Oxford Pass Christian Picayune Tunica Waveland West Hattiesburg (Oak Grove) West Point Yazoo City Counties Adams Alcorn Amite Attala Benton Bolivar Calhoun Carroll Chickasaw Choctaw Claiborne Clarke Clay Coahoma Copiah Covington DeSoto Forrest Franklin George Greene Grenada Hancock Harrison Hinds Holmes Humphreys Issaquena Itawamba Jackson Jasper Jefferson Jefferson Davis Jones Kemper Lafayette Lamar Lauderdale Lawrence Leake Lee Leflore Lincoln Lowndes Madison Marion Marshall Monroe Montgomery Neshoba Newton Noxubee Oktibbeha Panola Pearl River Perry Pike Pontotoc Prentiss Quitman Rankin Scott Sharkey Simpson Smith Stone Sunflower Tallahatchie Tate Tippah Tishomingo Tunica Union Walthall Warren Washington Wayne Webster Wilkinson Winston Yalobusha Yazoo

State of Mississippi
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): The Magnolia State; The Hospitality State
Motto(s): Virtute et armis
Official language(s)	English
Demonym	Mississippian
Capital (and largest city)	Jackson
Area	Ranked 32nd in the U.S.
- Total	48,430 sq mi (125,443 km2)
- Width	170 miles (275 km)
- Length	340 miles (545 km)
- % water	3%
- Latitude	30° 12′ N to 35° N
- Longitude	88° 06′ W to 91° 39′ W
Population	Ranked 31st in the U.S.
- Total	2,978,512 (2011 est)[1]
- Density	63.5/sq mi  (24.5/km2) Ranked 32nd in the U.S.
- Median household income	$36,338[2] (50th)
Elevation
- Highest point	Woodall Mountain[3][4][5] 807 ft (246.0 m)
- Mean	300 ft  (90 m)
- Lowest point	Gulf of Mexico[4] sea level
Before statehood	Mississippi Territory
Admission to Union	December 10, 1817 (20th)
Governor	Phil Bryant (R)
Lieutenant Governor	Tate Reeves (R)
Legislature	Mississippi Legislature
- Upper house	State Senate
- Lower house	House of Representatives
U.S. Senators	Thad Cochran (R) Roger Wicker (R)
U.S. House delegation	3 Republicans, 1 Democrat (list)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Abbreviations	MS Miss. US-MS
Website	www.mississippi.gov

Mississippi (ⁱ/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States.^[6] The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.

Geography[link]

Mississippi State Map

Bottomland hardwood swamp near Ashland, Mississippi.

Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.

In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.

The state of Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, 806 feet (246 m) above sea level. The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast. The mean elevation in the state is 300 feet (91 m) above sea level.

Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain. The Coastal Plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. The Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations. Yellow-brown loess soil is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of fertile black earth that extends into the Alabama Black Belt.

The coastline includes large bays at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi and Pascagoula. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico proper by the shallow Mississippi Sound, which is partially sheltered by Petit Bois Island, Horn Island, East and West Ship Islands, Deer Island, Round Island and Cat Island.

The northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta, a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The plain is narrow in the south and widens north of Vicksburg. The region has rich soil, partly made up of silt which had been regularly deposited by the floodwaters of the Mississippi River.

Areas under the management of the National Park Service include:^[7]

• Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site near Baldwyn
• Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Natchez National Historical Park in Natchez
• Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail in Tupelo
• Natchez Trace Parkway
• Tupelo National Battlefield in Tupelo
• Vicksburg National Military Park and Cemetery in Vicksburg

Major cities and towns[link]

Meridian

Map with all counties and many cities and towns labeled.

Mississippi City Population Rankings of at least 50,000 (United States Census Bureau as of 2010):^[8]

1. Jackson (173,514)
2. Gulfport (67,793)
3. Hattiesburg (51,993)

Mississippi City Population Rankings of at least 20,000 but fewer than 50,000 (United States Census Bureau as of 2010):^[8]

Mississippi City Population Rankings of at least 10,000 but fewer than 20,000 (United States Census Bureau as of 2010):^[8]

(See: Lists of cities, towns and villages, census-designated places, metropolitan areas, micropolitan areas, and counties in Mississippi)

Climate[link]

Mississippi has a humid subtropical climate with long summers and short, mild winters. Temperatures average about 95°F (about 35°C) in July and about 48 °F (about 9 °C) in January. The temperature varies little statewide in the summer; however, in winter, the region near Mississippi Sound is significantly warmer than the inland portion of the state. The recorded temperature in Mississippi has ranged from −19 °F (−28.3 °C), in 1966, at Corinth in the northeast, to 115 °F (46.1 °C), in 1930, at Holly Springs in the north. Heavy snowfall is possible across the state, such as during the New Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm. Yearly precipitation 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 inches (about 1,270 mm) of precipitation annually and Biloxi, in the south, about 61 inches (about 1,550 mm). Small amounts of snow fall in northern and central Mississippi, although snow is occasional in the southern part of the state.

The late summer and fall is the seasonal period of risk for hurricanes moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico, especially in the southern part of the state. Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed 238 people in the state, are the most devastating hurricanes to hit the state, both causing nearly total storm surge damage around Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. As in the rest of the Deep South, thunderstorms are common in Mississippi, especially in the southern part of the state. On average, Mississippi has around 27 tornadoes 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 US history have occurred in the state. These storms struck Natchez, in southwest Mississippi (see The Great Natchez Tornado) and Tupelo, in the northeast corner of the state. About seven F5 tornadoes have been recorded in the state.

Ecology[link]

The Mississippi state sign located on Interstate 20.

Mississippi is heavily forested, with over half of the state's area covered by wild trees, including mostly pine, as well as cottonwood, elm, hickory, oak, pecan, sweetgum and tupelo.

Ecological problems[link]

Flooding[link]

Due to seasonal flooding, possible from December to June, the Mississippi River created a fertile floodplain in the Mississippi Delta, including tributaries. Slaves built levees along the Mississippi River to control flooding. They built on top of the natural levees that formed from dirt deposited after the river flooded. As cultivation of cotton increased in the Delta, planters hired Irish laborers, who immigrated in high numbers in the 1840s, to ditch and drain their land.

The state took over levee building from 1858 to 1861, 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.^[9] Before the American 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 fuel for steamboats took away the absorption of trees and undergrowth. 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.^[10] In 1877, the Mississippi Levee District was created for southern counties. In 1879, the United States Congress created the Mississippi River Commission, whose responsibilities included aiding state levee boards in the construction of levees. Both white and black transient workers built 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.^[10] 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 in Arkansas.^[11]

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 US participation in World 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.^[12] Scientists now understand the levees have increased flooding, and the region was severely damaged due to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. There were losses of millions of dollars in property, stock and crops. The most damage occurred in the lower Delta, including Washington and Bolivar counties.^[13]

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 by removing the natural protection of wetlands and forest cover and strengthening the 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.

History[link]

Mississippi State symbols
The Flag of Mississippi.
The Seal of Mississippi.
Animate insignia
Bird(s)	Mockingbird (1944) Wood Duck (1974)
Butterfly	Spicebush Swallowtail (1991)
Fish	Largemouth bass (1974)
Flower(s)	Magnolia (1952) Coreopsis (Tickseed) (1991)
Insect	Honey bee (1980)
Mammal(s)	White-tailed deer (1974) Red Fox (1997) Bottlenose dolphin (1974)
Reptile	American Alligator (2005)
Tree	Magnolia (1938)
Inanimate insignia
Beverage	Milk (1984)
Dance	American folk dance (1995)
Fossil	Prehistoric whale (1981)
Rock	Petrified wood (1976)
Shell	Oyster (1974)
Slogan(s)	Virtute et armis
Soil	Natchez silt loam (2003)
Song(s)	"Go, Mississippi" (1962)
Toy	Teddy bear (2003)
Other	Grand Opera House of Meridian (1993) Tupelo Auto Museum (1972) Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum (1972)
Route marker(s)
State Quarter
Released in 2002
Lists of United States state insignia

Front of D'Evereux. Built in 1840, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Confederate dead after the Battle of Corinth. Photo taken October 5, 1862

Child workers, Pass Christian, 1911

Dancing at a juke joint outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1939

Nearly 10,000 B.C. Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as the South.^[14] Paleoindians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. After thousands of years, the Paleoindians developed a rich and complex agricultural society. Archaeologists called these people the Mississippians of the Mississippian culture; they were Mound Builders, whose large earthworks related to political and religious rituals still stand throughout the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. Descendant Native American tribes include the Chickasaw and Choctaw. Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi (and whose names were honored in local towns) include the Natchez, the Yazoo and the Biloxi.

The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of Hernando de Soto, who passed through in 1540. The French, in April 1699, established the first European settlement at Fort Maurepas (also known as Old Biloxi), built at Ocean Springs and settled by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. In 1716, the French founded Natchez on the Mississippi River (as Fort Rosalie); it became the dominant town and trading post of the area. The French called the greater territory "New Louisiana"; the Spanish continued to claim the Gulf coast.

Through the next decades, the area was ruled by Spanish, British and French colonial governments. Under French and Spanish rule, there developed a class of free people of color (gens de couleur libres), mostly descendants of European men and enslaved women, and their multiracial children. In the early days the French and Spanish colonists were chiefly men. Even as more European women joined the settlements, there continued to be interracial unions. Often the European men would help their children get educated, and sometimes settled property on them, as well as freeing slave children and their mothers. The free people of color became educated and formed a third class between the Europeans and enslaved Africans in the French and Spanish settlements, although not so large a community as in New Orleans. After Great Britain's victory in the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), the French surrendered the Mississippi area to them under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763).

After the American Revolution, this area became part of the new United States of America. The Mississippi Territory was organized on April 7, 1798, from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina. It 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, mostly from other Southern states.^[15] Many slaveholders brought slaves with them or purchased them through the internal slave market, especially New Orleans. They transported hundreds of thousands of slaves to the Deep South, including Mississippi. This was a forced internal migration that broke up many slave families of the Upper South, where planters were selling excess slaves.

On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the Union. David Holmes became the first governor of the state.^[16] Plantations were along the rivers, where waterfront gave them access to the major transportation routes. This is also where early towns developed, linked by the steamboats that carried commercial products and crops to markets.

When cotton was king during the 1850s, Mississippi plantation owners—especially those of the Delta and Black Belt regions—became wealthy due to the high fertility of the soil, the high price of cotton on the international market, and their assets in slaves. They used the 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 for secession. By 1860, the enslaved population numbered 436,631 or 55% of the state's total of 791,305. There were fewer than 1000 free people of color.^[17] The relatively low population of the state before the 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 frontier and undeveloped.^[18] The state needed many more settlers for development.

On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to declare its secession from the Union, and it was one of the founding members of the Confederate States of America.

During Reconstruction, the first constitutional convention in 1868 framed a constitution whose major elements would last for 22 years. The convention was the first political organization to include freedmen representatives, 17 among the 100 members. Although 32 counties had black majorities, they elected whites as well as blacks to represent them. The convention adopted universal suffrage; did away with property qualifications for suffrage or for office, which also benefited 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.^[19] Under the terms of Reconstruction, Mississippi was restored to the Union on February 23, 1870.

While Mississippi typified the Deep South in passing Jim Crow laws in the early 20th century, its history was more complex. Because the Mississippi Delta contained so much fertile bottomland which had not been developed before the Civil War, 90 percent of the land was still frontier. After the Civil War, tens of thousands of migrants were attracted to the area. They could earn money by clearing the land and selling timber, and eventually advance to ownership. The new farmers included freedmen, who achieved unusually high rates of land ownership in the Mississippi bottomlands. In the 1870s and 1880s, many black farmers succeeded in gaining land ownership.^[18]

By the turn of the century, two-thirds of the farmers in Mississippi who owned land in the Delta were African-American. Many were able to keep going through difficult years of falling cotton prices only by extending their debts. Cotton prices fell throughout the decades following the Civil War. As another agricultural depression lowered cotton prices into the 1890s, however, numerous African-American farmers finally had to sell their land to pay off debts, thus losing the land into which they had developed.^[18]

White legislators created a new constitution in 1890, with electoral and voter registration provisions that effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. Estimates are that 100,000 black and 50,000 white men were removed from voter registration rolls over the next few years.^[20] The loss of political influence contributed to the difficulties of African Americans in their attempts to obtain extended credit in the late nineteenth century. Together with Jim Crow laws, increased frequency of lynchings beginning in the 1890s, failure of the cotton crops due to boll weevil infestation, successive severe flooding in 1912 and 1913 created crisis conditions for many African Americans. With control of the ballot box and more access to credit, white planters expanded their ownership of Delta bottomlands and could take advantage of new railroads.

By 1910, a majority of black farmers in the Delta had lost their land and were sharecroppers. By 1920, the third generation after freedom, most African Americans in Mississippi were landless laborers again facing poverty.^[18] Starting about 1913, tens of thousands of black Americans left Mississippi for the North in the Great Migration to industrial cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and New 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.

The Second 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 the West, especially California, where the buildup of the defense industry offered higher paying jobs to African Americans.

Mississippi generated rich, quintessentially American music traditions: gospel music, country music, jazz, blues and rock and roll. All were invented, promulgated or heavily developed by Mississippi musicians, many of them African American, and most came from the Mississippi Delta. Many musicians carried their music north to Chicago, where they made it the heart of that city's jazz and blues.

Mississippi was a center of activity to educate and register black voters during the Civil Rights Movement. Although 42% of the state's population was African American in 1960, discriminatory voter registration processes still prevented most of them from voting, consequent to provisions of the state constitution, which had been in place since 1890.^[21] Students and community organizers from across the country came to help register voters and establish Freedom Schools. Resistance and harsh attitudes of most white politicians (including the creation of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission), the participation of many Mississippians in the White Citizens' Councils, and the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan and its sympathizers, gained Mississippi a reputation in the 1960s as a reactionary state.^[22][23]

In 1966, the state was the last to officially repeal statewide prohibition of alcohol. Prior to that, Mississippi had taxed the illegal alcohol brought in by bootleggers. Governor Paul Johnson urged repeal and the sheriff "raided the annual Junior League Mardi Gras ball at the Jackson Country Club, breaking open the liquor cabinet and carting off the Champagne before a startled crowd of nobility and high-ranking state officials."^[24]

The state repealed its ban on interracial marriage (miscegenation) in 1987 (which the United States Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional in 1967), and repealed the segregationist-era poll tax in 1989. In 1995, it symbolically ratified the Thirteenth 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 but ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by federal courts. Republican Governor Haley Barbour signed the bill into law.^[25]

On August 17, 1969, Category 5 Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars). On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, though a Category 3 storm upon final landfall, caused even greater destruction across the entire 90 miles (145 km) of Mississippi Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama.

Demographics[link]

The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Mississippi was 2,978,512 on July 1, 2011, a 0.38% increase since the 2010 United States Census.^[1] Mississippi's population has a sizable proportion of African Americans, approximately 37 percent.^[26] The center of population of Mississippi is located in Leake County, in the town of Lena.^[27]

Ethnic makeup and ancestry[link]

At the 2010 US census, 59.1% of the population was White (58.0% non-Hispanic white), 37.0% African American or Black, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% Asian, 1.1% from two or more races. 2.7% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race).^[28] For more information on racial and ethnic clasifications in the United States see race and ethnicity in the United States Census.