History of Mississippi facts for kids

The history of Mississippi is a long story that goes back thousands of years. It starts with the Native American people who lived there. We know about their cultures from old digging sites and the large earth mounds they built. Native Americans shared their history through stories passed down by word of mouth. When Europeans arrived, they wrote down what they learned from these groups. Today, we study these oral histories along with archaeological finds to understand their past.

The first Europeans to settle in this area were the French. Later, parts of the region, especially along the Gulf Coast, were controlled by Spain and Britain. Many European-American settlers didn't arrive until the early 1800s. Some of these settlers brought many enslaved Africans with them. These enslaved people were forced to work on large cotton farms along the rivers.

On December 10, 1817, Mississippi officially became a state of the United States. By the 1830s, the U.S. government forced most of the native Choctaw and Chickasaw people to move west of the Mississippi River. American farmers then built a huge economy based on growing cotton with slave labor. This cotton was grown along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers and sold to other countries. A small group of wealthy farmers controlled most of the best land, money, and politics in the state. This led Mississippi to leave the United States in 1861. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), many big battles happened in Mississippi, especially in its river cities. After the Confederacy lost in 1865, Mississippi entered the Reconstruction era (1865–1877).

After the Civil War, much of the Mississippi Delta was still undeveloped. Thousands of people, both black and white, moved there hoping to own land. They sold timber to earn money for land. During Reconstruction, many freed African Americans became farm owners in these areas. By 1900, two-thirds of the property owners in the Mississippi Delta were black.

However, Democrats took back control of the state government in the late 1800s. In 1890, they passed a new constitution that made it very hard for African Americans to vote. This meant African Americans were mostly kept out of politics until the mid-1960s. Many also lost their land because of these new laws, unfair treatment, money problems, and falling cotton prices. By 1920, most African Americans in the state were sharecroppers (farmers who paid rent with a share of their crops) or tenant farmers (who rented land).

In the 1930s, some African Americans got land through special low-interest loans from New Deal programs. Even in 1960, Holmes County had 800 black farmers, more than any other county. Mississippi continued to rely mostly on farming and timber until the mid-1900s. But new machines and large corporate farms changed how people worked and the state's economy.

During the early to mid-1900s, two big waves of the Great Migration happened. Hundreds of thousands of black people left the state's rural areas. Because of this, by the 1930s, African Americans were no longer the majority of the state's population for the first time in over a century. They still remained the majority in many Delta counties. Mississippi was also a key place for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. African Americans fought to get back their constitutional rights, like using public places, going to all state universities, and being able to register, vote, and run for office.

By the early 2000s, Mississippi had made great progress in overcoming old problems that held back its social, economic, and political growth. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused huge damage along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. The tourism industry has been very important in helping the state's economy grow in the 21st century. Mississippi has also grown its professional communities in cities like Jackson, the state capital. Today, the top industries in Mississippi include agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and health services.

Native American History in Mississippi

After the last Ice Age, the first Native Americans, called Paleo-Indians, arrived in what is now the Southern United States. These early people were hunter-gatherers. They hunted large animals that later died out after the Ice Age. Over time, many different Native American cultures developed in the region. Some of these cultures built large earth mounds more than 2,000 years ago.

The Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, and Plaquemine culture were groups that built mounds. They lived in western Mississippi along the Mississippi River during the Late Woodland period. Around 1150 to 1250 CE, they had more contact with Mississippian culture groups from areas further north, like near St. Louis, Missouri. This led to new ways of making pottery and new ceremonial objects. It might have also changed how their societies were organized.

After 1350 CE, the Plaquemine culture started to shrink as more Mississippian influences were adopted. Eventually, the last pure Plaquemine culture was found in the Natchez Bluffs area. The Yazoo Basin and nearby parts of Louisiana became a mix of Plaquemine and Mississippian cultures. When Europeans first arrived, they saw this division. In the Natchez Bluffs, the Taensa and Natchez people had resisted Mississippian influence. They continued to use their ancestors' sites and keep their Plaquemine culture alive. Other groups, like those speaking Tunican, Chitimachan, and Muskogean languages, seemed to have adopted more Mississippian influences.

The Mississippian culture mostly disappeared around the time Europeans arrived. History and language studies show that the Chickasaw and Choctaw peoples are their descendants. These tribes were later called two of the Five Civilized Tribes by colonists. Other tribes who lived in the area that became Mississippi include the Natchez, Yazoo, Pascagoula, and the Biloxi. French, Spanish, and English colonists all traded with these tribes in the early years.

More and more European-American settlers arrived in the early 1800s. This happened after the invention of the cotton gin, which made growing short-staple cotton very profitable. This type of cotton grew well in the higher areas of the South. There was a huge international demand for cotton. Settlers from the United States came to Mississippi mostly from the north and east. They came from the Upper South and coastal areas.

Eventually, the U.S. government passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This law led to the forced removal of most Native American peoples during the 1830s. They were made to move to areas west of the Mississippi River.

European Explorers and Settlers

The first big European group to explore the area that became Mississippi was led by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. He traveled through the region in 1540. The French later claimed this territory as part of their colony, New France. They began to settle along the Gulf Coast. In 1699, the French built the first Fort Maurepas near what is now Ocean Springs.

In 1716, the French founded Natchez as Fort Rosalie on the Mississippi River. It became the most important town and trading post in the area. During the early 1700s, the French Roman Catholic Church set up early churches in Old Biloxi/Ocean Springs and Natchez. The church also created several churches in what is now Louisiana and two in Alabama, which were also part of New France.

French and later Spanish rule affected how settlers treated enslaved Africans. Like in Louisiana, a third group of people called free people of color developed for a time. These were mainly descendants of white European colonists and enslaved African or African-American mothers. Sometimes, white planters had relationships with their mistresses of color. They sometimes freed these women and their mixed-race children. The fathers would pass on property to them or arrange for their children to learn a trade or get an education. Some wealthy colonists even sent their mixed-race sons to France for school. Free people of color often moved to New Orleans where there were more opportunities.

As part of New France, Mississippi was also ruled by the Spanish after France lost the Seven Years' War. Later, it was briefly part of West Florida under the British. In 1783, Great Britain gave the Mississippi area to the United States. This happened after the U.S. won its independence in the American Revolution, as part of the Treaty of Paris. Throughout the colonial period, Native American tribes changed their alliances to get the best trading and living conditions.

Becoming a U.S. Territory and State

Before 1798, the state of Georgia claimed all the land west from the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi River. Georgia even tried to sell land there, most famously in the Yazoo land scandal of 1795. Georgia finally gave up this land to the U.S. government in 1802. In 1804, after the Louisiana Purchase, the government made the northern part of this land the Mississippi Territory. The southern part became the Louisiana Territory.

The Mississippi Territory had very few people and faced problems that slowed its growth. The Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 ended Spanish control over Mississippi. But Spain still made it hard for traders by limiting American trade and travel on the Mississippi River to New Orleans. New Orleans was the main port on the Gulf Coast.

Winthrop Sargent, the territorial governor in 1798, couldn't set up a good system of laws. It wasn't until cotton became a very profitable crop in the 1800s that the riverfront areas of Mississippi grew. These areas became cotton farms that relied on slave labor. They developed most intensely along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. The rivers offered the best way to transport cotton to markets.

Americans continued to have land disagreements with the Spanish. This was true even after the U.S. gained control of much of this land through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1810, European-American settlers in parts of West Florida rebelled and declared their freedom from Spain. President James Madison said that the region between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers was already part of the United States. This area included most of West Florida. The part of West Florida between the Pearl and Perdido rivers was added to Mississippi Territory in 1812. Americans from the United States took over Kiln, Mississippi in 1813.

More People Arrive

Huge amounts of fertile and cheap cotton land attracted many settlers. Most came from Georgia and the Carolinas, and from former tobacco areas of Virginia and North Carolina. By this time, most farmers in the Upper South had switched to growing different crops. Their land was worn out from tobacco, and it was barely profitable.

From 1798 to 1820, the population in the Mississippi Territory grew a lot. It went from less than 9,000 to over 222,000 people. Most of these new people were enslaved African Americans. They were brought by settlers or shipped by slave traders. People moved in two main waves. There was a steady movement until the War of 1812 started. Then, a flood of people came after the war ended, from 1815 to 1819. This postwar flood happened for several reasons. Cotton prices were high, Native American land claims were removed, new and better roads were built, and new water routes to the Gulf of Mexico were available.

The first people to arrive were traders and trappers, then herdsmen, and finally farmers. At first, the Southwest frontier had a fairly equal society for white people. But as cotton farming grew, a small group of wealthy white farmers emerged. They controlled politics in the state for many years.

Cotton Becomes King

The invention of the cotton gin made it possible to grow short-staple cotton profitably. This led to cotton farming spreading into the Deep South. This type of cotton grew well in higher and inland areas. Americans pushed to get more land for cotton. This caused conflicts with the Native American tribes who had lived in the Southeast for a long time. Five of the major tribes had adopted some Western customs. Some of their members had blended into white society, often because of trade.

Throughout the 1830s, state and federal U.S. governments forced the Five Civilized Tribes to give up their lands. Various U.S. leaders wanted to move all Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. This happened after Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. As Native Americans gave up their lands, they moved west. They became more separated from the American farming society, where many African Americans were enslaved. The state sold off the lands that were given up. White people continued to move into the state. Some families brought enslaved people with them. Most enslaved people were brought to the area from the Upper South through a forced migration called the domestic slave trade.

Mississippi Becomes a State

In 1817, elected representatives wrote a constitution and asked Congress for statehood. On December 10, 1817, the western part of Mississippi Territory became the State of Mississippi, the 20th state in the Union. Natchez, which was already a big river port, was the first state capital. As more people moved into the state, the capital was moved to Jackson in 1822. Jackson was a more central location.

Religion in Early Mississippi

French colonists had set up the Catholic Church in their coastal settlements, like Biloxi. When Americans came to the territory, they brought their strong Protestant beliefs. Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians were the three main groups. Their churches quickly built new buildings. By this time, many enslaved people were already Christians. They attended church under the supervision of white farmers. They also developed their own private worship on larger farms. Other religions had very few followers. Some Protestant ministers gained new followers and often supported education. However, there was no state public school system until after the Civil War.

In the early 1800s, when the Deep South was developing, most Protestant ministers supported slavery. They argued that Christian slaveholders should treat enslaved people better. This sometimes led to improved treatment for the enslaved.

Early Government Leaders

William C. C. Claiborne (1775–1817) was a lawyer and former congressman. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him as governor of the Mississippi Territory from 1801 to 1803. He was also in charge of Native American affairs. Claiborne generally treated Native Americans with understanding. He worked hard to solve problems and improve their lives. He also helped establish law and order. When a smallpox outbreak happened in 1802, Claiborne organized the first mass vaccination in the territory. This stopped the spread of the disease in Natchez.

Native American Land Treaties

The United States government bought land from the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes from 1801 to about 1830. This happened as white settlers moved into the territory. After Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the government forced the tribes to accept lands west of the Mississippi River. Most left the state, but those who stayed became U.S. citizens.

After 1800, the fast growth of the cotton economy and the slave society in the Deep South changed how Native Americans, whites, and enslaved people interacted. As Native Americans gave up their lands in the eastern parts of the state, they moved west. They became more separated from white and black communities. The table below shows the land given up in acres:

Treaty	Year	Signed with	Where	Purpose	Ceded land
San Lorenzo	1795	Spain and United States	San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain	Put Choctaw & Chickasaw land under U.S. control	n/a
Fort Adams	1801	Choctaw	Mississippi Territory	Redefined Choctaw land given to England and allowed whites to use the Natchez Trace	2,641,920 acres (10,691.5 km2)
Fort Confederation	1802	Choctaw	Mississippi Territory	n/a	10,000 acres (40 km2)
Hoe Buckintoopa	1803	Choctaw	Choctaw Nation	Small land cession near Tombigbee River and redefined English treaty of 1765	853,760 acres (3,455.0 km2)
Mount Dexter	1805	Choctaw	Choctaw Nation	Large land cession from Natchez District to the Tombigbee/Alabama River area	4,142,720 acres (16,765.0 km2)
Fort St. Stephens	1816	Choctaw	Fort Confederation	Gave up all Choctaw land east of Tombigbee River	10,000 acres (40 km2)
Doak's Stand	1820	Choctaw	Natchez Trace, Choctaw Nation	Exchanged land in Mississippi for land in Arkansas	5,169,788 acres (20,921.39 km2)
Washington City	1825	Choctaw	Exchanged Arkansas land for Oklahoma land	2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2)
Dancing Rabbit Creek	1830	Choctaw	Choctaw Nation	Forced removal and granted U.S. citizenship to Choctaw who remained	10,523,130 acres (42,585.6 km2)
Pontotoc	1832	Chickasaw	Pontitock Creek	Sought a home in the west	6,283,804 acres (25,429.65 km2)

Mississippi Before the Civil War

When most Native Americans left, huge new lands became open for settlement. Tens of thousands of American immigrants poured in. Wealthy men brought enslaved people and bought the best cotton lands in the Delta region. This area was along the Mississippi River. Poorer men took up less fertile lands in other parts of the state. However, most of the state was still undeveloped when the Civil War began.

Cotton and Slavery

By the 1830s, Mississippi was a top cotton producer. This increased the demand for enslaved labor. Enslaved people were brought from border states and tobacco states where slavery was declining. The 1832 state constitution tried to stop the import of more enslaved people, but this rule was not enforced and was later removed.

As farmers bought more land and enslaved people, land prices went up. Small farmers were pushed into less fertile areas. A small, powerful group of slave-owning elites gained control of politics and money. By 1860, out of 354,000 white people, only 31,000 owned enslaved people. Two-thirds of these owned fewer than 10. Fewer than 5,000 slaveholders had more than 20 enslaved people. Only 317 owned more than 100. These 5,000 wealthy farmers controlled the state. There were also many farmers who owned land but no enslaved people. A small number of business people and professionals lived in towns. The poorest white people lived on marginal farms far from the rich cotton lands. They grew food for their families, not cotton.

Most white Mississippians supported slavery, whether they owned enslaved people or not. They believed all white people were above black people in society. They were very protective and emotional about slavery. A fear of a slave uprising in 1836 led to the hanging of several enslaved people. This was common in the South after such events. Some white people from the North were suspected of being against slavery.

When cotton was king in the 1850s, Mississippi plantation owners became very rich. This was especially true in the old Natchez District and the new Delta and Black Belt regions. The soil was very fertile, and cotton prices were high around the world. The huge differences in wealth and the need for many enslaved people greatly influenced state politics. This led to strong support for leaving the Union. Mississippi was among the six states in the Deep South with the most enslaved people. It was the second state to leave the Union.

Mississippi's population grew quickly due to people moving there, both by choice and by force. It reached 791,305 in 1860. Black people numbered 437,000, making up 55% of the population. Most of them were enslaved. Cotton production grew from 43,000 bales in 1820 to over one million bales in 1860. Mississippi became the top cotton-producing state. With high international demand, cotton from Mississippi and other Deep South states was sent to textile factories in Britain and France. It also went to factories in New York and New England. The Deep South was the main supplier and had strong economic ties with the Northeast. By 1820, half of New York City's exports were related to cotton. Southern business people traveled to the city so often that they had favorite hotels and restaurants.

In Mississippi, some people wanted to modernize. They encouraged farmers to grow different crops. Production of vegetables and livestock increased, but cotton remained the main crop. Cotton's importance seemed clear in 1859. Mississippi farmers were barely affected by the financial panic in the North. They were worried about the rising price of enslaved people, but they were not in real trouble. Mississippi's wealth per person was well above the U.S. average. The major farmers made huge profits. But they invested it in buying more cotton land and more enslaved people, which pushed prices even higher. They educated their children privately. The state government invested little in roads or other public services. Railroad building was slower than in other states, even in the South. The threat of ending slavery worried farmers. But they believed that if needed, the cotton states could leave the Union, form their own country, and expand south into Mexico and Cuba. Until late 1860, they never expected a war.

The state's relatively low population before the Civil War showed that much of it was still wild land. It needed many more settlers to develop. For example, except for river settlements and farms, 90% of the Mississippi Delta's lowlands were still undeveloped. They were mostly covered in forests and swamps. These areas were not cleared and developed until after the war. During and after Reconstruction, most of the new owners in the Delta were freed African Americans. They bought the land by clearing it and selling timber.

Life for Enslaved People

At the time of the Civil War, most black people were enslaved. They lived on large farms with 20 or more other enslaved people. Many lived in much larger groups. Some were born in Mississippi. But many had been brought to the Deep South through a forced migration. This was done through the domestic slave trade from the Upper South. Some were shipped by boat along the coast. Others were taken overland or forced to walk the entire journey.

On a large farm, there was a typical division of labor. There was a small group of house slaves. A middle group included overseers, drivers (gang leaders), and skilled craftspeople. The "lower class" was made up of unskilled field workers. Their main job was hoeing and picking cotton. Owners hired white overseers to direct the work. Some enslaved people resisted by working slowly or breaking tools. Others ran away for a while, hiding in woods or on nearby farms for a couple of weeks. There were no large slave revolts, though white people often spread fearful rumors that one was about to happen. Most enslaved people who tried to escape were caught and returned. But a few made it to northern states and found freedom.

Most enslaved people endured the harsh daily life on the farms. Because so many lived together on large farms, they built their own culture. They often developed leaders through religion. Others gained special skills. They created their own religious practices and sometimes worshipped in private. They developed their own style of Christianity. They decided which stories, like the Exodus, spoke to them the most. While slave marriages were not legally recognized, many families formed lasting unions. They struggled to keep their families together. Some enslaved people with special skills gained a kind of freedom. They were hired out to work on riverboats or in port cities. Those on riverboats got to travel to other cities. They were part of a wide network of information among enslaved people.

By 1820, 458 formerly enslaved people had been freed in the state. The government limited their lives. Free black people had to carry identification. They were forbidden from carrying weapons or voting. In 1822, farmers decided it was too difficult to have free black people living near enslaved people. They passed a state law that stopped emancipation unless a special law was passed for each individual manumission. In 1860, only 1,000 of the 437,000 black people in the state were recorded as free. Most of these free people lived in very poor conditions near Natchez.

Politics Leading to War

Mississippi was a strong supporter of Jacksonian democracy. This idea praised the independent farmer. The state capital was named Jackson in honor of Andrew Jackson. Corruption and land speculation caused big problems for the state's money before the Civil War. Federal funds were misused, and tax money was stolen. Finally, in 1853, two state-supported banks failed when their debts were not paid. In the Second Party System (1820s to 1850s), Mississippi changed politically. It went from a state divided between the Whig and Democratic parties to a one-party Democratic state that wanted to leave the Union.

Criticism from Northern people who wanted to end slavery grew after the Mexican War ended in 1848. Mississippi and other southern farmers expected the war to gain new land where slavery could continue. The South resisted attacks from those against slavery. White Mississippians were among those who strongly defended the slave system. An attempt to leave the Union in 1850 failed. This was followed by ten years of political arguments. During this time, protecting and expanding slavery became their main goal. When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, with the goal of eventually ending slavery, Mississippi followed South Carolina. It left the Union on January 9, 1861. Mississippi's U.S. senator, Jefferson Davis, was chosen as president of the Confederate States.

The Civil War in Mississippi

More than 80,000 Mississippians fought in the American Civil War. Many people died. A fear that white supremacy might be lost was one reason men joined the Confederate Army. Men who owned more property, including enslaved people, were more likely to volunteer. But men in Mississippi's river counties joined at lower rates. They were more likely to leave their homes for safer areas rather than face invasion.

Both the Union (North) and Confederacy (South) knew that controlling the Mississippi River was vital. Union forces launched major military operations to take over Vicksburg. General Ulysses S. Grant led campaigns at Shiloh and Corinth, and the siege of Vicksburg. These battles lasted from spring 1862 to summer 1863. The most important was the Vicksburg Campaign. It was fought for control of the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. When the city fell to General Grant on July 4, 1863, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River. This cut off the western Confederate states and made the Confederate cause in the west hopeless.

As Union troops advanced, many enslaved people escaped and joined their lines to gain freedom. After the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, more enslaved people left the farms. Thousands of formerly enslaved people in Mississippi joined the Union Army in 1863 and the following years.

At the Battle of Grand Gulf, Admiral Porter led seven Union ironclads to attack Confederate forts. His goal was to take over the Confederate guns and secure the area. The Confederates won, but it was not a big victory. The Union defeat at Grand Gulf only slightly changed Grant's plan.

Grant won the Battle of Port Gibson. Grant's army met Confederate outposts after midnight. Union forces advanced at dawn and were met by Confederates. Grant forced the Confederates to retreat several times. They could not stop the Union attack and left the field. This defeat showed that the Confederates could not defend the Mississippi River line. The Union forces secured their needed landing spot.

General William Tecumseh Sherman's march from Vicksburg to Meridian, Mississippi, aimed to destroy Meridian. Meridian was a key railroad center supplying the Confederacy. This campaign was Sherman's first use of total war tactics. It was a preview of his March to the Sea through Georgia in 1864.

The Confederates had no better luck at the Battle of Raymond. On May 10, 1863, Confederate General Pemberton sent troops from Jackson to Raymond. General Gregg's brigade had marched hard and arrived late on May 11. The next day, he tried to ambush a small Union group. A sharp battle lasted six hours, but the much larger Union force won. The Confederates retreated. This left the Southern Railroad of Mississippi open to Union forces. It cut off Vicksburg's supply line.

In April–May 1863, Union colonel Benjamin H. Grierson led a major cavalry raid. He rode through Mississippi and Louisiana, destroying railroads, telegraph lines, and Confederate weapons. The raid also distracted Confederate attention from Grant's moves toward Vicksburg.

A Union expedition in June 1864, led by General Samuel D. Sturgis, was opposed by Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. They fought at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads on June 10, 1864. Forrest completely defeated the Union forces in his greatest victory.

Life During the War

After each battle, there was more economic chaos and local society broke down. The state government moved around the state during the war. It went from Jackson to Enterprise, to Meridian and back to Jackson, to Meridian, then to Columbus and Macon, Georgia, and finally back to what was left of Jackson. The first wartime governor was John J. Pettus. He led the state into leaving the Union, encouraged war spirit, and started preparing for war. His successor, General Charles Clark, elected in 1863, wanted to keep fighting no matter the cost. But he faced a worsening military and economic situation. The war presented huge challenges for both men in keeping a stable government for Mississippi.

There were no slave uprisings, but many enslaved people escaped to Union lines. Many farms started growing food instead of cotton. The federal government wanted to keep cotton production going for the North's needs. Some farmers sold their cotton to Union agents for high prices. Confederates saw this as a kind of treason, but they couldn't stop the profitable trading.

Most white people supported the Confederacy, but some did not. The two strongest anti-Confederate areas were Jones County in the southeast, where the "Knight Company" started, and Tishomingo County in the northeast. One influential Mississippi Unionist was Presbyterian minister John Aughey. His sermons and book The Iron Furnace or Slavery and Secession (1863) became important for the anti-secession cause in the state.

The war shattered the lives of everyone. Wealthy ladies stopped having balls and parties. Instead, they rolled bandages and raised money. Soon, they were losing brothers, sons, and husbands in battles or to disease. They lost their income and luxuries. They had to deal with constant shortages and poor substitutes for common items. They took on new responsibilities, like chores previously done by enslaved people who had left for freedom. The women focused on survival. They kept their family honor by supporting the Confederacy until the very end. Less wealthy white women struggled even more to keep their families together when their men were away. Many became refugees in camps or fled to Union lines. After the war, Southern women organized to create Confederate cemeteries and memorials. They became champions of the "Lost Cause" and shaped how people remembered the war.

Black women and children had an especially hard time as the farm system collapsed. Many took refuge in camps run by the Union Army. They were freed after the Emancipation Proclamation. But they suffered from widespread diseases that spread in the crowded camps. Disease was also common in troop camps. During the war, more men on both sides died from disease than from wounds or direct fighting.

Reconstruction in Mississippi

After the Confederacy lost, President Andrew Johnson appointed a temporary state government. It was led by provisional governor Judge William Lewis Sharkey (1798-1873). This government canceled the 1861 Ordinance of Secession. It also wrote new "Black Codes". These laws defined and limited the civil rights of freedmen, the former enslaved people. White people tried to keep African Americans as second-class citizens, without citizenship or voting rights. Johnson was following the policies of President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had planned a generous Reconstruction policy towards former Confederates. He intended to give citizenship and voting rights first to Black veterans. Then he planned to slowly bring other freedmen into the political and economic life of the nation.

The Black Codes were never fully put into action. Radical Republicans in the Congress strongly objected to these new limits on freedmen's rights. The federal government created the Freedmen's Bureau. This agency, part of the U.S. War Department, helped educate and assist former enslaved people. It tried to help freedmen make contracts in the new free labor market. Most officials in the Freedmen's Bureau were former Union Army officers from the North. Many settled in the state. Some became political leaders in the Republican Party or in business. White Democrats in the South called them "carpetbaggers." The Black Codes angered people in the North. They showed an attempt to bring back conditions similar to slavery. White Mississippians and other Southerners wanted to restore white supremacy. They wanted to limit the legal, civil, political, and social rights of freedmen.

In September 1865, Congress was controlled by more Radical Republicans. They refused to let the newly elected Mississippi delegation take their seats. Because of the difficult conditions and violence, Congress passed Reconstruction laws in 1867. It used U.S. Army forces to occupy and manage parts of the South to create a new order. Mississippi was one of the areas under military control.

The military Governor-General, Union Army Gen. Edward O.C. Ord (1818-1883), was in charge of the Mississippi/Arkansas District. He was told to register voters in the state. This was so voters could elect representatives to write a new state constitution. This constitution would reflect the new citizenship and voting rights given to freedmen through changes to the United States Constitution. In a close election, the state's white voters rejected the new constitution. Mississippi continued to be governed by federal martial law. Union Gen. Adelbert Ames (1835-1933) from Maine, following directions from the Republican majority in Congress, removed the temporary civil government. He allowed all black men of age to register as voters. He temporarily stopped about a thousand former Confederate leaders from voting or holding state offices.

In 1868, a group of both black and white people (mostly white) wrote a new constitution for the state. It was approved by a vote. This Constitutional Convention was the first time African American representatives were part of a political group in the state's history. But they did not control the convention or the later state government. There were 17 freedmen among the 100 members. Black people made up more than half of the state's population at the time. Thirty-two Mississippi counties had black majorities. But freedmen elected both white and black people to represent them.

The 1868 constitution had important parts that lasted for 22 years. It allowed all men to vote (without needing property, education, or to pay a poll tax). It created the plan for the state's first public school system. It also said that race could not affect who owned or inherited property. It stopped limits on civil rights for travel. It gave the governor a four-year term instead of two. It gave the governor the power to appoint judges. It required new legislative districts to include the new black voters. And it rejected the laws and powers of secession. Opponents of black voting called this the "Black and Tan Convention," even though most delegates were white. Mississippi was allowed back into the Union on January 11, 1870. Its representatives and senators took their seats in Congress on February 23, 1870.

Black Mississippians, voting for the first time, joined with white Republicans. This Republican party, made up of locals and Northerners, controlled the state government for a while. Most Republican voters were freedmen. Several held important state offices. Some black leaders who had been educated in the North returned to the South. A. K. Davis was lieutenant governor. Hiram Revels (1827-1901) and Blanche K. Bruce (1841-1898) were elected by the Legislature to the U.S. Senate. John R. Lynch (1847-1939) was elected to Congress. The Republican government faced strong opposition from white Democrats. Soon after the war, groups like the Ku Klux Klan formed in Mississippi. They worked to scare black people and their allies, like schoolteachers, and stop them from voting.

The wealthy farmer James Lusk Alcorn (1816-1894), a Confederate general, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1865. But like other Southerners loyal to the Confederacy, he was not allowed to take a seat then. He supported voting rights for freedmen and the Fourteenth Amendment, as required by Republicans in Congress. Alcorn became the leader of the "scalawags." These were local white residents who made up about a third of the Republican Party in the state. They joined with "carpetbaggers" (people who moved from the North) and freedmen.

Alcorn was elected governor in 1869 and served from 1870 to 1871. He was a modernizer. He appointed many like-minded former Whigs, even if they had become Democrats. He strongly supported education. He allowed separate public schools for black and white children to get them started. He supported founding a new college for freedmen, now called Alcorn State University. He helped make his ally Hiram Revels its president. Radical Republicans opposed Alcorn because they were angry about his appointments. One complained that Alcorn wanted to see the "old civilization of the South 'modernized'" instead of a complete political, social, and economic revolution.

Alcorn resigned as governor to become a U.S. senator (1871–1877). He replaced his ally Hiram Revels, the first African-American U.S. senator from the state. In speeches to the Senate, Alcorn asked for the political restrictions on white Southerners to be removed. He rejected Radical Republican ideas to force social equality through federal laws. He called the federal cotton tax robbery. He defended separate schools for both races in Mississippi. Although he had owned enslaved people, he called slavery "a cancer upon the body of the Nation." He expressed his thanks for its end.

Although President Grant suppressed the KKK in much of the South, new groups of Democratic rebels appeared in the 1870s. These groups, like the White League, the Red Shirts in Mississippi, and rifle clubs, increased violence at every election. They attacked black people to stop them from voting.

In 1870, former military governor Adelbert Ames (1835-1933) was elected to the U.S. Senate. Ames and Alcorn fought for control of the Republican Party in Mississippi. Their struggle caused the party to lose its unity. In 1873, they both ran for governor. Ames was supported by the Radicals and most African Americans. Alcorn won the votes of conservative whites and most of the scalawags. Ames won the election.

In 1874, Republican voters elected a black sheriff in Vicksburg and won other elections. White people had been organizing to remove Republicans. On December 6, 1874, they forced the newly elected sheriff Peter Crosby to leave his office. Freedmen tried to support him, coming from rural areas on December 7. But he told them to go home peacefully. Armed white militia attacked the freedmen that day and in the following days. This became known as the Vicksburg Massacre. White Democrats are believed to have killed 300 black people in the area. Newspapers from New York to California reported on the massacre. The New York Times also reported on the congressional investigation into these events.

The Democratic Party had different groups, but as the 1875 state election neared, they united. They worked on the "Mississippi Plan." This plan organized white people to defeat both white and black Republicans. They used economic and political pressure against scalawags and carpetbaggers. They tried to persuade them to change parties or leave the state. Armed attacks by the Red Shirts, White League, and rifle clubs on Republicans increased. An example is the September 1875 "Clinton Riot." Governor Ames asked the federal government for armed help, but it was refused. That November, Democrats gained strong control of both parts of the state government through violence and election fraud. Ames asked the U.S. Congress to step in because the election had been unfair. The state government, meeting in 1876, started the process to remove him and all state officials from office. He resigned and left the state. This marked the end of Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi.

Mississippi After Reconstruction (1877-1900)

After Reconstruction, there was steady economic and social progress for some groups in Mississippi. This was despite low cotton prices and the state's reliance on farming. Politically, the state was controlled by conservative white elites. Their critics called them "Bourbon Democrats." These Bourbons represented the wealthy farmers, landowners, and merchants. They used violence, threats, and force to stop black people from voting. But freedmen still elected many representatives to local offices, like sheriff. The Bourbons controlled the Democratic Party meetings and the state government.

The state remained mostly rural. But the new railroad system, which was destroyed in the war, was rebuilt. More money was invested in roads and other public services. A few more towns developed. Small industries also grew, especially the lumber industry in the Piney Woods region. Most farmers continued to grow cotton. The "crop-lien system" involved local merchants. They lent money for food and supplies all year. Then, they took a share of the cotton crop to pay the debts. Sometimes, a little cash was left for the farmer. But often, the farmer ended up owing more money to the merchants.

In 1878, the worst yellow fever outbreak Mississippi had ever seen hit the state. The disease caused so many deaths that it hurt society and the economy. Entire families died. Others fled their homes in fear to other parts of the state. People did not understand how the disease spread. Rules to stop the disease brought trade to a halt. Some local economies never recovered. Beechland, near Vicksburg, became a ghost town. By the end of the year, 3,227 people in the state had died from the disease, especially along the coast.

Small farmers struggled against the Bourbon control of politics and the credit system. This system seemed to keep them in debt forever. The Populist movement did not attract many followers in Mississippi. It was more popular in Alabama, Georgia, and other Southern states. Mississippi did have some Populist leaders, like newspaper editor Frank Burkitt. But poor farmers, both white and black, did not follow the leadership of the Farmers' Alliance. Few farmers supported the Alliance's plan to help farmers with low-cost federal loans. The Democratic Party machine, the growing power of the National Grange, and the effective disenfranchisement of most black voters and many poor white voters after 1890 under the new constitution. This constitution was designed to exclude black people. It required paying a poll tax to register to vote, which many poor people could not afford. The number of registered voters dropped sharply. White Democrats gained strong control of power in the state. By the time the People's Party was formed in 1892, Mississippi populism was too weak to play a major role. According to Democrat James K. Vardaman, Mississippi's governor, the purpose of the 1890 constitution was to remove black people from politics.

Whitecapping was a name for activities by a poor farmer movement in southern Mississippi. Poor white people organized against low prices, rising costs, and more people renting land. This was caused by the crop lien system. Whitecaps did not like black tenant farmers on lands taken over by merchants. Some of these merchants were Jewish. Whitecap Clubs, which looked like social and military groups, tried to scare black workers and landowners. They also tried to stop merchants from buying land. They were against black people and Jewish people. Whitecaps came from the rural poor. Their leaders came from a higher social class.

African Americans: 1877-1940

Mississippi is often seen as a typical example of the Deep South during the Jim Crow era. This era began in the late 1800s. But Mississippi had a huge amount of undeveloped land in the backcountry and lowlands of the Mississippi Delta. Tens of thousands of black and white people moved to the Delta. They hoped to buy and work land, cut timber, and build lives for their families. Because the Mississippi Delta had so much fertile lowland away from the river settlements, African Americans achieved unusually high rates of land ownership from 1870 to 1900. Two-thirds of the independent farmers in the Delta were black.

When the Panic of 1893 brought another economic downturn and very low cotton prices, many farmers had to sell their land to pay debts. They then became sharecroppers. The sharecropping system worked as a compromise. White landowners wanted a reliable supply of workers. Black workers refused to work in large gangs. By the early 1900s, many black owner-farmers from the second generation after freedom had lost their land.

In 1890, the state adopted a new constitution. It required a poll tax of $2 a year. Most black people and poor white people could not pay this to register to vote. They were effectively kept out of politics. These requirements, with more laws in 1892, led to a 90% reduction in the number of black people who voted. In every county, white people allowed a few important black ministers and local leaders to vote.

Only voters could serve on juries. So, losing the right to vote meant black people could not serve on juries. They lost all chances at local and state offices, and representation in Congress. When these rules were challenged in the Supreme Court in 1898 in Williams v. Mississippi and upheld, other southern states quickly added similar rules to their constitutions. This effectively took away voting rights from black people in every southern state. In 1900, nearly 59% of Mississippi's population was African American. But they were almost completely excluded from political life.

Economic problems always threatened. These included cotton crop failures due to boll weevils, and severe floods in 1912 and 1913. By 1920, the third generation after freedom, most African Americans in the state were landless sharecroppers or laborers. They faced inescapable poverty.

Legal racial segregation was put in place in Mississippi mainly after the Reconstruction era. A few state laws earlier required separate facilities for black and white school children. The state government passed laws requiring three restrooms in public buildings: one for white males, one for white females, and one for black males and females. Otherwise, segregation happened more by local custom than by state law. Since segregation was a custom, historians see it as a practice that required social distance between white and black people rather than physical distance. In most Mississippi communities from the late 1800s until the 1970s, black and white people lived relatively close to each other. White people depended on the labor of black people as farm or house workers. White and black children often played together until they reached puberty. At that time, parents began teaching their children about the racial rules.

White children were taught they were better than black people. Black children were forced to learn the changing and unfair customs of Jim Crow. These customs often differed from community to community. By 1900, racial segregation became stricter. Jim Crow became the main part of Mississippi's social order.

Tens of thousands of African Americans left Mississippi by train, foot, or boat starting in the 1880s. This migration reached its peak during and after World War I. In the Great Migration, they went North to escape violence and a society that offered no opportunities. Another wave of migration happened in the 1940s and 1950s. Almost half a million people, three-quarters of them black, left Mississippi in the second migration. Many sought jobs in the growing wartime defense industry on the West Coast, especially in California.

Jim Crow and the loss of voting rights continued in Mississippi for decades. They were sometimes enforced by violence and economic threats. This was especially true as African Americans organized for civil rights. These practices did not legally end until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed. Strong federal enforcement and court challenges by black groups and national advocates helped break down local customs by 1970.

Schools

After Reconstruction, the Democratic-controlled state government cut funding for already limited public schools. For decades, public school funding was poor for white children and very poor for black children. Money from northern charities helped support the schools. The Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, started in 1907, aimed to provide basic education for rural Southern black children. Jeanes supervisors, all experienced teachers, personally improved rural schools. Early Jeanes supervisors brought vocational education into their classrooms. This was based on the Hampton and Tuskegee Institute models promoted by Booker T. Washington. By the 1940s, the Jeanes program changed its focus from job skills to academic subjects.

Other major northern foundations also helped. These included the General Education Board (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation) and the Rosenwald Fund. They supported building more than 5,000 schools in southern rural areas. Northern churches supported colleges based on their denominations.

Music: Jazz, Blues, and Rock and Roll

Mississippi became a center for rich, truly American music traditions. Gospel music, jazz, blues, and rock and roll were all created, spread, or developed mostly by Mississippi musicians. This was especially true in the Delta areas. They also carried these traditions north to Chicago during the Great Migration. This created new forms of jazz and blues in that city.

In the 1940s, John Lomax and his son Alan recorded some of the Delta's rich music for the Library of Congress. They looked for blues songs and field chants at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. In 1941, Alan Lomax recorded Muddy Waters, who was 28 years old, at Stovall's Plantation. Other major artists like Bo Diddley and B.B. King were also born and raised on Mississippi plantations.

The Progressive Era

By 1900, Mississippi was behind other Southern states. It had a one-party government controlled by white Democrats. They focused on not raising taxes. This resulted in no paved roads, widespread illiteracy, and regular outbreaks of diseases. These diseases spread partly because of a lack of sanitation. Endemic hookworm was also a problem. This was a low point for race relations, marked by many lynchings of black people. This often happened when sharecrop accounts were due and cotton prices were low. Local affairs were controlled by small groups of politicians. The state had few natural resources besides good cotton land and once-important cities on the Mississippi River.

Mississippi did not attract much outside investment or European immigrants. However, European Jews settled in larger cities like Meridian and Jackson. Farmers recruited Chinese workers for agriculture from 1900 to 1930. But these newcomers did not stay long in the fields. They became merchants in small towns. Farmers also recruited Italian workers for field labor. These workers complained about very poor working conditions to their consulate. A government investigation followed in some areas, including a farm in Arkansas owned by U.S. Senator LeRoy Percy of Greenville, Mississippi.

The Progressive Era had some positive results in Mississippi. Governor Theodore Bilbo (1916–20) had the most successful government among governors from 1877 to 1917. He put state finances in order. He supported Progressive measures like passing a law for mandatory school attendance. He also founded a new charity hospital and created a board of bank examiners. However, Bilbo was also openly racist. He defended segregation and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

The 1920s and 1930s

Mississippians had more money in the 1920s than they had in two generations. But the state was still poor and rural compared to the rest of the country. People started to experience the "American Dream." Ownby (1999) studied the state and found four "American dreams" that the new 20th-century consumer culture offered. The first was the "Dream of Abundance." This offered many material goods to all Americans. It made them proud to be the richest society on Earth. The second was the "Dream of a Democracy of Goods." This meant everyone had access to the same products, no matter their race, gender, background, or class. This challenged the idea that only the rich could have luxury. The "Dream of Freedom of Choice," with its many different goods, allowed people to create their own style. Finally, the "Dream of Novelty" meant that changing fashions, new models, and unexpected new products broadened what consumers experienced. This challenged traditional society and politics.

Ownby says that these new consumer culture dreams started in big cities. But they quickly reached even the most rural and isolated areas, like rural Mississippi. When the Model T car arrived after 1910, many rural Americans no longer had to rely on local general stores. These stores had limited goods and high prices. People could now go to towns and cities to compare prices. Ownby shows that poor black Mississippians also took part in the new consumer culture. He believes some of their desire to move was due to ambition. He also notes that hundreds of thousands of black people moved to Memphis or Chicago during the Great Migration. Other historians say the migration happened because of poor schools for black people, a lot of violence, social oppression, and the loss of voting rights in Mississippi.

Not all of Mississippi was doing well. In the Pearl River country in the south-central region, the 1920s was a decade of ongoing poverty. Local people became interested in anti-modern politics and culture. Timber companies, which employed up to half of all workers, were running out of trees. So, paychecks became smaller. Farming was very difficult. Governor Theodore G. Bilbo, who was from the region, gained wide support among poor white farmers and loggers. He did this by criticizing the rich, the big cities, and black people. Laws against alcohol were part of a widespread prohibition movement. This included laws against business or recreation on Sunday. There were also attacks on Catholics and immigrants. Baptist and some other churches embraced fundamentalism and rejected new ideas like evolution.

Transportation Improvements

When the automobile arrived around 1910, the state had poorly built dirt roads used for wagons. It also had an outdated tax system. Road improvements continued to be a local matter controlled by county supervisors. They achieved few good results. The Lindsey Wagon Company of Laurel built the famous Lindsey wagon after 1899. It was a heavy-duty, eight-wheel wagon used to haul logs and other heavy materials. Wagon production peaked in the 1920s, then declined. Better roads finally allowed people to use trucks built in Detroit. The Great Depression after 1929 reduced the need for new wagons.

After 1928, the need to build roads motivated politicians to support the cause. They passed large bond issues, created excise taxes, and centralized control. This created a real state highway system. It had main highways designed by engineers, using a common system of signs and names.

World War II and After

The war years brought good times as cotton prices went up and new military bases paid high wages. Many black people moved to northern and western cities, especially in California. This was part of the second and larger wave of the Great Migration. White farmers often moved to southern factory towns. Young men, both white and black, were equally subject to the draft. But farmers were often excused from service because of their jobs. World War II marked a change from farming that used a lot of human labor to farming with machines in the Delta region. Government farm payments and better mechanical cotton pickers made modernization possible by 1940. But most farmers feared losing control over race relations and simply changed their workers from sharecropping to paid labor. As workers left farms for military service or defense jobs, farm wages rose. By 1944, wages had tripled. In 1945, the new Delta War Wage Board temporarily helped farmers by setting a maximum wage for farm workers. But President Harry S. Truman lifted wartime economic controls in 1946.

Starting in the 1930s, the damage from the boll weevil and federal crop limits encouraged many farmers to stop growing cotton. They started growing other crops, like soybeans. They also planted grasses for livestock and trees for timber. Farm productivity increased. The soils improved through crop rotation, strip planting, terracing, contour plowing, and using better fertilizers, insecticides, and seeds. After 1945, farm machines advanced quickly, especially in the Cotton Belt. Small farms were combined into larger ones. Small farmers who couldn't afford new machines and sharecroppers left the land. Farmers quickly bought machines. It took only a few people operating cotton-picking machines to do the work of hundreds of laborers. The sharecroppers could not find other work. This system collapsed after they moved to cities in the North and West. By 1950, white people were the majority of the population statewide and in every region outside the Delta.

Mississippi from 1945 to 2000

After the war, African-American veterans and others began to push for better civil rights. Many white people strongly resisted this. This led to violence and other ways of scaring people. Despite this, adult men with families were among those who joined the NAACP and later groups like CORE and SNCC. Because its black population had been so repressed, Mississippi was a key place for the African-American Civil Rights Movement. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate public schools for black and white children were illegal. In response, the state set up the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. This tax-supported group started spying on citizens. It identified professionals like teachers as activists. It shared information about people's activities with White Citizens Councils. These councils formed in many cities and towns. White people used economic threats to stop activism. They fired people from jobs, evicted them from homes, and refused loans. The state's actions gained national attention in 1963 and 1964. Few white leaders in the state supported the effort to secure voting and other civil rights for African Americans.

According to the 1960 census, the state had a population of 2,178,141. Of these, 915,743, or 42%, were black. During their long period without voting rights, white state lawmakers had consistently underfunded separate schools and services for African Americans. They created programs that did not help them. They passed laws that unfairly discriminated against them. African Americans had no representation in local governments, juries, or law enforcement.

Based on complaints and research by the Department of Justice: "In 1962, the United States government sued the State of Mississippi, state election officials, and six county registrars. They claimed that the defendants had violated the voting rights of African-American citizens. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi dismissed the case. But the Supreme Court reversed the decision in March 1965. However, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the District Court could reconsider the case. This made many parts of the case no longer relevant."

Meanwhile, young people tried to integrate the state's colleges. James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi, was met with the Ole Miss riot of 1962. Opponents rushed to the campus from the region. A white mob attacked 500 United States marshals sent by President John F. Kennedy to keep Meredith safe. Rioters attacked the marshals with bricks, bottles, and gunfire. The marshals responded with tear gas. The fighting killed two men and seriously injured dozens more. It made race relations and politics even more divided. White people believed they were under attack from the federal government.

After three civil rights workers were murdered in early summer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started a secret program in September 1964. It was called COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE. This program aimed to expose, disrupt, and stop Ku Klux Klan groups in Mississippi. Their violent activities worried the national government. The program succeeded in creating a feeling of paranoia that turned many Klan members against each other. It helped destroy many Klan groups between 1964 and 1971. Some Klan members later joined other white supremacist groups.

Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

Black activists had been increasing their local work throughout the South. In Mississippi in 1962, several activists formed the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). This group coordinated voter registration and education activities for civil rights groups in Mississippi. These included the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

In 1963, COFO organized a Freedom Vote in Mississippi. This showed that black Mississippians wanted to vote. They had been prevented from voting since laws and constitutional changes in 1890 and 1892. More than 80,000 people quickly registered and voted in mock elections. These elections pitted candidates from the "Freedom Party" against the official state Democratic Party candidates.

In the summer of 1964, COFO brought over a hundred college students, many from outside the state, to Mississippi. They joined local activists to register voters, teach in "Freedom Schools," and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Many white residents strongly disliked the outsiders and their attempts to change their society. The work was dangerous, and activists were threatened.

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964

In 1964, civil rights organizers started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). They wanted to challenge the all-white group from the state party. This white group was based on keeping black people from voting. When Mississippi voting officials refused to recognize their candidates, the MFDP held its own primary election. They chose Fannie Lou Hamer, Annie Devine, and Victoria Gray to run for Congress. They also chose a group of delegates to represent Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

The presence of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was inconvenient for national leaders. Democratic Party organizers had planned a celebration of the Johnson Administration's civil rights achievements. They did not want a fight over racism within the party. President Johnson was also worried about Republican candidate Barry Goldwater gaining support in the "Solid South," which had been a Democratic stronghold. He was also concerned about the support George Wallace had gained in the North during the Democratic primary elections. The all-white groups from other Southern states threatened to leave if the official group from Mississippi was not seated.

Johnson could not stop the MFDP from presenting its case to the Credentials Committee. There, Fannie Lou Hamer spoke powerfully about the beatings she and others endured. She spoke about the threats they faced, all for trying to register to vote and use their constitutional rights. Turning to the television cameras, Hamer asked, "Is this America?"

Johnson offered the MFDP a "compromise." It would receive two non-voting seats, while the white group sent by the official Democratic Party would keep its seats. The MFDP angrily rejected the compromise. The MFDP continued its protests within the convention, even after it was denied official recognition. The 1964 convention disappointed many within the MFDP and the Civil Rights Movement. But it did not destroy the MFDP. The new party invited Malcolm X, head of the Black Muslims, to speak at its founding convention. It also issued a statement opposing the war in Vietnam.

Armed self-defense became a key part of the Southern planning strategy for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) after 1964. The change in thinking about nonviolence within CORE and SNCC happened mainly because of white violence in Mississippi. This included the murders of Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman in Neshoba County. This shift marked the beginning of the end of nonviolence as the main method of the Southern freedom movement.

Southern black people had a history of armed resistance to white violence. This resistance became more organized and intense as the struggle grew. Federal protection often failed to appear. Also, it was the armed protection by local black people and the safe places provided by Mississippi's black farming communities that allowed SNCC and CORE to work effectively in the state.

After 1966, black people moved into the Democratic party. They organized politically to vote, to choose candidates for office, and to win elections. They worked hard to get candidates elected, especially in the Delta. In the Delta, they were the majority of the population and had been oppressed by white officials for a long time.

Mississippi's National Image

During the 1960s, many politicians and officials openly opposed civil rights. The state used tax money to support the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. This commission spied on citizens and helped organize economic boycotts against civil rights activists. The violent actions of Ku Klux Klan members and their supporters gave Mississippi a reputation as a very conservative state. The state was the last to repeal Prohibition (in 1966) and to officially approve the Thirteenth Amendment (in 2013).

Like in other former Confederate states since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has gained more support from white conservatives. These conservatives used to vote Democratic before the Civil War. In Mississippi, the three congressional districts with mostly white populations support Republican candidates. The 2nd congressional district, which has a black majority, has supported Democratic candidates. This happened after the national Democratic party supported the civil rights movement and President Lyndon B. Johnson passed civil rights laws in the mid-1960s. As reporter R.L. Nave of the Jackson Free Press noted in 2012, when Republicans took control of the state government for the first time since Reconstruction, "of course, the Republican Party of the 1880s was very different from the GOP that now rules the state."

Mississippi Since 2000

In recent years, Mississippi has been known for its conservative politics. It has also improved its civil rights record and is becoming more industrialized. In addition, a decision in 1990 to allow riverboat gambling has led to economic gains for the state. However, the state lost about $500,000 per day in tax money after Hurricane Katrina severely damaged several riverboat casinos in August 2005.

Gambling towns in Mississippi include Gulfport and Biloxi on the Gulf Coast. Also, Vicksburg, Tunica Resorts, and Greenville on the Mississippi River. And the town of Philadelphia in the interior. Before Katrina, Mississippi was the second-largest gambling state in the U.S. in terms of money earned. It was behind Nevada and ahead of New Jersey.

Major Hurricanes

• August 17, 1969 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast. It killed 248 people and caused $1.5 billion in damage.
• September 12, 1979 - Hurricane Frederic
• September 2, 1985 - Hurricane Elena
• September 28, 1998 - Hurricane Georges
• August 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina caused the most destruction across the entire 90 miles (140 km) of Mississippi Gulf coast, from Louisiana to Alabama.

Famous Mississippi Authors

Mississippi is known for its many famous authors. These include Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner. Other notable writers are William Alexander Percy, Walker Percy, Shelby Foote, Stark Young, Eudora Welty, and Anne Moody.

Images for kids

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  Newton Knight, a Unionist leader from "The Free State of Jones" in Jones County, Mississippi.