Mississippi | history - geography - state, United States | Britannica.com
state, United States
(2010) 2,967,297; (2016 est.) 2,988,726
Total area (sq mi)
"Virtute et Armis (By Valor and Arms)"
State bird2
Seats in U.S. House of Representatives
4 (of 435)
1Excluding military abroad.
2The wood duck is the state waterfowl.
Mississippi, constituent state of the United States of America. Its name derives from a Native American word meaning “great waters” or “father of waters.” Mississippi became the 20th state of the union in 1817. Jackson is the state capital.
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State capitol building (front) and the cityscape of Jackson, Miss., U.S.
Philip Gould/Corbis
Mississippi is smaller than most of the U.S. states and is bounded on the north by Tennessee , on the east by Alabama , on the south by Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico , and on the west by Louisiana and Arkansas . Mississippi is naturally well suited to agriculture; its soil is rich and deep, and its landscape is laced with many rivers. Until the mid-20th century the dominance of a rural, unhurried lifestyle generally worked to the state’s advantage. This way of life was manifest in part in a culture of gentility, the legacy of which is still evident in the many historic mansions located in such old towns as Columbus , Biloxi , Natchez , Vicksburg , and Holly Springs .
Longwood, an antebellum mansion in Natchez, Miss., U.S.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
With increasing urbanization and industrialization, however, the leisurely approach to life in many ways became a hindrance to Mississippi’s economic and social development. For decades an unusually large dependent population, a predominantly agricultural economy, and a prevailing resistance to change have kept Mississippi’s per capita income low and created an inadequate standard of living for many families. Moreover, the state has been the site of intense interracial conflict, sitting centre stage during the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. In the early 21st century roughly half of all Mississippians still lived in rural areas—though not necessarily on farms—and the state continued to rank low in many economic indexes. Area 48,441 square miles (125,460 square km). Population (2010) 2,967,297; (2016 est.) 2,988,726.
Land
Elvis Presley
Mississippi is a low-lying state, its highest point reaching only about 800 feet (240 metres) above sea level . Except for its hilly northeast corner, Mississippi lies entirely within the eastern gulf segment of the broader Coastal Plain physiographic region. It has generally low topographic elevations and extensive tracts of marshy land. Its major soil areas encompass hills, plains, prairies, river lowlands, and pine woods.
Relief and soils
In the northwestern part of the state, the great fertile crescent called the Delta is the old floodplain of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, comprising some 6,250 square miles (16,200 square km) of black alluvial soil several feet deep. Once subject to disastrous floods, the land is now protected by levee and reservoir systems.
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Opening land to farming and hunting reduced the once abundant wildlife drastically. Some animals, such as wolves and pumas (cougars), are extinct in the state; bobcats are rare and bears even rarer. Deer, however, are once again thriving, and the population of wild turkeys has increased significantly. The state has a variety of resident and migratory birds, including, among others, bald and golden eagles, many types of waterfowl and wading birds, and an array of warblers, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds. Some game fish can be caught throughout the year, with catfish , bream, bass, and perch the leading freshwater species. The gulf is rich in shrimp, oysters, and fish, together forming the mainstay of an extensive commercial fishery.
People
Population composition
People of white European ancestry—primarily British, Irish, or northern European—account for about three-fifths of Mississippi’s residents, while African Americans make up nearly all of the remainder. Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans each constitute just a tiny fraction of the population, with Hispanics being the largest of the three groups. The vast majority of Mississippians were born in-state, although in the late 20th century there was a wave of immigrants, mainly from Vietnam and India.
Until about 1940, people of African descent constituted the majority of Mississippi’s population. By the late 20th century, however, they had become a minority (albeit a large one), owing primarily to a very high rate of out-migration. Nevertheless, in the early 21st century Mississippi had a greater percentage of African American residents than did any other state. The small Chinese population, concentrated mostly in the Delta, is descended from farm labourers brought there from California in the 1870s. The Chinese did not adjust well to the Mississippi plantation system, however, and most of them became small merchants. Many of the Southeast Asian immigrants of the late 20th century were attracted by the state’s coastal fishing industry. Much of the Native American population lives in the central section of the state. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the state’s only federally recognized Native American group, has reservation lands in the vicinity of Jackson.
Related Topics
University of Southern Mississippi
Various Protestant denominations dominate Mississippi’s religious life, most notably Baptists and United Methodists . The Roman Catholic population is concentrated in the urban centres and the southernmost areas, especially the coastal counties. The small Jewish community is almost entirely urban. Mississippi’s Buddhist and Muslim populations are tiny.
Settlement patterns
The landscape of Mississippi—one of forests, fields, towns, and growing cities—comprises a number of locally recognized cultural regions that generally correspond to the state’s geographic regions but follow a somewhat different terminology. Almost every Mississippian speaks colloquially of the Delta and the adjacent North Central Hills (or simply, the Hills), a highland region to the east; the Prairie (comprising the Central and Black prairies), or the Black Belt; North Mississippi and the Northeast; the Piney Woods, or South Mississippi; and the Coast, to refer to the entire coastal area. The state’s largest metropolitan areas are Jackson , Biloxi , Gulfport , and Pascagoula .
Geographers may speak of the Yazoo basin in the northwestern part of the state, but to the people of Mississippi it is the Delta , historically characterized by aristocratic plantation traditions and now a region of highly mechanized farming. Many Delta families originally came from the Hills to the east, which also is an agricultural zone. Adjacent to the Hills, but with more-productive lands, the Prairie region reflects some of the ways and style of both the Hills and the Delta. Northeast Mississippi developed as an area of small family farms and few plantations.
What historians call the Piney Woods, covering most of the state south of Jackson, the people call South Mississippi. Though settled early, this region did not prosper until the great virgin pine forests were exploited—and heavily reduced—in the early 20th century. The area has continued to flourish, with most residents engaged in diverse agricultural activities, including forestry, cattle raising, and specialty farming, or in the rapidly expanding industrial and commercial sector.
The Coast is atypical of the state as a whole. It is more Roman Catholic than upstate, and its blend of various European, Hispanic, and, more recently, Asian heritages makes it the most heterogeneous of Mississippi’s regions. Many residents of the Coast were attracted not only by the area’s location and pleasant climate but also by its employment opportunities in various industries, gambling casinos, and resort hotels.
Demographic trends
Frequent movement by sharecroppers and tenant farmers from one farmstead to another was commonplace until the early 20th century. Around the 1920s the economic focus began to shift to the cities and towns, and, as it shifted, patterns of migration—and emigration—also changed; many Mississippians moved to less-rural regions in other states, and for a time emigration outweighed natural population growth. About three-fourths of the white emigrants moved to other Southern states, whereas the same proportion of African American emigrants left the South entirely. By the mid-20th century, however, the surge of emigration had subsided, and the population again had begun to increase. Growth continued throughout the subsequent decades; it was accompanied by a slow but steady loss of farm population, a decline of smaller towns, and a significant expansion of cities (settlements of more than 10,000 inhabitants). Despite this rural-to-urban flow, there remained in the early 21st century no great extremes of population density within Mississippi.
Economy
Although there has been significant improvement in employment and compensation in Mississippi since the mid-20th century, growth at the regional and national levels has been proportionately greater; consequently, in the early 21st century the state remained disadvantaged economically, with a per capita gross product that was among the lowest in the country. Manufacturing and services —primarily government (federal, state, and local), retail and wholesale trade, real estate, and health and social services—are the largest sectors of the state’s economy. The services sector has expanded particularly rapidly since the late 20th century.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Mississippi’s economy became less dependent on agriculture in the second half of the 20th century, and the number of farms and farm acreages declined significantly. By the early 21st century the sector represented only a tiny share of the state’s gross product and employed an even smaller segment of the population. Cotton, once king of Mississippi’s agricultural sector, now shares its reign with livestock, catfish from aquaculture , poultry, and various crops such as soybeans and sweet potatoes. The great majority of the state’s farms focus on livestock and dairy products, and Mississippi has become a leading producer of broiler chickens.
Cotton-picking machines in a field in Mississippi, U.S.
Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce
Workers harvesting catfish from a fish farm in Mississippi, U.S.
Ken Hammond/USDA
Lands in Mississippi that are unsuited to the cultivation of row crops are largely used for tree farms, orchards, or pastures. The state maintains an intensive reforestation program to replace the trees that are harvested each year as part of its forestry industry. Mississippi is one of the country’s top producers of lumber and wood-related products.
Resources and power
Petroleum and natural gas account for the great bulk (in volume and in value) of all minerals produced in Mississippi. Important nonmetallic minerals include sand and gravel, fuller’s earth, and other clays. Iron has been mined intermittently since the late 19th century. Aluminum ores are low in quality, and they have been little exploited.
Most of Mississippi’s electrical power comes from plants fired by coal and natural gas and to a somewhat lesser extent from a nuclear power station near Port Gibson . Hydroelectric power in smaller amounts is brought into Mississippi from Tennessee Valley Authority dams and through interconnections with power companies in other states. A few private companies, numerous rural cooperatives, and several municipal generating systems are in operation.
Manufacturing
In 1936 Mississippi adopted an industrial development program to “balance agriculture with industry,” and in 1965 the state’s industrial employment exceeded the number of agricultural workers for the first time. Manufacturing continued to expand until the end of the 20th century, when, following national trends, it began to decline. In the early 21st century, however, the sector remained an important contributor to the state’s gross product and a major source of employment. Mississippi’s principal manufactures include upholstered furniture, automotive parts, lumber and wood-related products (such as pulp and naval stores ), and processed foods (especially seafood from the coastal waters). Pascagoula is the site of a major shipbuilding company.
Services, labour, and taxation
Mirroring the trend in many other states, the service sector in Mississippi has been on an upward swing since the late 20th century. A particularly notable development in the sector has been the expansion of casinos. In 1990 the Mississippi legislature legalized dockside casino gambling along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. Casinos have since opened at various locations along the coast and in Natchez, Vicksburg, and Tunica county, which is one of the largest gaming markets in the United States. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians also operates a casino on tribal lands near the town of Philadelphia .
The government is a major employer in Mississippi. Among the most prominent of the federal institutions is the John C. Stennis Space Center, located on the southern coast between Gulfport and New Orleans. It is one of NASA’s primary testing facilities for rockets—including the U.S. space shuttles .
Labour union membership in Mississippi is relatively small, although widely dispersed. Most large employers have a union membership. The state has a right-to-work law that prohibits compulsory union membership, however.
Mississippi’s major sources of revenue are sales taxes, followed by personal and corporate income taxes, gasoline taxes, and gaming income. Local governments derive their greatest income from property taxes. Considerable amounts of federal monies are provided through numerous federal and state agencies.
Transportation
Rail transportation, a large segment of which is entirely intrastate, has generally declined since the late 20th century. However, the state’s secondary highway system has improved significantly. The heaviest volume of traffic is along the Gulf Coast, where numerous north–south and east–west routes converge.
Gulfport and Pascagoula can accommodate oceangoing ships, and low-draft oceangoing vessels can travel up the Mississippi River to Natchez , Vicksburg , and Greenville . Barge traffic moves on the Mississippi, Pearl , and Yazoo rivers. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway passes through the Mississippi Sound along the Gulf Coast.
Mississippi has scores of public and private airports. Most large cities offer commercial service. There are international airports in the Jackson and Gulfport-Biloxi areas.
Government and society
Constitutional framework
As delineated in the constitution of 1890, Mississippi’s government has executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Most heads of executive departments are elected rather than appointed, and the executive branch includes the governor, the lieutenant governor, and several other officials, all of whom are elected to four-year terms. Executive officials may be reelected or reappointed to office.
State Capitol, Jackson, Miss., U.S.
Joel Brown/Shostal Associates
Mississippi has a bicameral legislature, consisting of a 122-member House of Representatives and a 52-member Senate . The legislature meets in annual sessions. Representatives and senators are both elected to four-year terms.
The municipal and justice courts are the lowest courts in the state’s judicial system. The municipal courts handle cases involving misdemeanour crimes, traffic tickets, and violations of city ordinances. Justice courts have original jurisdiction in certain cases where fines, sentences, and judgments do not exceed prescribed limits; they also deal with traffic violations that occur outside the municipalities. Some large counties maintain a county court. There are special courts to handle youth offenses and drug crimes. Chancery courts have jurisdiction over matters of equity , probate, juvenile delinquency (where county courts do not exist), divorce, and mental competence. Circuit courts are the main trial courts for major suits, criminal cases, and appeals from justice and county courts.
An intermediate court of appeals, which consists of 10 judges (two from each of the state’s five congressional districts) who are elected to eight-year terms, hears cases assigned to it by the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeals; its nine justices are elected, from three judicial districts, for staggered terms of eight years. All lower court judges are elected to four-year terms.
Each of Mississippi’s counties is governed by a five-member board of supervisors elected to a four-year term. Municipalities may be incorporated as villages, towns, or cities. Governments of these units are of the mayor-council type with aldermen, the commission type with several commissioners (including the mayor), or the city-manager type, in which the manager is appointed by the council. State and county officials are elected in a November general election. Party primaries are held in August.
From the end of Reconstruction (1865–77) until the late 1940s, the Democratic Party was essentially the only party in Mississippi. As in many states of the South , literacy tests, poll taxes , and other restrictive measures kept most black citizens from being able to participate in the electoral process. Disaffection among Mississippi’s white voters with the national Democratic Party over civil rights broke its domination in 1948, and thereafter, with few exceptions, advocates of states’ rights (the use of state power to oppose national legislation) or otherwise conservative Republican presidential candidates received the state’s electoral college votes. Increasing participation by black voters, made possible by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act a year later, prompted a realignment of party politics in Mississippi. For a time, two Democratic parties existed—a predominantly black loyalist faction allied with the more liberal national party, and a conservative wing identified with the traditional white power structure. The two wings of the Democratic Party were unified in 1972, but most of the white conservative Democrats eventually switched to the Republican Party . In the 1980s a viable two-party system emerged in Mississippi, and in 1991 a Republican governor was elected in Mississippi for the first time since Reconstruction. Since the late 20th century, African Americans have won election to an increasing number of local and state offices throughout the state. In national politics, Republicans have come to dominate elections, having won the state in all but one presidential election since 1972.
Health and welfare
Health, welfare, and other measurements of the quality of life in Mississippi necessarily must be considered in the perspective of the state’s long history of segregation and racial discrimination . The high infant mortality rate and welfare dependency are linked to a century of poverty, injustice, discrimination, and resistance to change that have impeded the development of the state’s natural and human resources. Almost all counties have some form of relief or welfare programs that involve federal funds. Welfare services include aid to the blind and disabled, the elderly , and dependent children. Health programs are administered by several state agencies, including the Board of Health, which dates from 1877.
Historically, the state has been in the vanguard of public health services. The causes of pellagra (a nutritional disorder) were discovered in Mississippi in 1915. A model mosquito-control program eradicated yellow fever, and the state tuberculosis sanitarium became recognized nationally.
Education
Mississippi’s primary and secondary public school system has typically ranked low by almost all measurable standards. Following years of turmoil brought on by the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling ( Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ) against racial segregation in public schools, the state committed itself to a dramatic improvement of its schools. The Education Reform Act of 1982, the reinstatement of compulsory attendance for children between ages 6 and 14, competency testing of high school students, the creation of an appointed state school board, and the establishment of an early childhood education program are measures that the state has taken to enhance the quality of education. The success of these measures since the late 20th century has been evident in the diminishing school dropout rate and the steady improvement in educational test scores. Mississippi also has a long history of pioneering work in the education of blind and deaf children; the Mississippi School for the Deaf, established by an act of legislature in 1854, continues to operate in Jackson .
In contrast to its primary- and secondary-school record, Mississippi has a distinguished history of higher education. Although it did not survive the American Civil War , Jefferson College (founded in 1802) was among the earliest public postsecondary institutions in the country. Elizabeth Female Academy (founded in 1818) is considered by some historians to be the first women’s college. In the late 19th century the Mississippi legislature allocated a portion of the state’s land-grant funds to Alcorn University, which had been established at Lorman in 1871, and renamed the institution Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. Alcorn A&M, which is now Alcorn State University , was the first land-grant college in the United States for African American students, and it continues to be prominent among the country’s historically black universities (HBUs). Jackson State University (opened 1877) also is a long-standing, nationally recognized HBU and Mississippi’s premier urban institution. In 1884 Mississippi established the Industrial Institute and College at Columbus (now the Mississippi University for Women), the country’s first state-supported institution granting diplomas to women. Other important universities include the University of Mississippi (founded in 1844; commonly called Ole Miss), located at Oxford ; Mississippi State University (opened in 1878), in Starkville ; and Mississippi Valley State University (opened in 1950), the state’s third HBU, in Itta Bena.
Among the state’s major research institutions are the University of Southern Mississippi (founded in 1910), with its Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (founded in 1947), and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (founded in 1972). The world’s first human heart and lung transplants were performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, a facility that is renowned for its innovative work in organ transplantation and hypertension research. In addition to major universities and research centres, Mississippi has dozens of community colleges, colleges for senior citizens, and smaller universities.
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