USA Guide
The South
Mississippi
Before the Civil War, when cotton was king and slavery remained unchallenged, Mississippi was the nation's fifth wealthiest state. Since that war, it remains the poorest, its dependence on cotton a handicap that leaves it victim to the vagaries of the commodities market.
From Reconstruction onwards, Mississippi was also infamous as the strongest bastion of segregation in the South. It witnessed some of the most notorious incidents of the civil rights era, from the lynching of Chicago teenager Emmett Till in 1955 to the murder of three activists during the "Freedom Summer" of 1964. Not until the early Seventies did the church bombings and murders end. Even today, racial tension is palpable and difficult to deny, and the poverty hidden down rural backroads - or clearly visible just across the railroad tracks - may come as a shock to many visitors.
The legalization of gambling during the early 1990s stimulated the economy, with the giant casinos of Biloxi drawing visitors to the Gulf Coast. However, the shoreline suffered such appalling devastation from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that it is will be undergoing major reconstruction for years.
Mississippi's principal city is its capital, Jackson, but historic river towns like Vicksburg and Natchez provide good reasons to stray off the interstates. Literary Oxford has an appealing ambiance, while blues fans will need no encouragement to go exploring sleepy Delta settlements such as Alligator or Yazoo City.
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