When cotton was king -
and slavery was as yet unchallenged - MISSISSIPPI was
the nation's fifth wealthiest state. Since the Civil War, however,
it has been the poorest, its dependence on cotton now a handicap
that makes it victim to the vagaries of the commodities market.
Widespread poverty has long endured alongside pockets of enormous
riches, and white Mississippi was notorious for violent resistance
to black political participation. Not until the early Seventies
did the church bombings and murders come to an end, and no one
could claim that racial tension has ceased to exist. To some
extent, the economy has regenerated since Mississippi's first
Republican governor in a century, Kirk Fordice , decided to legalize
gambling; the giant casinos may be lumbering eyesores that seem
pitifully out of place on the sweeping Delta flatlands, but they're
sucking considerable revenues across the state line from Memphis,
Tennessee. Even today, you only have to take a detour down some
rural side road to encounter pockets of truly scandalous black
poverty, but with the profits from gaming being ploughed into
education in Mississippi's poorest counties, the state may finally
manage to shake off its appalling reputation for inequality.
While the major city is
the capital, Jackson , historic river towns like Vicksburg and Natchez provide good reasons
to stay off the interstates, and blues fans will need no encouragement
to go exploring sleepy Delta settlements such as Alligator or
Yazoo City.
THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA