Portal:Mississippi

The Mississippi Portal

Mississippi Governor's Mansion in Jackson.

The State of Mississippi is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. The capital of Mississippi, and the largest city in the state, is Jackson based on 2000 census data.

The largest county by population is Hinds and largest by area is Bolivar. The Jackson metropolitan area is Louisiana's largest.

The first European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of Hernando de Soto, who passed through in 1540. The first settlement was Fort Maurepas (or Old Biloxi) at Ocean Springs, settled by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in April 1699. In 1716, Natchez was founded on the Mississippi River (as Fort Rosalie); it became the dominant town and trading post of the area. After spending some time under Spanish, British, and French nominal jurisdiction, the Mississippi area was deeded to the British after the French and Indian War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763).

The Mississippi Territory was organized on April 7, 1798, from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina; it was later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain. Land was purchased (generally through unequal treaties) from Native American tribes from 1800 to about 1830.

Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the Union, on December 10, 1817. (read more . . . )

Selected article

The Alamo Theater, located at 333 North Farish Street in Jackson, Mississippi, is a dual purpose theater located in the Farish Street Historic District, which was the mecca of a thriving black professional and trade community before desegregation.

There have been three buildings to bare the Alamo Theater name in Jackson. The first structure was located on Farish Street in the 100 block across from where the McCoy Federal Building now stands and opened in 1915. The second Alamo was located on West Amite Street at Roach Street and opened in 1928.

The third Alamo opened February 26, 1949 seating 750. In its early days, it functioned as a cinema featuring westerns and African American films. The facility also served as a performing arts theater featuring black vaudeville acts, stage bands, and black performing artists including B.B King and Nat King Cole. It was here that longtime Muddy Waters pianist Otis Spann won a talent contest at the age of eight.

The Alamo Theater was one of the last "dual purpose" theaters in the United States.

By 1983 everything came to a halt and the Alamo closed. (read more . . . )

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Selected biography

"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (born July 2, 1892 in Teoc, Mississippi in Carroll County - died November 2, 1966 in Grenada, Mississippi) was an influential blues singer and guitarist.

Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. In 1923 he often partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour (Carroll County Blues) as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. When Narmour got a chance to record for Okeh Records in reward for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, Narmour recommended John Hurt to OKeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in Memphis and New York City (See Discography below). The "Mississippi" tag was added by OKeh as a sales gimmick. After the commercial failure of the resulting disc and OKeh records going out of business during the depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances. (read more . . . )

Did you know...

• ...Condensed milk was invented and first canned in Liberty by Gail Borden?
• ...The first bottle of Dr. Tichener's Antiseptic was produced in Liberty also?
• ...The first female rural mail carrier in the United States was Mrs. Mamie Thomas? She delivered mail by buggy to the area southeast of Vicksburg in 1914.
• ...In 1963 the University of Mississippi Medical Center accomplished the world's first human lung transplant and, on January 23, 1964, Dr. James D. Hardy performed the world's first heart transplant surgery?
• ...The world's largest cactus plantation is in Edwards?
• ...Burnita Shelton Mathews of Hazelhurst was the first woman federal judge in the United States and served in Washington, D.C.?
• ...Mississippi was the first state in the nation to have a planned system of junior colleges?
• ...David Harrison of Columbus owns the patent on the Soft Toilet Seat. Over 1,000,000 are sold every year?
• ...The first football player on a Wheaties box was Walter Payton of Columbia?
• ...The Vicksburg National Cemetery is the second largest national cemetery in the country? Arlington National Cemetery is the largest.
• ...Pine Sol was invented in 1929 by Jackson native Harry A. Cole, Sr.?
• ...Root beer was invented in Biloxi in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, Sr. and is sold still today as Barq's Root Beer?
• ...Natchez was settled by the French in 1716 and is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River? Natchez once had 500 millionaires, more than any other city except New York City.
• ...S.B. Sam Vick of Oakland played for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox? He was the only man ever to pinch hit for the baseball great Babe Ruth.

Source: Rep. Bennie Thompson official U.S. House of Representative web site

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Mississippi news

• Tornadoes in central US kill nearly two dozen people
• Many killed in tornadoes across southern U.S.
• Ole Miss player arrested; charged with selling steroids

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Web resources

• Mississippi Governor
• Mississippi Lieutenant Governor
• Mississippi Attorney General
• Mississippi Secretary of State
• Mississippi State Auditor
• Mississippi State Treasurer
• Mississippi State Insurance Commissioner
• Mississippi State Supreme Court
• Mississippi State Legislature
• U.S. Census Bureau Mississippi Data
• USDA Mississippi Statistical Facts
• USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Mississippi

Spotlight city

Clinton is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. Situated in the Jackson metropolitan area, it is the tenth largest city in Mississippi.

Clinton, founded in 1823 was originally known as Mount Salus, which means "Mountain of health". Mount Salus was also the name of the home of Walter Leake, third governor of Mississippi, which was located in Clinton and built in 1812. It is supposedly the first brick house built in the United States. In 1828, the name was changed from Mount Salus to Clinton in honor of DeWitt Clinton, the former governor of New York. The first road through Mount Salus/Clinton was the Natchez Trace.

Confederate forces, as well as Union troops - both under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and General Sherman - briefly occupied Clinton during the American Civil War on the way to the Battle of Vicksburg in May 1863. During World War II, Camp Clinton was established, a German POW camp south of town which housed about 3,000 German soldiers. (read more . . . )

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