Mississippi Travel Guide

To many people Mississippi is the epitome of the Southern states – in both good and bad ways.  The Mississippi River forms its western boundary, with its legacy of steamboats and cotton plantations.  Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, while two of the South’s greatest writers – Eudora Welty and William Faulkner, were born here.  Historian Shelby Foots was also a Mississippian. 

Mississippi Top Vacation Spots

Biloxi and Gulfport – riverboat casinos

Natchez and Oxford – antebellum mansions

Natchez Trace National Parkway

Vicksburg – Civil War battlefield

Mississippi History

Civil War and Civil Rights

During the Civil War battles were hard-fought all across the state.  Afterwards, freed slaves steadily made progress in owning land and gaining financial independence until 1890.  Then, with Mississippi’s new constitution, came poll taxes and literacy tests.  Without the power to vote or serve on juries, African-Americans steadily lost their land and rights.

During the “Summer of Freedom” in 1964, things came to a head.  When three young men were murdered for helping people to register to vote, it prompted US President Lyndon Johnson to force through passage of the Civil Rights Act.  Today poverty is a problem in rural Mississippi, just as it is in many other rural areas of the United States.