PSI of Oregon^TM

About Mississippi

Featuring antebellum mansions and extensive cotton fields, as well as ornamental Southern Magnolia trees and Civil War battlefields, Mississippi is known as the Magnolia State. Perhaps more than any other Southern state, Mississippi symbolizes the Deep South.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes occupied Mississippi when Hernando de Soto explored the area in 1540. Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10, 1817, but separated and became part of the Confederacy from 1861 until the end of the Civil War. Antebellum plantations, cotton fields, Civil War battlefields, and around a million African-American citizens in Mississippi serve as a reminder of the state's past. Although racism was especially fierce in Mississippi during the 1960s, many improvements have occurred over the past half-century.

Historical sites in Mississippi are not limited to the Civil War era. Elvis Presley was born here in 1935, and many blues players originated in this southern state.