Everything about Mississippi Delta totally explained
The
Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of
Mississippi that lies between the
Mississippi and
Yazoo Rivers. Technically not a
delta but part of an
alluvial plain, it has been said that The Delta "begins in the lobby of the
Peabody Hotel (in
Memphis) and ends on Catfish Row in
Vicksburg" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but often
David Cohn is credited with the saying.) This region, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil in the world. It includes the following;
Washington,
DeSoto,
Humphreys,
Carroll,
Issaquena,
Panola,
Quitman,
Bolivar,
Coahoma,
Leflore,
Sunflower,
Sharkey,
Tunica,
Tallahatchie,
Holmes,
Yazoo, and
Warren counties.
The river delta around the mouth of the Mississippi lies some 300 miles south of this area, and is referred to as the
Mississippi River Delta.
Music
The Delta is strongly associated with the origins of several genres of popular music, including the
Delta blues,
jazz, and
rock and roll, as well as with extreme levels of poverty
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Agriculture and the Delta economy
Plantations
For over two centuries,
agriculture has been the mainstay of the Delta economy.
Sugar cane and
rice were introduced to the region from the
Caribbean in the 18th century. Sugar production was centered in southern
Louisiana, along with rice, and later in the
Arkansas Delta. Early agriculture also included limited
tobacco production in the
Natchez area and
indigo in the lower Mississippi. What began as back bending land clearing by yeoman farmers supported by their extensive families quickly developed into a labor-intensive plantation system based initially on
Native American, and later on African slave labor in the 18th century.
The emergence of the
cotton gin revolutionized the production of
cotton, and by the early 19th century cotton had become the Delta’s premier crop, and would remain so until the
American Civil War. Though cotton planters believed that the alluvial soils of the Mississippi Delta region would always renew, the agricultural boom from the 1830s to the late 1850s caused extensive soil exhaustion and erosion. Yet, lacking agricultural research, planters continued to raise
cotton the same way after the Civil War. Plantations before the war were generally developed on ridges near the rivers, which provided transportation of products to market. Most of the bottomlands behind the ridges were still covered in heavy dense growth of trees, bushes and vines.
Following the Civil War, 90 percent of the bottomlands behind the rivers were undeveloped in Mississippi. This led to the state attracting people to its frontier, where their labor in clearing land could be traded for purchase of land. Tens of thousands of migrants, both black and white, were attracted to the area. By the end of the century, two-thirds of the independent farmers in the Mississippi Delta were black. The extended low price of cotton had caused many to go deeply into debt, and gradually they'd to sell off their lands. From 1910-1920, the first and second generations of African Americans after slavery lost their stake in the land and had to resort to sharecropping and tenant farming.
Sharecropping and
tenant farming replaced the slave-dependent, labor-intensive plantation system. This labor system inhibited the use of progressive agricultural techniques. In the late 19th century, the clearing and drainage of wetlands, especially in
Arkansas and the
Missouri Bootheel, increased lands available for tenant farming and sharecropping.
During the 20th century, lower Delta agriculture evolved into large farms owned by nonresident corporate entities. These heavily mechanized, low labor, and capital-intensive farm entities, consisting of hundreds and thousands of acres, produce market-driven crops such as cotton, sugar, rice, and
soybeans.
Mechanization
During the 1920s and 1930s, in the aftermath of the increasing mechanization of Delta farms, displaced whites and
African-Americans began to leave the land and move to towns and cities. It wasn't until the
Great Depression years of the 1930s that large scale farm mechanization came to the region, but farm
mechanization didn't occur overnight in the Delta. The mechanization of agriculture and the availability of domestic work outside the Delta spurred the migration of Delta residents out of the region. Farming was unable to absorb the available
labor force and entire families moved together.
From the late 1930s through the 1950s, the Delta experienced an agriculture boom, as wartime needs followed by reconstruction in Europe expanded the demand for the Delta region’s farm products. As the mechanization of agriculture continued, women continued to leave the fields and go into service work, while the men drove tractors and worked on the farms. From the 1960s through the 1990s, thousands of small farms and dwellings in the Delta region were absorbed by large corporate-owned
agribusinesses, and the smallest Delta communities have stagnated.
Diversification
Remnants of the region’s
agrarian heritage are scattered along the highways and byways of the lower Delta. Larger communities have survived by fostering
economic development in
education,
government, and
medicine. Other endeavors such as
catfish,
poultry, rice,
corn, and soybean farming have assumed greater importance. Today, the monetary value of these crops rivals that of cotton production in the lower Mississippi Delta.
In recent years, due to the growth of the
automobile industry in the South, many parts suppliers have opened facilities in the Delta (as well as on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River, another area of high poverty). Moreover, the 1990s legalization of
casino gambling in Mississippi has boosted the Delta's economy, particularly in the areas of Tunica and Vicksburg.
A large cultural influence in the region is its history of hunting and fishing. Hunting in the Delta is primarily made up of Whitetail Deer, Wild Turkey, and waterfowl, along with many small game species (squirrel, rabbit, dove, quail, racoon, etc.) For many years and even today hunting and fishing has been a major economic engine for this region.
Principal towns
Famous Deltans
Musicians
Mose Allison, jazz pianist and singer
Sam Cooke, musician
Bobbie Gentry, singer, musician, Ode to Billy Jo
John Lee Hooker, blues musician
Son House, blues musician
Mississippi John Hurt, blues singer
Skip James, blues musician
Robert Johnson, blues musician
Charlie Patton, blues musician
Ike Turner, musician
Muddy Waters, blues musician
B.B. King, blues musician
Jimmie Rodgers, country musician
Henry Sloan, musician
Bukka White, blues musician
Howlin' Wolf, blues musician
Others
Haley Barbour, Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chairman
Hodding Carter, journalist and author
Dave “Boo” Ferriss, professional baseball player
Shelby Foote, author and historian
Morgan Freeman, actor
Jim Gallagher, Jr., professional golfer
Lawrence Gordon, movie producer
Jim Henson, Muppets creator
Kent Hull, professional football player
James Earl Jones, actor
Archie Manning, professional football player
Willie Morris, author
Leroy Percy, U.S. Senator
William Alexander Percy, author
Walker Percy, author
Frederick W. Smith, CEO, FedEx
Emmett Till, lynching victim
Tennessee Williams, playwright
Zig Ziglar, inspirational speaker
Festivals
Festivals are important to the Mississippi Delta region, allowing each town or community the opportunity to celebrate their unique heritage. Following is a list of various festivals in the Delta:
March:
Italian Festival of Mississippi (Cleveland)
April:
Rivergate Festival (Tunica)
World Catfish Festival (Belzoni)
Leland Crawfish Festival (Leland)
Crosstie Arts & Jazz Festival (Cleveland)
Juke Joint Festival (Clarksdale)
May:
Deep Delta Festival (Rolling Fork)
River to the Rails Festival (Greenwood)
Mainstream Arts & Crafts Festival (Greenville)
Summerfest (Hollandale)
Showfest (Greenville)
June:
B.B. King Homecoming Festival (Indianola)
Highway 61 Blues Festival (Leland)
Delta Jubilee (Clarksdale)
July:
First Friday Jazz Festival (Greenville)
August:
Sunflower River Blues Festival (Clarksdale)
September:
Delta Air and Balloon Festival (Greenville)
Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival
October:
Great Delta Bear Affair (External Link)
Octoberfest (Cleveland)
November:
Electroacoustic Juke Joint (Cleveland) (External Link)
December:
Roy Martin Delta Band Festival (Greenwood)
Education
Universities
Delta State University ((External Link))
Mississippi Valley State University ((External Link))
Community Colleges
Mississippi Delta Community College ((External Link))
Coahoma Community College ((External Link))
Media and publishing
Newspapers, Magazines and Journals
Belzoni Banner (published weekly) ((External Link))
Delta Magazine (published bi-monthly) ((External Link))
Delta Business Journal (published monthly) ((External Link))
Clarksdale Press Register (published daily) ((External Link))
Cleveland Bolivar Commercial (published daily) ((External Link))
Greenville Delta Democrat Times (published daily) ((External Link))
Greenwood Commonwealth (published daily) ((External Link))
The Tunica Times (published weekly) ((External Link))
Television
WABG (Greenwood)
WXVT (Greenville)
Northern Delta served by Memphis TV Stations.
Transportation
Air Transportation
Tunica Municipal Airport (Tunica) ((External Link))
Mid Delta Regional Airport (Greenville)
Greenwood-Leflore Airport (Greenwood)
Cleveland Municipal Airport (Cleveland)
Indianola Municipal Airport (Indianola)
Yazoo County Airport (Yazoo City)
Fletcher Field Airport (Clarksdale)
Highways
U.S. Route 82 runs from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Brunswick, Georgia
U.S. Route 49 runs from Piggott, Arkansas to Gulfport, Mississippi
U.S. Route 61 runs from Wyoming, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana
Appearance in culture
The Mississippi Delta is the setting for several stories by William Faulkner, most notably "The Bear" from Go Down, Moses.
The Paul Simon song "Graceland", from an album of the same name, memorably begins with the line "The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar."
Crossroads starring Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) is a movie that's loosely based on bluesman Robert Johnson.
Down in the Delta was a 1998 film directed by Maya Angelou and starring Alfre Woodard about a woman from the city who moves with her children to the rural Delta.
My Dog Skip is set in Yazoo City in both the book and the movie was filmed there.
Several scenes from O, Brother, Where Art Thou? are set in the Delta, and the film was partially shot in Yazoo City. The film even mentions small Delta towns Itta Bena and Satartia by name, not to mention "The Crossroads".
Sources
Nile of the New World, John Gunther, National Park ServiceFurther Information
Get more info on 'Mississippi Delta'.
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