Jackson, Mississippi
Encyclopedia
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi
. It is one of two county seat
s of Hinds County
(the town of Raymond
is the other),. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census
to 173,514 at the 2010 census
. The 2010 census ascribed a population of 539,005 to the five-county Jackson metropolitan area
.
The current slogan for the city is Jackson, Mississippi: City with Soul. Jackson is ranked 3rd out of America's 100 largest metro areas for the best "Bang For Your Buck" city according to Forbes magazine. The study measured overall affordability, housing rates, and more. The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" ranks Jackson as the 23rd most dangerous city in America. The city is named after Andrew Jackson
, who was still a general at the time of the naming but later became president. The city is the anchor of the Metro area.
USS Jackson (LCS-6)
will be the first ship of the United States Navy
to be named in honor of the city.
The region which is now the city of Jackson was originally part of the Choctaw
Nation. Under pressure from the US government, the Choctaw
Native Americans agreed to removal
from all lands east of the Mississippi River
under the terms of several treaties. Although many Choctaws then moved to present-day Oklahoma
, a significant number chose to stay in their homeland, citing Article XIV of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
. The area now called Jackson was obtained under the terms of the Treaty of Doak's Stand
in 1820. After the treaty was ratified, European-American settlers began to move into the area. Today, most Choctaws, who are part of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
, live on several Indian communities
located throughout the state. The largest community is located in Choctaw, MS, 100 mi (160.9 km) northeast of the city.
trade route. The area then became known as LeFleur's Bluff. LeFleur's Bluff was founded based on the need for a centrally located capital for the state of Mississippi. In 1821, the Mississippi General Assembly, meeting in the then-capital of Natchez
, had sent Thomas Hinds
(for whom Hinds County
is named), James Patton, and William Lattimore to look for a site. The absolute center of the state was a swamp, which forced the group to look close by for a new capital. After surveying
areas north and east of Jackson, they proceeded southwest along the Pearl River
until they reached LeFleur's Bluff in Hinds County. Their report to the General Assembly stated that this location had beautiful and healthful surroundings, good water, abundant timber, navigable waters, and proximity to the trading route Natchez Trace
. And so, a legislative Act
passed by the Assembly on November 28, 1821, authorized the location to become the permanent seat of the government of the state of Mississippi. One Whig politician lamented the new capital as a "serious violation of principle" because it was not at the absolute center of the state (a swamp occupied this spot).
Jackson was named for General Andrew Jackson
, later the seventh President of the United States, in recognition of his victory in the Battle of New Orleans
.
During the late 18th century and early 19th century, the area was traversed by the Natchez Trace
, on which a trading post stood before a treaty with the Choctaw, the Treaty of Doak's Stand
in 1820, formally opened the area for non-native American settlers.
Jackson was originally planned, in April 1822, by Peter Van Dorn in a "checkerboard
" pattern advocated by Thomas Jefferson
, in which city blocks alternated with parks and other open spaces, giving the appearance of a checkerboard. This plan has not lasted to the present day.
The state legislature
first met in Jackson on December 23, 1822.
In 1839, Jackson was the site of the passage of the first state law that permitted married women to own and administer their own property.
Jackson was first linked with other cities by rail in 1840. An 1844 map shows Jackson linked by an east-west rail line running between Vicksburg
, Raymond, and Brandon
. Unlike Vicksburg, Greenville
, and Natchez
, Jackson is not located on the Mississippi River
, and did not develop like those cities from river commerce. Instead, railroads would later spark growth of the city in the decades after the American Civil War
.
which ended in the capture of Vicksburg
, Union
forces captured Jackson during two battles—once before the fall of Vicksburg and once after the fall of Vicksburg.
On May 13, 1863, Union forces won the first Battle of Jackson, forcing Confederate
forces to flee northward towards Canton
. On May 15, Union troops under the command
of William Tecumseh Sherman
burned and looted key facilities in Jackson, a strategic manufacturing and railroad center for the Confederacy
. After driving the Confederate forces out of Jackson, Union forces turned west once again and engaged the Vicksburg defenders at the Battle of Champion Hill
in nearby Edwards
. The siege of Vicksburg began soon after the Union victory at Champion Hill. Confederate forces began to reassemble in Jackson in preparation for an attempt to break through the Union lines surrounding Vicksburg and end the siege
there. The Confederate forces in Jackson built defensive fortification
s encircling the city while preparing to march west to Vicksburg.
Confederate forces marched out of Jackson to break the siege of Vicksburg in early July 1863. However, unknown to them, Vicksburg had already surrendered on July 4, 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant
dispatched General Sherman to meet the Confederate forces heading west from Jackson. Upon learning that Vicksburg had already surrendered, the Confederates retreated back into Jackson, thus beginning the Siege of Jackson, which lasted for approximately one week. Union forces encircled the city and began an artillery
bombardment
. One of the Union artillery emplacements still remains intact on the grounds of the University of Mississippi Medical Center
in Jackson. Another Federal position is still intact on the campus of Millsaps College
. One of the Confederate Generals defending Jackson was former United States Vice President
John C. Breckenridge. On July 16, 1863, Confederate forces slipped out of Jackson during the night and retreated across the Pearl River. Union forces completely burned the city after its capture this second time, and the city earned the nickname "Chimneyville" because only the chimney
s of houses were left standing. The northern line of Confederate defenses in Jackson during the siege was located along a road near downtown Jackson, now known as Fortification Street.
Today there are few antebellum
structures left standing in Jackson. One surviving structure is the Governor's Mansion
, built in 1842, which served as Sherman's headquarters. Another is the Old Capitol
building, which served as the home of the Mississippi state legislature from 1839 to 1903. There the Mississippi legislature passed the ordinance of secession from the Union on January 9, 1861, becoming the second state to secede from the United States.
In 1875 the Red Shirts were formed, one of a second wave of insurgent paramilitary organizations that essentially operated as "the military arm of the Democratic Party" to take back political power from the Republicans and to drive blacks from the polls. Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876. The constitutional convention of 1890, which produced Mississippi's Constitution of 1890, was also held at the capitol. This was the first of new constitutions or amendments ratified in southern states through 1908 that effectively disfranchised African Americans and poor whites, through provisions making voter registration more difficult: such as poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy tests. These provisions survived a Supreme Court challenge in 1898. As 20th century Supreme Court decisions began to find such provisions unconstitutional, Mississippi and other southern states rapidly devised new methods to continue disfranchisement of most blacks.
The economic recovery was slow through the turn of the century, but there were some developments in transportation. In 1871, the city introduced mule-drawn streetcars which ran on State Street, which were replaced by electric ones in 1899.
The so-called New Capitol
replaced the older structure upon its completion in 1903, and today the Old Capitol is a historical museum. A third important surviving antebellum structure is the Jackson City Hall
, built in 1846 for less than $8,000. It is said that Sherman, a Mason
, spared it because it housed a Masonic Lodge
, though a more likely reason is that it housed an army hospital.
Pulitzer Prize
-winning author Eudora Welty
was born in Jackson in 1909, lived most of her life in the Belhaven section of the city, and died there in 2001. Her memoir
of development as a writer, One Writer's Beginnings (1984), presented a charming picture of the city in the early 20th century. The main Jackson Public Library
was named in her honor.
The highly acclaimed African-American author Richard Wright
, lived in Jackson as an adolescent and young man in the 1910s and 1920s. He related his experience in his memoir Black Boy
(1945). He described the harsh and largely terror-filled life poor African Americans experienced in the South and northern ghettos under segregation
in the early 20th century.
Jackson saw significant growth in the early twentieth century, as reflected in changes in the city's skyline. Jackson's new Union Station downtown reflected the city's service by multiple rail lines, including the Illinois Central. Across the street, the new, luxurious King Edward Hotel, long the center of Jackson society and Mississippi politics, opened its doors in 1923, having been built according to a design by New Orleans architect William T. Nolan. Nearby, the 18-story Standard Life Building, designed in 1929 by Claude Lindsley, became the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world upon its completion. Jackson's economic growth was further stimulated in the 1930s by the discovery of natural gas fields nearby.
Speculators began searching for oil and natural gas in Jackson beginning in 1920. The initial drilling attempts of the early twenties came up empty. This initial failure did not stop Ella Render from obtaining a lease from the state’s insane asylum to begin a well in 1924. Render found natural gas, but eventually lost the rights when courts determined that the asylum did not have the right to lease the state’s property. Businessmen jumped on the opportunity and dug wells in the Jackson area. The continued success of these ventures attracted further investment and by 1930, there were fourteen derricks in the Jackson skyline. Governor Theodore Bilbo stated “it is no idle dream to prophecy that the state’s share [of the oil and natural gas profits] properly safe-guarded would soon pay the state’s entire bonded indebtedness and even be great enough to defray all the state’s expenses and make our state tax free so long as obligations are concerned.” This enthusiasm was subdued when the first well’s failed to produce oil of a sufficiently high gravity for commercial success. The barrels of oil had considerable amounts of salt water which lessened the quality. However, all was not lost. The governor’s prediction is wrong in hindsight, but the oil and natural gas industry was a tremendous business for the city and state. The effects of the Great Depression were mollified by the industry’s success. At its height in 1934, there were one hundred and thirteen producing wells in the state. The overwhelming majority were closed by 1955.
During World War II, Hawkins Field
in northwest Jackson became a major airbase. Among other facilities and units, the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School was established there, after Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands. From 1941, the base trained all Dutch military aircrews.
after they disembarked from their bus. They were riding the bus to demonstrate against segregation on public transportation. Although the Freedom Riders had intended New Orleans, Louisiana
as their final destination, Jackson was the farthest that any of them managed to travel.
Efforts to desegregate Jackson facilities began before the Freedom Rides when nine Tougaloo
students were arrested for attempting to read books in the "white only" public library. Founded as a historically black college (HBCU) by the American Missionary Movement after the Civil War, Tougaloo College brought both black and white students together to work for civil rights. It also created partnerships with neighboring mostly white Millsaps College
to work with student activists. It has been recognized as a site on the Civil Rights Trail by the National Park Service.
After the Freedom Rides, students and activists of the Freedom Movement launched a series of merchant boycotts, sit-ins and protest marches, from 1961 to 1963.
In Jackson, shortly after midnight on June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers
, civil rights activist
and leader of the Mississippi chapter
of the NAACP, was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith
, a white supremacist. Thousands marched in his funeral procession to protest the killing. In 1994, prosecutor
s Ed Peters and Bobby DeLaughter
finally obtained a murder convict
ion of De La Beckwith. A portion of U.S. Highway 49, all of Delta Drive, a library, the central post office for the city, and Jackson-Evers International Airport
were named in honor of Medgar Evers. During 1963 and 1964, organizers did voter education and voter registration. In a pilot project, they rapidly registered 80,000 voters across the state, demonstrating the desire of African Americans to vote. In 1964 they created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as an alternative to the all-white state party, and sent an alternate slate of candidates to the national party convention.
Mississippi continued segregation and the disfranchisement of most African Americans until after the Civil Rights Movement gained passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Acts of 1965. In June 1966, Jackson was also the terminus of the James Meredith March, organized by James Meredith
, the first African-American
to enroll at the University of Mississippi
. The march, which began in Memphis, Tennessee
, was an attempt to garner support for implementation of civil rights legislation. It was accompanied by a new drive to register African-Americans to vote in Mississippi. In this latter aim, it succeeded in registering between 2,500 and 3,000 black Mississippians to vote. The march ended on June 26 after Meredith, who had been wounded by a sniper's bullet earlier on the march, addressed a large rally of some 15,000 people in Jackson.
As a result of riots which followed the enrollment of James Meredith
at the University of Mississippi, and residents taking down street signs to hinder the arrival of US Army forces whilst US Marshals held back rioters during the night at the University, the city of Jackson was placed under martial law by the Army for a 1 year period by order of Congress and President John F. Kennedy.
In September 1967 the Ku Klux Klan
bombed the synagogue building of the Beth Israel Congregation
in Jackson, and in November bombed the house of its rabbi
, Dr. Perry Nussbaum.
Gradually the old barriers came down. Since then, both whites and African Americans in the state have had a high rate of voter registration and turnout.
On June 26, 2011, a 49 year old James Craig Anderson was killed in Jackson after being beaten and robbed by a group of white teenagers in what has been described by the district attorney as a "crime of hate
" and is under investigation by the FBI as a civil rights violation.
transplant
was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson in June 1963 by Dr. James Hardy. Hardy transplanted the cadaveric lung into a patient suffering from lung cancer. The patient survived for eighteen days before dying of kidney failure.
Since 1968, Jackson has been the home of Malaco Records
, one of the leading record companies for gospel
, blues and soul music
in the United States. In January 1973, Paul Simon
recorded the songs "Learn How To Fall" and "Take Me To the Mardi Gras", found on the album There Goes Rhymin' Simon
, in Jackson at the Malaco Recording Studios. Many well-known Southern artists recorded on the album including the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett), Carson Whitsett, the Onward Brass Band from New Orleans and others. The label has recorded many leading soul and blues artists including Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Latimore, Shirley Brown, Denise LaSalle and Tyrone Davis.
On May 15, 1970 police
killed two students and wounded 12 at Jackson State University
(then called Jackson State College) after a protest of the Vietnam War
included overturning and burning some cars. These killings occurred ten days after the National Guard killed four students in an anti-war protest at Kent State University
in Ohio
, and were part of national social unrest. Newsweek
cited the Jackson State killings in its issue of May 18 when it suggested that U.S. President Richard Nixon
faced a new home front
.
In 1997, Harvey Johnson, Jr.
became the city's first African-American mayor. During his term, he proposed the creation of a convention center
, in hopes of attracting business to the city. In 2004, during his second term, 66 percent of the voters passed a referendum for a tax to build the Convention Center. As a result of this vote, many new development projects are underway in Downtown Jackson.
Mayor Johnson was replaced by Frank Melton
on July 4, 2005. Melton subsequently generated controversy through his unconventional behavior, which included acting as a law enforcement officer. A dramatic spike in crime also ensued, despite Melton's efforts to reduce crime. The lack of jobs contributed to crime.
2007 saw a historic first for Mississippi as Hinds County
sheriff Malcolm McMillin was appointed as the new police chief in Jackson. McMillin was both the county sheriff and city police chief until 2009 when he stepped down due to the disagreements with the current mayor. Mayor Frank Melton died in May 2009 and City Councilman Leslie McLemore served as acting mayor of Jackson until July 2009 when former Mayor Harvey Johnson assumed the Mayor position.
, and is served by the Ross Barnett Reservoir
, which forms a section of the Pearl River and is located northeast of Jackson on the border between Madison
and Rankin
counties. A tiny portion of the city containing Tougaloo College
lies in Madison County, bounded on the west by I-220
and on the east by US 51
and I-55
. A second portion of the city is located in Rankin County. In the 2000 census, 683,723 of the city's 684,256 residents (99.7%) lived in Hinds County and 1,533 (0.3%) in Madison County. Although no Jackson residents lived in the Rankin County portion in 2000, that figure had risen to 172 by 2006.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 106.8 square miles (276.6 km²), of which, 104.9 square miles (271.7 km²) is land, and 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), or 1.80% of the total, is water.
and is the only capital city in the United States to have this feature. The peak of the volcano is located 2900 feet (883.9 m) directly below the Mississippi Coliseum
.
(Koppen
Cfa), with hot, humid summers and mild winters. Rain occurs throughout the year, though the winter and spring are the wettest seasons, and the late summer and early autumn is usually the driest time of the year. Snow is rare, and accumulation very seldom lasts more than a day. Much of Jackson's rainfall occurs during thunderstorms. Thunder is heard on roughly 70 days per annum. Jackson lies in a region prone to severe thunderstorms which can produce large hail
, damaging winds and tornadoes. Among one of the most notable tornado events was the F5 Candlestick Park Tornado
on March 3, 1966 which destroyed the shopping center of the same name and surrounding businesses and residential areas killing 19 in South Jackson.
The record low temperature is −5 °F (−21 °C), set on January 27, 1940, and the record high is 107 °F (42 °C), set on July 29, 1930 and August 30, 2000.
became Mississippi's largest city. By 1944, Jackson's population had risen to some 70,000 inhabitants. Since that time, it has continuously been the largest city in the state. Large-scale growth, however, did not come until the 1970s, after the turbulence of the Civil Rights Movement
. The 1980 census counted over 200,000 residents in the city for the first time. Since then, Jackson has steadily seen a decline in its population, while its suburbs have evidenced a boom.
As of the census
of 2000, there were 184,286 people, 67,841 households, and 44,488 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,756.7 people per square mile (678.2/km²). There were 75,678 housing units at average density of 721.4 per square mile (1,278.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.6% Black or African American
, 27.8% White, 0.1% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.81% Pacific Islander, 0.2% from other races
, and 0.7% from two or more races. 0.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 267,841 households out of which 39.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples living together, 25.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.24. Same-sex couple households comprised 0.8 % of all househoulds.
The age of the population was spread out with 28.5% under the age of 18, 12.4% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,414, and the median income for a family was $36,003. Males had a median income of $29,166 versus $23,328 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,116. About 19.6% of families and 23.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.7% of those under age 18 and 15.7% of those age 65 or over.
Jackson ranks number 10 in the nation in concentration of African-American same-sex couples.
, located at Allen C. Thompson Field, east of the city in Flowood
in Rankin County. Its IATA code is JAN. The airport has non-stop service to 12 cities throughout the United States and is served by 5 scheduled carriers (American, Delta, Continental, Southwest, and US Airways)
On December 22, 2004, Jackson City Council members voted 6–0 to rename Jackson International Airport in honor of slain civil rights
leader and field secretary for the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP, Medgar Evers
. This decision took effect on January 22, 2005.
Formerly Jackson was served by Hawkins Field Airport, located in northwest Jackson, with IATA code HKS, which is now used for private air traffic only.
Underway is the Airport Parkway
project. The environmental impact study is complete and final plans are drawn and awaiting Mississippi Department of Transportation approval. Right-of-way acquisition is underway at an estimated cost of $19 million. The Airport Parkway will connect High Street in downtown Jackson to Mississippi Highway 475
in Flowood
at Jackson-Evers International Airport. The Airport Parkway Commission consists of the Mayor of Pearl, the Mayor of Flowood, and the Mayor of Jackson, as the Airport Parkway will run through and have access from each of these three cities.
Interstate 20
Runs east-west from near El Paso, Texas
to Florence, South Carolina
. Jackson is roughly halfway between Dallas, Texas
and Atlanta, Georgia
. The highway is six lanes from Interstate 220 to MS 468 in Pearl.
Interstate 55
Runs north-south from Chicago through Jackson towards Brookhaven
, McComb
, and the Louisiana
state line to New Orleans. Jackson is roughly halfway between New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee
. The highway maintains eight to ten lanes in northern part of city, six lanes in the center and four lanes south of I-20.
Interstate 220
Connects Interstates 55 and 20 on the north and west sides of the city and is four lanes throughout its route.
U.S. Highway 49
Runs north-south from the Arkansas
state line at Lula
via Clarksdale
and Yazoo City
, towards Hattiesburg
and Gulfport
. It bypasses the city via I-20 and I-220
U.S. Highway 51
Known in Jackson as State Street, roughly parallels Interstate 55 from the I-20/I-55 western split to downtown. It multiplexes with I-55 from Pearl/Pascagoula St northward to County Line Road, where the two highways split.
U.S. Highway 80
Roughly parallels Interstate 20.
Mississippi Highway 18
Runs southwest towards Raymond
and Port Gibson
; southeast towards Bay Springs
and Quitman
.
Mississippi Highway 25
Some parts of this road are known as Lakeland Drive, which runs northeast towards Carthage
and Starkville
.
, which runs from Natchez
to Nashville, Tennessee
.
No evening or Sunday Service provided.
. The Kansas City Southern Railway
also serves the city. The Canadian National has a medium-sized yard downtown which Mill Street parallels and the Kansas City Southern has a large classification yard
in Richland
. Amtrak
, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Jackson. The Amtrak station is located at 300 West Capitol Street. Amtrak's southbound City of New Orleans
provides service from Jackson to New Orleans and some points between. The northbound City of New Orleans provides service from Jackson to Memphis
, Carbondale
, Champaign-Urbana
, Chicago
and some points between. Efforts to establish service with another Amtrak train, the Crescent Star, an extension of the Crescent
westward from Meridian, Mississippi
to Dallas, Texas
, failed in 2003.
.
. Jackson's city council members represent the city's seven wards, and the body is headed by the mayor who is elected by the entire city.
Jackson's current mayor is Harvey Johnson, Jr.
.
, in unincorporated
Rankin County, is located in proximity to Jackson.
operates the Jackson Main Post Office and several smaller post offices.
, an honor society for students enrolled in two-year colleges.
operates public schools.
The district's high schools include:
Private primary schools include:
, Blues
, and R&B. Jackson is also home to the world famous Malaco Records
recording studio. Many notable musicians hail from Jackson.
Jackson, MS is mentioned in the 1973 song Uneasy Rider
by Charlie Daniels
.
Rap rocker Kid Rock
made a song about Jackson, aptly titled "Jackson, Mississippi
", in 2003.
The Rolling Stones sat "in a bar tippling a jar in Jackson" in their song 'Country Honk' on the 1969 album 'Let It Bleed'. "And on the street the summer sun it shines. There's many a bar-room queen I've had in Jackson, but I just can't seem to drink you off my mind."
"Jackson
" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Billy Edd Wheeler
about newlyweds making the discovery that, after jumping much too quickly into marriage, the "fire" has gone out of their relationship. They both want to go to Jackson, where each looks forward to a new life free of the other. Although the song does not specify whether Jackson, TN or Jackson, MS is the destination, the lyrics do clearly reference gambling. During the period from the 1920s until the 1960s, illegal gambling casinos flourished on the east side of the Pearl River, along the original U.S. Route 80
just outside the city of Jackson, MS in Flowood. The infamous casinos might have been the inspiration for those lyrics.
In any event, the best-known single releases of the song include the 1968 Grammy Award
winner by Johnny Cash
and June Carter Cash
, and the hit Nancy Sinatra
and Lee Hazelwood version from the same year. Much later, the song was performed by Joaquin Phoenix
and Reese Witherspoon
(playing Johnny Cash and June Carter) in the 2005 film Walk the Line
.
Those illegal casinos referenced (perhaps) by the song, along with bootleg liquor stores and nightclubs, made up the Gold Coast, a strip of mostly black-market businesses which operated for decades along Flowood Road, just across the Pearl River from downtown Jackson. Though it existed outside the law, the Gold Coast was a thriving center of nightlife and music, with many local blues musicians appearing in the clubs regularly. The Gold Coast disappeared after Mississippi's prohibition laws were repealed in 1966, allowing Hinds County, including Jackson, to go "wet".
In 1978, the USA International Ballet Competition
was founded in Jackson by Thalia Mara, who is also the namesake of Thalia Mara Hall where the competition is held. The following year saw the first USA International Ballet Competition held as part of the worldwide International Ballet Competition (IBC), which itself originated in Varna, Bulgaria in 1964. The competition eventually expanded to rotating annual events between Jackson, Varna, Moscow and Tokyo. It was in 1979 that the event first came to the United States, to Jackson, where it now returns every four years. The rotation is currently among Jackson, Varna, Helsinki, Finland
, and Shanghai, China
. Jackson has been the host of the IBC in 1979, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. The next competition in Jackson will be in 2010. The United States Congress recognized Jackson and the USA IBC by passing a Joint Resolution in 1982 that designated Jackson as the official home of the USA IBC.
designation. The ceremony was held and the historic marker placed on the former site of the Subway Lounge on Pearl Street. The Subway Lounge was in the basement of the old Summers Hotel, one of two hotels available as lodging to blacks before desegregation when it opened in 1943. In the 1960s, the hotel added a lounge
in the basement that featured jazz
. In the 1980s, when the lounge was revived, it was catered to late night blues
performers. In 2002, the Subway Lounge was filmed for a documentary entitled Last of the Mississippi Jukes.
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. It is one of two county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
s of Hinds County
Hinds County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 250,800 people, 91,030 households, and 62,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 288 people per square mile . There were 100,287 housing units at an average density of 115 per square mile...
(the town of Raymond
Raymond, Mississippi
Raymond is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 1,664. Raymond is one of the two county seats of Hinds County and is the home of the main campus of Hinds Community College....
is the other),. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
to 173,514 at the 2010 census
United States Census, 2010
The Twenty-third United States Census, known as Census 2010 or the 2010 Census, is the current national census of the United States. National Census Day was April 1, 2010 and is the reference date used in enumerating individuals...
. The 2010 census ascribed a population of 539,005 to the five-county Jackson metropolitan area
Jackson metropolitan area
The Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan area in the central region of the U.S. state of Mississippi that covers five counties: Copiah, Hinds, Madison, Rankin, and Simpson. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 497,197...
.
The current slogan for the city is Jackson, Mississippi: City with Soul. Jackson is ranked 3rd out of America's 100 largest metro areas for the best "Bang For Your Buck" city according to Forbes magazine. The study measured overall affordability, housing rates, and more. The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" ranks Jackson as the 23rd most dangerous city in America. The city is named after Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, who was still a general at the time of the naming but later became president. The city is the anchor of the Metro area.
USS Jackson (LCS-6)
USS Jackson (LCS-6)
USS Jackson will be an of the United States Navy. She will the first ship to be named for Jackson, the capital of Mississippi.Construction began on 1 August 2011 with the first cutting of aluminum at Austal USA's Modular Manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama. The ship was christened on 5...
will be the first ship of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to be named in honor of the city.
Native Americans
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
Nation. Under pressure from the US government, the Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
Native Americans agreed to removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
from all lands east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
under the terms of several treaties. Although many Choctaws then moved to present-day Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, a significant number chose to stay in their homeland, citing Article XIV of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty signed on September 27, 1830 between the Choctaw and the United States Government. This was the first removal treaty carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act...
. The area now called Jackson was obtained under the terms of the Treaty of Doak's Stand
Treaty of Doak's Stand
The Treaty of Doak's Stand was signed on October 18, 1820 between the United States and the Choctaw Indian tribe. Based on the terms of the accord, the Choctaw agreed to give up approximately one-half of their remaining Choctaw homeland...
in 1820. After the treaty was ratified, European-American settlers began to move into the area. Today, most Choctaws, who are part of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw Indians. On April 20, 1945, the tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Also in 1945 the Choctaw Indian Reservation was created in Neshoba and surrounding counties...
, live on several Indian communities
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
located throughout the state. The largest community is located in Choctaw, MS, 100 mi (160.9 km) northeast of the city.
Founding and antebellum period (to 1860)
The area that is now Jackson was initially referred to as Parkerville and was settled by Louis LeFleur, a French Canadian trader, along the historic Natchez TraceNatchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
trade route. The area then became known as LeFleur's Bluff. LeFleur's Bluff was founded based on the need for a centrally located capital for the state of Mississippi. In 1821, the Mississippi General Assembly, meeting in the then-capital of Natchez
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
, had sent Thomas Hinds
Thomas Hinds
Thomas Hinds was a politician from the U.S. state of Mississippi.Born in Berkeley County, Virginia , Hinds would later move to Greenville, Mississippi...
(for whom Hinds County
Hinds County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 250,800 people, 91,030 households, and 62,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 288 people per square mile . There were 100,287 housing units at an average density of 115 per square mile...
is named), James Patton, and William Lattimore to look for a site. The absolute center of the state was a swamp, which forced the group to look close by for a new capital. After surveying
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
areas north and east of Jackson, they proceeded southwest along the Pearl River
Pearl River (Mississippi-Louisiana)
The Pearl River is a river in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Louisiana. It forms in Neshoba County, Mississippi from the confluence of Nanih Waiya and Tallahaga creeks. It is long. The Yockanookany and Strong rivers are tributaries. Northeast of Jackson, the Ross Barnett Reservoir is formed by...
until they reached LeFleur's Bluff in Hinds County. Their report to the General Assembly stated that this location had beautiful and healthful surroundings, good water, abundant timber, navigable waters, and proximity to the trading route Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
. And so, a legislative Act
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...
passed by the Assembly on November 28, 1821, authorized the location to become the permanent seat of the government of the state of Mississippi. One Whig politician lamented the new capital as a "serious violation of principle" because it was not at the absolute center of the state (a swamp occupied this spot).
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, later the seventh President of the United States, in recognition of his victory in the Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
.
During the late 18th century and early 19th century, the area was traversed by the Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
, on which a trading post stood before a treaty with the Choctaw, the Treaty of Doak's Stand
Treaty of Doak's Stand
The Treaty of Doak's Stand was signed on October 18, 1820 between the United States and the Choctaw Indian tribe. Based on the terms of the accord, the Choctaw agreed to give up approximately one-half of their remaining Choctaw homeland...
in 1820, formally opened the area for non-native American settlers.
Jackson was originally planned, in April 1822, by Peter Van Dorn in a "checkerboard
Checkerboard
A checkerboard or chequerboard is a board of chequered pattern on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....
" pattern advocated by Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, in which city blocks alternated with parks and other open spaces, giving the appearance of a checkerboard. This plan has not lasted to the present day.
The state legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
first met in Jackson on December 23, 1822.
In 1839, Jackson was the site of the passage of the first state law that permitted married women to own and administer their own property.
Jackson was first linked with other cities by rail in 1840. An 1844 map shows Jackson linked by an east-west rail line running between Vicksburg
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920,...
, Raymond, and Brandon
Brandon, Mississippi
Brandon is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 16,436 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Rankin CountyBrandon is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...
. Unlike Vicksburg, Greenville
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
, and Natchez
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
, Jackson is not located on the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, and did not develop like those cities from river commerce. Instead, railroads would later spark growth of the city in the decades after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
American Civil War and late nineteenth century (1861–1900)
Despite its small population, during the Civil War, Jackson became a strategic center of manufacturing for the Confederate States of America. In 1863, during the campaignMilitary campaign
In the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war...
which ended in the capture of Vicksburg
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the only city in Warren County. It is located northwest of New Orleans on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and due west of Jackson, the state capital. In 1900, 14,834 people lived in Vicksburg; in 1910, 20,814; in 1920,...
, Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
forces captured Jackson during two battles—once before the fall of Vicksburg and once after the fall of Vicksburg.
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
forces to flee northward towards Canton
Canton, Mississippi
Canton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi. The population was 12,911 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of the metropolitan area surrounding the state capital, Jackson....
. On May 15, Union troops under the command
Command (military formation)
A command in military terminology is an organisational unit that the individual in Military command has responsibility for. A Commander will normally be specifically appointed into the role in order to provide a legal framework for the authority bestowed...
of William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
burned and looted key facilities in Jackson, a strategic manufacturing and railroad center for the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. After driving the Confederate forces out of Jackson, Union forces turned west once again and engaged the Vicksburg defenders at the Battle of Champion Hill
Battle of Champion Hill
The Battle of Champion Hill, or Bakers Creek, fought May 16, 1863, was the pivotal battle in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee pursued the retreating Confederate Lt. Gen. John C...
in nearby Edwards
Edwards, Mississippi
Edwards is a town in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,347 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. The siege of Vicksburg began soon after the Union victory at Champion Hill. Confederate forces began to reassemble in Jackson in preparation for an attempt to break through the Union lines surrounding Vicksburg and end the siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
there. The Confederate forces in Jackson built defensive fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
s encircling the city while preparing to march west to Vicksburg.
Confederate forces marched out of Jackson to break the siege of Vicksburg in early July 1863. However, unknown to them, Vicksburg had already surrendered on July 4, 1863. General Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
dispatched General Sherman to meet the Confederate forces heading west from Jackson. Upon learning that Vicksburg had already surrendered, the Confederates retreated back into Jackson, thus beginning the Siege of Jackson, which lasted for approximately one week. Union forces encircled the city and began an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
bombardment
Bombardment
A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery...
. One of the Union artillery emplacements still remains intact on the grounds of the University of Mississippi Medical Center
University of Mississippi Medical Center
University of Mississippi Medical Center is the health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi and is located in Jackson, Mississippi...
in Jackson. Another Federal position is still intact on the campus of Millsaps College
Millsaps College
Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1890, the college is recognized as one of the country's best private colleges dedicated to undergraduate teaching and educating the whole individual. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Millsaps...
. One of the Confederate Generals defending Jackson was former United States Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
John C. Breckenridge. On July 16, 1863, Confederate forces slipped out of Jackson during the night and retreated across the Pearl River. Union forces completely burned the city after its capture this second time, and the city earned the nickname "Chimneyville" because only the chimney
Chimney
A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the...
s of houses were left standing. The northern line of Confederate defenses in Jackson during the siege was located along a road near downtown Jackson, now known as Fortification Street.
Today there are few antebellum
Antebellum architecture
Antebellum architecture is a term used to describe the characteristic neoclassical architectural style of the Southern United States, especially the Old South, from after the birth of the United States in the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War...
structures left standing in Jackson. One surviving structure is the Governor's Mansion
Mississippi Governor's Mansion
The Mississippi Governor's Mansion is a historic U.S. residence in Jackson, Mississippi, located at 300 East Capitol Street. It is the second oldest executive residence in the United States that has been continuously occupied as a gubernatorial residence .On November 25, 1969, it was added to the U.S...
, built in 1842, which served as Sherman's headquarters. Another is the Old Capitol
Old Mississippi State Capitol
The Old Mississippi State Capitol, also known as Old Capitol Museum or Old State Capitol, is a building that is a Mississippi State Historic Site and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990....
building, which served as the home of the Mississippi state legislature from 1839 to 1903. There the Mississippi legislature passed the ordinance of secession from the Union on January 9, 1861, becoming the second state to secede from the United States.
In 1875 the Red Shirts were formed, one of a second wave of insurgent paramilitary organizations that essentially operated as "the military arm of the Democratic Party" to take back political power from the Republicans and to drive blacks from the polls. Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876. The constitutional convention of 1890, which produced Mississippi's Constitution of 1890, was also held at the capitol. This was the first of new constitutions or amendments ratified in southern states through 1908 that effectively disfranchised African Americans and poor whites, through provisions making voter registration more difficult: such as poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy tests. These provisions survived a Supreme Court challenge in 1898. As 20th century Supreme Court decisions began to find such provisions unconstitutional, Mississippi and other southern states rapidly devised new methods to continue disfranchisement of most blacks.
The economic recovery was slow through the turn of the century, but there were some developments in transportation. In 1871, the city introduced mule-drawn streetcars which ran on State Street, which were replaced by electric ones in 1899.
The so-called New Capitol
Mississippi State Capitol
The Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Mississippi, housing the Mississippi Legislature...
replaced the older structure upon its completion in 1903, and today the Old Capitol is a historical museum. A third important surviving antebellum structure is the Jackson City Hall
City hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...
, built in 1846 for less than $8,000. It is said that Sherman, a Mason
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, spared it because it housed a Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
, though a more likely reason is that it housed an army hospital.
Early twentieth century (1901–1960)
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning author Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
was born in Jackson in 1909, lived most of her life in the Belhaven section of the city, and died there in 2001. Her memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
of development as a writer, One Writer's Beginnings (1984), presented a charming picture of the city in the early 20th century. The main Jackson Public Library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
was named in her honor.
Richard Wright (author)
Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...
, lived in Jackson as an adolescent and young man in the 1910s and 1920s. He related his experience in his memoir Black Boy
Black Boy
Black Boy is an autobiography by Richard Wright. The author explores his childhood and race relations in the South. Wright eventually moves to Chicago, where he establishes his writing career and becomes involved with the Communist Party....
(1945). He described the harsh and largely terror-filled life poor African Americans experienced in the South and northern ghettos under segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in the early 20th century.
Jackson saw significant growth in the early twentieth century, as reflected in changes in the city's skyline. Jackson's new Union Station downtown reflected the city's service by multiple rail lines, including the Illinois Central. Across the street, the new, luxurious King Edward Hotel, long the center of Jackson society and Mississippi politics, opened its doors in 1923, having been built according to a design by New Orleans architect William T. Nolan. Nearby, the 18-story Standard Life Building, designed in 1929 by Claude Lindsley, became the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world upon its completion. Jackson's economic growth was further stimulated in the 1930s by the discovery of natural gas fields nearby.
Speculators began searching for oil and natural gas in Jackson beginning in 1920. The initial drilling attempts of the early twenties came up empty. This initial failure did not stop Ella Render from obtaining a lease from the state’s insane asylum to begin a well in 1924. Render found natural gas, but eventually lost the rights when courts determined that the asylum did not have the right to lease the state’s property. Businessmen jumped on the opportunity and dug wells in the Jackson area. The continued success of these ventures attracted further investment and by 1930, there were fourteen derricks in the Jackson skyline. Governor Theodore Bilbo stated “it is no idle dream to prophecy that the state’s share [of the oil and natural gas profits] properly safe-guarded would soon pay the state’s entire bonded indebtedness and even be great enough to defray all the state’s expenses and make our state tax free so long as obligations are concerned.” This enthusiasm was subdued when the first well’s failed to produce oil of a sufficiently high gravity for commercial success. The barrels of oil had considerable amounts of salt water which lessened the quality. However, all was not lost. The governor’s prediction is wrong in hindsight, but the oil and natural gas industry was a tremendous business for the city and state. The effects of the Great Depression were mollified by the industry’s success. At its height in 1934, there were one hundred and thirteen producing wells in the state. The overwhelming majority were closed by 1955.
During World War II, Hawkins Field
Hawkins Field (airport)
Hawkins Field is a city-owned public-use airport located three miles northwest of the central business district of Jackson, a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States.-Facilities and aircraft:...
in northwest Jackson became a major airbase. Among other facilities and units, the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School was established there, after Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands. From 1941, the base trained all Dutch military aircrews.
Civil Rights Movement in Jackson
Since 1960, Jackson has undergone a series of dramatic changes and growth. As the state capital, it became a site for civil rights activism that was heightened by mass demonstrations during the 1960s. On May 24, 1961, during the African-American Civil Rights Movement, more than 300 Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson for disturbing the peaceDisturbing the peace (crime)
Disturbing the peace is a crime generally defined as the unsettling of proper order in a public space through one's actions. This can include creating loud noise by fighting or challenging to fight, disturbing others by loud and unreasonable noise , or using offensive words or insults likely to...
after they disembarked from their bus. They were riding the bus to demonstrate against segregation on public transportation. Although the Freedom Riders had intended New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
as their final destination, Jackson was the farthest that any of them managed to travel.
Efforts to desegregate Jackson facilities began before the Freedom Rides when nine Tougaloo
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
students were arrested for attempting to read books in the "white only" public library. Founded as a historically black college (HBCU) by the American Missionary Movement after the Civil War, Tougaloo College brought both black and white students together to work for civil rights. It also created partnerships with neighboring mostly white Millsaps College
Millsaps College
Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1890, the college is recognized as one of the country's best private colleges dedicated to undergraduate teaching and educating the whole individual. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Millsaps...
to work with student activists. It has been recognized as a site on the Civil Rights Trail by the National Park Service.
After the Freedom Rides, students and activists of the Freedom Movement launched a series of merchant boycotts, sit-ins and protest marches, from 1961 to 1963.
In Jackson, shortly after midnight on June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi...
, civil rights activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
and leader of the Mississippi chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
of the NAACP, was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith
Byron De La Beckwith
Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. was an American white supremacist and Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi who was convicted in the 1994 state trial of assassinating the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963....
, a white supremacist. Thousands marched in his funeral procession to protest the killing. In 1994, prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
s Ed Peters and Bobby DeLaughter
Bobby DeLaughter
Robert "Bobby" DeLaughter is an American Mississippi state prosecutor, judge, and author. He is notable for prosecuting and securing the conviction in 1994 of Byron De La Beckwith, charged with the murder of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963...
finally obtained a murder convict
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
ion of De La Beckwith. A portion of U.S. Highway 49, all of Delta Drive, a library, the central post office for the city, and Jackson-Evers International Airport
Jackson-Evers International Airport
Jackson-Evers International Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located in Jackson, Mississippi, five nautical miles east of the central business district of Jackson, across the Pearl River....
were named in honor of Medgar Evers. During 1963 and 1964, organizers did voter education and voter registration. In a pilot project, they rapidly registered 80,000 voters across the state, demonstrating the desire of African Americans to vote. In 1964 they created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as an alternative to the all-white state party, and sent an alternate slate of candidates to the national party convention.
Mississippi continued segregation and the disfranchisement of most African Americans until after the Civil Rights Movement gained passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Acts of 1965. In June 1966, Jackson was also the terminus of the James Meredith March, organized by James Meredith
James Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President...
, the first African-American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to enroll at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
. The march, which began in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, was an attempt to garner support for implementation of civil rights legislation. It was accompanied by a new drive to register African-Americans to vote in Mississippi. In this latter aim, it succeeded in registering between 2,500 and 3,000 black Mississippians to vote. The march ended on June 26 after Meredith, who had been wounded by a sniper's bullet earlier on the march, addressed a large rally of some 15,000 people in Jackson.
As a result of riots which followed the enrollment of James Meredith
James Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President...
at the University of Mississippi, and residents taking down street signs to hinder the arrival of US Army forces whilst US Marshals held back rioters during the night at the University, the city of Jackson was placed under martial law by the Army for a 1 year period by order of Congress and President John F. Kennedy.
In September 1967 the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
bombed the synagogue building of the Beth Israel Congregation
Beth Israel Congregation (Jackson, Mississippi)
Beth Israel Congregation is a Reform Judaism congregation located at 5315 Old Canton Road in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Organized in 1860 by Jews of German background, it has always been, and remains, the only synagogue in Jackson...
in Jackson, and in November bombed the house of its rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, Dr. Perry Nussbaum.
Gradually the old barriers came down. Since then, both whites and African Americans in the state have had a high rate of voter registration and turnout.
On June 26, 2011, a 49 year old James Craig Anderson was killed in Jackson after being beaten and robbed by a group of white teenagers in what has been described by the district attorney as a "crime of hate
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
" and is under investigation by the FBI as a civil rights violation.
Recent history
The first successful cadaveric lungHuman lung
The human lungs are the organs of respiration in humans. Humans have two lungs, with the left being divided into two lobes and the right into three lobes. Together, the lungs contain approximately of airways and 300 to 500 million alveoli, having a total surface area of about in...
transplant
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson in June 1963 by Dr. James Hardy. Hardy transplanted the cadaveric lung into a patient suffering from lung cancer. The patient survived for eighteen days before dying of kidney failure.
Since 1968, Jackson has been the home of Malaco Records
Malaco Records
Malaco Records is an independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi. Malaco is and has been the home of various major soul, blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the...
, one of the leading record companies for gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, blues and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
in the United States. In January 1973, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
recorded the songs "Learn How To Fall" and "Take Me To the Mardi Gras", found on the album There Goes Rhymin' Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon is the third solo studio album by American musician Paul Simon rush-released on May 5, 1973. It contains songs covering several styles and genres, such as gospel and dixieland . It received two nominations at the Grammy Awards of 1974, including Best Male Pop Vocal...
, in Jackson at the Malaco Recording Studios. Many well-known Southern artists recorded on the album including the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, Roger Hawkins, Barry Beckett), Carson Whitsett, the Onward Brass Band from New Orleans and others. The label has recorded many leading soul and blues artists including Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Latimore, Shirley Brown, Denise LaSalle and Tyrone Davis.
On May 15, 1970 police
Jackson Police Department (Mississippi)
The Jackson Police Department provides law enforcement services to approximately 185,000 citizens encompassing of Jackson, Mississippi. JPD is composed of approximately 430 Sworn Officers who are supported by over 250 civilian personnel.-Brief history:...
killed two students and wounded 12 at Jackson State University
Jackson State University
Jackson State University is a historically black university founded in 1877 in Natchez, MS by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state supported...
(then called Jackson State College) after a protest of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
included overturning and burning some cars. These killings occurred ten days after the National Guard killed four students in an anti-war protest at Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and were part of national social unrest. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
cited the Jackson State killings in its issue of May 18 when it suggested that U.S. President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
faced a new home front
Home front
Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of their military....
.
In 1997, Harvey Johnson, Jr.
Harvey Johnson, Jr.
Harvey Johnson, Jr. , is the current mayor and first African American mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.-Biography:Harvey Johnson, Jr. was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and attended the Vicksburg Public Schools, graduating from Rosa A. Temple High School...
became the city's first African-American mayor. During his term, he proposed the creation of a convention center
Convention center
A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
, in hopes of attracting business to the city. In 2004, during his second term, 66 percent of the voters passed a referendum for a tax to build the Convention Center. As a result of this vote, many new development projects are underway in Downtown Jackson.
Mayor Johnson was replaced by Frank Melton
Frank Melton
Frank Ervin Melton was the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, United States, from 4 July 2005 until his death on 7 May 2009. Melton, an African American, defeated the city's first black mayor Harvey Johnson, Jr. Melton won 63 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary against Johnson, who had...
on July 4, 2005. Melton subsequently generated controversy through his unconventional behavior, which included acting as a law enforcement officer. A dramatic spike in crime also ensued, despite Melton's efforts to reduce crime. The lack of jobs contributed to crime.
2007 saw a historic first for Mississippi as Hinds County
Hinds County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 250,800 people, 91,030 households, and 62,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 288 people per square mile . There were 100,287 housing units at an average density of 115 per square mile...
sheriff Malcolm McMillin was appointed as the new police chief in Jackson. McMillin was both the county sheriff and city police chief until 2009 when he stepped down due to the disagreements with the current mayor. Mayor Frank Melton died in May 2009 and City Councilman Leslie McLemore served as acting mayor of Jackson until July 2009 when former Mayor Harvey Johnson assumed the Mayor position.
Geography
Jackson is located on the Pearl RiverPearl River (Mississippi-Louisiana)
The Pearl River is a river in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Louisiana. It forms in Neshoba County, Mississippi from the confluence of Nanih Waiya and Tallahaga creeks. It is long. The Yockanookany and Strong rivers are tributaries. Northeast of Jackson, the Ross Barnett Reservoir is formed by...
, and is served by the Ross Barnett Reservoir
Ross Barnett Reservoir
The Ross Barnett Reservoir is an impoundment of the Pearl River between Madison and Rankin Counties in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The lake serves as the state's largest drinking water resource, and is managed by the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District. The lake features of shoreline...
, which forms a section of the Pearl River and is located northeast of Jackson on the border between Madison
Madison County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 74,674 people, 27,219 households, and 19,325 families residing in the county. The population density was 104 people per square mile . There were 28,781 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile...
and Rankin
Rankin County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 115,327 people, 42,089 households, and 31,145 families residing in the county. The population density was 149 people per square mile . There were 45,070 housing units at an average density of 58 per square mile...
counties. A tiny portion of the city containing Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
lies in Madison County, bounded on the west by I-220
Interstate 220 (Mississippi)
Interstate 220 in Mississippi is a loop around Jackson that provides an interstate connection for Interstate 55 and Interstate 20. The northern terminus for the route is in the northern suburb of Ridgeland, at Interstate 55 exit 104...
and on the east by US 51
U.S. Route 51
U.S. Route 51 is a north–south United States highway that runs for 1,286 miles from the western suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana to within of the Wisconsin-Michigan border. Much of the highway in Illinois and southern Wisconsin runs parallel to or overlaps Interstate 39...
and I-55
Interstate 55
Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
. A second portion of the city is located in Rankin County. In the 2000 census, 683,723 of the city's 684,256 residents (99.7%) lived in Hinds County and 1,533 (0.3%) in Madison County. Although no Jackson residents lived in the Rankin County portion in 2000, that figure had risen to 172 by 2006.
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 106.8 square miles (276.6 km²), of which, 104.9 square miles (271.7 km²) is land, and 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), or 1.80% of the total, is water.
Major Highways
- Interstate 55Interstate 55Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
- Interstate 20Interstate 20Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...
- Interstate 220Interstate 220Interstate 220 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States, all of which are related to Interstate 20:*Interstate 220 , a bypass of Jackson, Mississippi...
- US 49
- US 80
Geology
Jackson sits atop the Jackson VolcanoJackson Volcano
Jackson Volcano is an extinct volcano located 2900 feet beneath the city of Jackson, Mississippi, under the Mississippi Coliseum. It is the only volcano located directly below a capital city in the United States. The volcano was discovered in 1819....
and is the only capital city in the United States to have this feature. The peak of the volcano is located 2900 feet (883.9 m) directly below the Mississippi Coliseum
Mississippi Coliseum
The Mississippi Coliseum is a 6,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Jackson, Mississippi, built in 1962 and located on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds complex...
.
Climate
Jackson possesses a humid subtropical climateHumid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
(Koppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Cfa), with hot, humid summers and mild winters. Rain occurs throughout the year, though the winter and spring are the wettest seasons, and the late summer and early autumn is usually the driest time of the year. Snow is rare, and accumulation very seldom lasts more than a day. Much of Jackson's rainfall occurs during thunderstorms. Thunder is heard on roughly 70 days per annum. Jackson lies in a region prone to severe thunderstorms which can produce large hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
, damaging winds and tornadoes. Among one of the most notable tornado events was the F5 Candlestick Park Tornado
Candlestick Park Tornado
On March 3, 1966, a violent F5 tornado, dubbed the Candlestick Park tornado after the name of a Jackson, Mississippi shopping mall which was leveled by the storm, wrought catastrophic damage in Mississippi and Alabama along a track. The tornado first touched down in Hinds County, Mississippi...
on March 3, 1966 which destroyed the shopping center of the same name and surrounding businesses and residential areas killing 19 in South Jackson.
The record low temperature is −5 °F (−21 °C), set on January 27, 1940, and the record high is 107 °F (42 °C), set on July 29, 1930 and August 30, 2000.
Cityscape
The bulk of the city is to the west of I-55, while a section of Jackson known as Northeast Jackson is to the east of I-55. In recent years there has been an effort to revitalize downtown Jackson, west Jackson communities, and south Jackson communities. Over 2 billion dollars of revitalization and development has been poured into the city from private redevelopment groups and federal and local funding.Demographics
Jackson remained a small town for much of the 19th century. Before the American Civil War, Jackson's population remained small, particularly in contrast to those towns located along the commerce-laden Mississippi River. Despite the city's status as the state capital, the 1850 census counted only 1,881 residents, and by 1900 the population of Jackson had grown only to approximately 8,000. It was during this period, roughly between 1890 and 1930, that MeridianMeridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...
became Mississippi's largest city. By 1944, Jackson's population had risen to some 70,000 inhabitants. Since that time, it has continuously been the largest city in the state. Large-scale growth, however, did not come until the 1970s, after the turbulence of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
. The 1980 census counted over 200,000 residents in the city for the first time. Since then, Jackson has steadily seen a decline in its population, while its suburbs have evidenced a boom.
As of the census
United States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
of 2000, there were 184,286 people, 67,841 households, and 44,488 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,756.7 people per square mile (678.2/km²). There were 75,678 housing units at average density of 721.4 per square mile (1,278.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.6% Black or African American
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 27.8% White, 0.1% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.81% Pacific Islander, 0.2% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.7% from two or more races. 0.8% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 267,841 households out of which 39.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples living together, 25.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.24. Same-sex couple households comprised 0.8 % of all househoulds.
The age of the population was spread out with 28.5% under the age of 18, 12.4% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,414, and the median income for a family was $36,003. Males had a median income of $29,166 versus $23,328 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,116. About 19.6% of families and 23.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.7% of those under age 18 and 15.7% of those age 65 or over.
Jackson ranks number 10 in the nation in concentration of African-American same-sex couples.
Air travel
Jackson is served by Jackson-Evers International AirportJackson-Evers International Airport
Jackson-Evers International Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located in Jackson, Mississippi, five nautical miles east of the central business district of Jackson, across the Pearl River....
, located at Allen C. Thompson Field, east of the city in Flowood
Flowood, Mississippi
Flowood is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Flowood is located at ....
in Rankin County. Its IATA code is JAN. The airport has non-stop service to 12 cities throughout the United States and is served by 5 scheduled carriers (American, Delta, Continental, Southwest, and US Airways)
On December 22, 2004, Jackson City Council members voted 6–0 to rename Jackson International Airport in honor of slain civil rights
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
leader and field secretary for the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP, Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi...
. This decision took effect on January 22, 2005.
Formerly Jackson was served by Hawkins Field Airport, located in northwest Jackson, with IATA code HKS, which is now used for private air traffic only.
Underway is the Airport Parkway
Airport Parkway (Mississippi)
The Airport Parkway is a major highway development project in the Jackson, Mississippi, metropolitan area planned to connect Interstate 55 on the west, High Street in downtown Jackson, Mississippi Highway 25 , and Mississippi Highway 475 in Flowood at Jackson-Evers International Airport in the...
project. The environmental impact study is complete and final plans are drawn and awaiting Mississippi Department of Transportation approval. Right-of-way acquisition is underway at an estimated cost of $19 million. The Airport Parkway will connect High Street in downtown Jackson to Mississippi Highway 475
Mississippi Highway 475
Mississippi Highway 475 runs north–south from Mississippi Highway 25 in Flowood, Mississippi to Mississippi Highway 468 in Pearl, Mississippi. In Pearl, it dead ends in the area known as Whitfield- Locales on route :From north to south...
in Flowood
Flowood, Mississippi
Flowood is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Flowood is located at ....
at Jackson-Evers International Airport. The Airport Parkway Commission consists of the Mayor of Pearl, the Mayor of Flowood, and the Mayor of Jackson, as the Airport Parkway will run through and have access from each of these three cities.
Interstate highways
Interstate 20Interstate 20
Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...
Runs east-west from near El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
to Florence, South Carolina
Florence, South Carolina
-Municipal government and politics:The City of Florence has a council-manager form of government. The mayor and city council are elected every four years, with no term limits...
. Jackson is roughly halfway between Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
and Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The highway is six lanes from Interstate 220 to MS 468 in Pearl.
Interstate 55Interstate 55
Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
Runs north-south from Chicago through Jackson towards Brookhaven
Brookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven is a small city in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 9,861 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lincoln County...
, McComb
McComb, Mississippi
McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 13,644. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, and the Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
state line to New Orleans. Jackson is roughly halfway between New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. The highway maintains eight to ten lanes in northern part of city, six lanes in the center and four lanes south of I-20.
Interstate 220Interstate 220 (Mississippi)
Interstate 220 in Mississippi is a loop around Jackson that provides an interstate connection for Interstate 55 and Interstate 20. The northern terminus for the route is in the northern suburb of Ridgeland, at Interstate 55 exit 104...
Connects Interstates 55 and 20 on the north and west sides of the city and is four lanes throughout its route.
U.S. highways
U.S. Highway 49 Runs north-south from the Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
state line at Lula
Lula, Mississippi
Lula is a town in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 370 at the 2000 census.Lula was the birthplace of Dr. Ransom Myers , a renowned Canadian-based marine biologist/conservationist who published a seminal study on overfishing revealing the dramatic loss of nearly 90% of...
via Clarksdale
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
and Yazoo City
Yazoo City, Mississippi
Yazoo City is a city in Yazoo County, Mississippi, United States. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle. It is the county seat of Yazoo County and the principal city of the Yazoo City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the...
, towards Hattiesburg
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...
and Gulfport
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
. It bypasses the city via I-20 and I-220
Interstate 220 (Mississippi)
Interstate 220 in Mississippi is a loop around Jackson that provides an interstate connection for Interstate 55 and Interstate 20. The northern terminus for the route is in the northern suburb of Ridgeland, at Interstate 55 exit 104...
U.S. Highway 51Known in Jackson as State Street, roughly parallels Interstate 55 from the I-20/I-55 western split to downtown. It multiplexes with I-55 from Pearl/Pascagoula St northward to County Line Road, where the two highways split.
U.S. Highway 80Roughly parallels Interstate 20.
State highways
Mississippi Highway 18Runs southwest towards Raymond
Raymond, Mississippi
Raymond is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 1,664. Raymond is one of the two county seats of Hinds County and is the home of the main campus of Hinds Community College....
and Port Gibson
Port Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,840 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Claiborne County.- History :...
; southeast towards Bay Springs
Bay Springs, Mississippi
Bay Springs is a city in Jasper County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,097 at the 2000 census. It is located at the intersection of state highways 15 and 18. The area was settled in the 1880s by Joe Blankenship, who built the saw mill that became the town's industrial base...
and Quitman
Quitman, Mississippi
Quitman is a city in Clarke County, Mississippi, USA, along the Chickasawhay River. The population was 2,463 at the 2000 census. The county seat of Clarke County, it is the hometown of San Antonio Spurs power forward Antonio McDyess and the birthplace of writer Wyatt Emory Cooper.-Geography:Quitman...
.
Mississippi Highway 25Some parts of this road are known as Lakeland Drive, which runs northeast towards Carthage
Carthage, Mississippi
Carthage is a city in Leake County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 4,637 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Leake County....
and Starkville
Starkville, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 851.4 people per square mile . There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 396.7 per square mile...
.
Other roads
In addition, Jackson is served by the Natchez Trace ParkwayNatchez Trace Parkway
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park Service unit in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Old Natchez Trace and preserves sections of the original trail....
, which runs from Natchez
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
.
Bus service
JATRAN (Jackson Transit System) operates hourly or half-hourly during daytime hours on weekdays, and mostly hourly on Saturdays.No evening or Sunday Service provided.
Railroads
Jackson is served by the Canadian National RailwayCanadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
. The Kansas City Southern Railway
Kansas City Southern Railway
The Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
also serves the city. The Canadian National has a medium-sized yard downtown which Mill Street parallels and the Kansas City Southern has a large classification yard
Classification yard
A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill...
in Richland
Richland, Mississippi
Richland is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 6,027 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Richland is located at ....
. Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Jackson. The Amtrak station is located at 300 West Capitol Street. Amtrak's southbound City of New Orleans
City of New Orleans
The City of New Orleans is a nightly passenger train operated by Amtrak which travels between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. Before Amtrak's formation in 1971, the train was operated by the Illinois Central Railroad along the same route . The train currently operates on a 19½ hour...
provides service from Jackson to New Orleans and some points between. The northbound City of New Orleans provides service from Jackson to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois
Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, in the state of Illinois, within the Southern Illinois region. It is located at the junction of Illinois Route 13 and U.S. Route 51, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Shawnee National Forest...
, Champaign-Urbana
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, Chicago
Union Station (Chicago)
Union Station is a major train station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier 1881 station. It is now the only intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the city's primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between Adams...
and some points between. Efforts to establish service with another Amtrak train, the Crescent Star, an extension of the Crescent
Crescent (Amtrak)
The Crescent is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in the eastern part of the United States. It runs daily from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans, Louisiana as train 19 and returns, on the same route, as train 20. Most of the route of...
westward from Meridian, Mississippi
Meridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. It is the sixth largest city in the state and the principal city of the Meridian, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area...
to Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, failed in 2003.
Industry
Jackson is home to several major industries. These include electrical equipment and machinery, processed food, and primary and fabricated metal products. The surrounding area supports agricultural development of livestock, soybeans, cotton, and poultry. Major private companies based in Jackson include ErgonErgon (US)
Ergon, Inc. is based in Jackson, MS and is a privately owned company. Ergon includes operations as a refiner, transporter, producer, distributor and marketer of petroleum products...
.
Publicly traded companies
The following companies are headquartered in Jackson:- Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM)
- EastGroup Properties Inc. (NYSE:EGP)
- Parkway Properties, Inc. (NYSE:PKY)
- Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ:TRMK)
Religion
- Jackson is the see city of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi
- Jackson is the episcopal seeEpiscopal SeeAn episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of JacksonRoman Catholic Diocese of JacksonThe Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, in the southern United States of America. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes the northern and central parts of the state of Mississippi, an area of . It is the largest diocese, by area, in the United... - Jackson is home to the original campus of the Reformed Theological SeminaryReformed Theological SeminaryReformed Theological Seminary is a non-denominational, evangelical Protestant seminary. RTS's first campus remains in Jackson, Mississippi, United States though the school has expanded to include several additional campuses.-Founding:...
- Jackson is home to the Mississippi Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
- Jackson is the headquarters of the Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A.Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A.The Church of Christ U.S.A. is a Holiness body of Christians headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2010, there were 14,000 members in 154 churches.- History :...
, founded by Charles Price JonesCharles Price JonesCharles Price Jones, Sr. . He was a religious leader and hymnist. He was the founder of the Church of Christ U.S.A..... - Jackson is home to Beth Israel CongregationBeth Israel Congregation (Jackson, Mississippi)Beth Israel Congregation is a Reform Judaism congregation located at 5315 Old Canton Road in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Organized in 1860 by Jews of German background, it has always been, and remains, the only synagogue in Jackson...
, the only Jewish congregation in Jackson and the largest in Mississippi. - Sikh Foundation of Greater Mississippi
Cultural organizations and institutions
- Ballet Mississippi
- Celtic Heritage Society of Mississippi
- International Museum of Muslim Cultures
- Jackson State University Botanical GardenJackson State University Botanical GardenThe Jackson State University Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located on the campus of Jackson State University at 1400 Lynch Street, Jackson, Mississippi....
- Jackson ZooJackson ZooThe Jackson Zoo is located in Jackson, Mississippi. The Jackson Zoo has attracted people from across the state and beyond for more than 90 years...
- Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum
- Mississippi Arts Center
- Mississippi Chorus
- Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which contains the state archives and records
- Mississippi Heritage Trust
- Mississippi Hispanic Association
- Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet
- Mississippi Museum of Art
- Mississippi Opera
- Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO), formerly the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1944
- Municipal Art Gallery
- Mynelle Gardens
- New Stage Theatre
- Russell C. Davis Planetarium
- Smith-Robertson Museum and Cultural Center
Municipal government
In 1985, Jackson voters opted to replace the three-person mayor-commissioner system with a city councilCity council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
. Jackson's city council members represent the city's seven wards, and the body is headed by the mayor who is elected by the entire city.
Jackson's current mayor is Harvey Johnson, Jr.
Harvey Johnson, Jr.
Harvey Johnson, Jr. , is the current mayor and first African American mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.-Biography:Harvey Johnson, Jr. was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and attended the Vicksburg Public Schools, graduating from Rosa A. Temple High School...
.
State government
The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) operates the Jackson Probation & Parole Office in Jackson. The MDOC Central Mississippi Correctional FacilityCentral Mississippi Correctional Facility
The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility is a Mississippi Department of Corrections prison for men and women located in unincorporated Rankin County, Mississippi, near Pearl. The prison is the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium...
, in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Rankin County, is located in proximity to Jackson.
Federal representation
The United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
operates the Jackson Main Post Office and several smaller post offices.
Education
Jackson is home to the international headquarters of Phi Theta KappaPhi Theta Kappa
Phi Theta Kappa, also ΦΘΚ or sometimes PTK , is the international honor society of two-year colleges and academic programs, particularly community colleges and junior colleges. It also includes Associate's degree-granting programs offered by four-year colleges...
, an honor society for students enrolled in two-year colleges.
Colleges and universities
- Antonelli CollegeAntonelli CollegeAntonelli College is a career training school with a main campus located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1947 as the Gebhardt Art School, the college later switched its name to Ohio Visual Art Institute in the mid-1970s before finally settling with Antonelli College in 1982.- Accreditation...
(1947) - Belhaven University (1883)
- Hinds Community CollegeHinds Community CollegeHinds Community College is a community college with its main campus located in Raymond, Mississippi, about five miles west of Jackson, the state capital. The Hinds Community College District includes Hinds County, Claiborne County, part of Copiah County, Rankin County, and Warren County...
's campuses in Jackson are the Nursing/Allied Health Center (1970) and the Academic/Technical Center - Jackson State UniversityJackson State UniversityJackson State University is a historically black university founded in 1877 in Natchez, MS by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state supported...
(1877) - Millsaps CollegeMillsaps CollegeMillsaps College is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1890, the college is recognized as one of the country's best private colleges dedicated to undergraduate teaching and educating the whole individual. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Millsaps...
(1890) - Mississippi CollegeMississippi CollegeMississippi College, also known as MC, is a private, Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi. Mississippi College comprises the main campus in Clinton, as well as satellite campuses in Brandon and Madison, Mississippi, and the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson...
(1826) - Mississippi College School of LawMississippi College School of LawThe Mississippi College School of Law is located in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. The law school started out as the Jackson School of Law in 1930, but was acquired by Mississippi College in 1975. The main campus of Mississippi College is located in Clinton, Mississippi.In December 2005, the school...
(1930) - Reformed Theological SeminaryReformed Theological SeminaryReformed Theological Seminary is a non-denominational, evangelical Protestant seminary. RTS's first campus remains in Jackson, Mississippi, United States though the school has expanded to include several additional campuses.-Founding:...
(1966) - Tougaloo CollegeTougaloo CollegeTougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
(1869) - University of Mississippi Medical CenterUniversity of Mississippi Medical CenterUniversity of Mississippi Medical Center is the health sciences campus of the University of Mississippi and is located in Jackson, Mississippi...
(1955), health sciences campus of the University of MississippiUniversity of MississippiThe University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the... - Wesley Biblical SeminaryWesley Biblical SeminaryWesley Biblical Seminary is a multi-denominational, graduate school of theology within the evangelical, Wesleyan-Arminian tradition. The seminary, founded in 1974 and located in Jackson, Mississippi, USA, serves men and women who come from thirty denominations from all across the United States and...
(1974)
Public schools
Jackson Public School DistrictJackson Public School District
The Jackson Public School District is a public school district based in Jackson, Mississippi . In addition to Jackson, the district serves a portion of the Byram community.-Superintendent:...
operates public schools.
The district's high schools include:
- Bailey Magnet High SchoolBailey Magnet High SchoolBailey Magnet High School, originally known as Bailey Junior High School, is a high school in Jackson, Mississippi . The current principal of Bailey Magnet High School is Calvin Lockett.The mascot of Bailey Magnet is the Mighty Knights....
- Callaway High School
- Career Development Center
- Forest Hill High SchoolForest Hill High SchoolForest Hill High School is located in Jackson, Mississippi. It serves students from grades 9-12, and is part of the Jackson Public School District.-Demographics:...
- Jim Hill High SchoolJim Hill High SchoolJim Hill High School is a public high school located in Jackson, Mississippi , hosting the state's only International Baccalaureate Diploma program, which is a vigorous course dedicated to educating its students in worldly academic excellence. It also hosts AP courses and an esteemed JROTC and...
- Lanier High SchoolLanier High School (Jackson, Mississippi)Lanier High School is a high school in Jackson, Mississippi . The current principal of Lanier High School is Dr. McClung.There were a total of 872 students enrolled in Lanier High during the 2006–2007 school year. The gender makeup of the district was 52% female and 48% male...
- Murrah High SchoolMurrah High SchoolMurrah High School is a public high school in Jackson, Mississippi . It is part of the Jackson Public School District.-Demographics:There were a total of about 1,600 students enrolled in Murrah High during the 2008-2009 school year. The gender makeup of the district was 56% female and 44% male...
- Provine High SchoolProvine High SchoolProvine High School is a public school in Jackson, Mississippi. It is part of the Jackson Public School District.Provine High School, also called "Ram City", serves students in grades 9–12 in the West Jackson area. Students from subdivisions such as Northwest Hills Terrace, The Queens, Country Club...
- Wingfield High SchoolWingfield High SchoolWingfield High School is a high school in Jackson, Mississippi . It is part of the Jackson Public School District. Over 1,300 children from southern Jackson attend Wingfield High School in grades 9-12, as well as 100 administration and staff...
Private schools
Private secondary schools include:- Christ Missionary & Industrial (CM&I) College High School
- Hillcrest Christian SchoolHillcrest Christian SchoolHillcrest Christian School is a private school founded in 1971, and stands on South Siwell Road, Jackson, Mississippi, USA. Initially, the current campus was known as Council McCluer which was a separate school opened the same year as Hillcrest....
- Jackson AcademyJackson Academy (Mississippi)Jackson Academy is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson Academy was founded in 1959 on the basis of teaching children phonetic reading. Today, the campus is thriving with nearly 1450 students in grades K3 through 12...
- Jackson Preparatory SchoolJackson Preparatory School (Mississippi)Jackson Preparatory School , is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school enrolling 820 students in grades six through twelve. Located in Flowood, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson, Prep sits on a 74-acre campus east of Jackson. Prep currently offers one of only two Classical...
- The Veritas SchoolThe Veritas SchoolThe Veritas School is a private school in Jackson, Mississippi .-History:Conceived in 1994 and officially established in 1998, Veritas is a non-denominational private Christian school serving the greater Jackson area. Until the fall semester of 2009, the campus was located at the former Colonial...
- St. Andrew's Episcopal School (Mississippi)
Private primary schools include:
- Jackson AcademyJackson Academy (Mississippi)Jackson Academy is an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson Academy was founded in 1959 on the basis of teaching children phonetic reading. Today, the campus is thriving with nearly 1450 students in grades K3 through 12...
- First Presbyterian Day School
- Magnolia Speech School
- St. Andrew's Episcopal Lower School – South Campus
- St. Richard Catholic School
Weekly
- Jackson AdvocateJackson AdvocateJackson Advocate is an African-American weekly newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi founded in 1938 by Percy Greene. Mr. Greene was a veteran of World War I and was a Civil Rights leader in the 1940s and 1950s...
– weekly newspaper and oldest newspaper serving the state's African-American community - Jackson Free PressJackson Free PressThe Jackson Free Press, referred to often as simply "JFP", is an alternative weekly newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi founded in 2002 by Mississippi native Donna Ladd, author and technology expert Todd Stauffer and a group of young Jacksonians wanting a progressive voice in the state...
– alternative newsweekly featuring local news, investigative reporting, and arts and entertainment coverage - The Mississippi Link – weekly newspaper serving the state's African American community
- Mississippi Business JournalMississippi Business JournalThe Mississippi Business Journal is a statewide weekly business newspaper, located in Jackson, Mississippi.Each issue contains news coverage relating to the Mississippi business world along with regular opinion and freelance columns...
– weekly newspaper, with focus on business and economic development - The Northside Sun – weekly newspaper, with focus on the northeastern portion of the Jackson Metropolitan area
Historic
- The Mississippian Daily Gazette – also often referred to as The Jackson Mississippian because of its location, circulated during the 19th century, a major newspaper during the Civil War
- The Standard – circulated during the 19th century, after the Civil War The Eastern Clarion moved to Jackson and merged with The Standard, soon changed name to The Clarion
- State Ledger – circulated during the 19th century, in 1888 The Clarion merged with the State Ledger and became known as The Clarion-Ledger
- The Jackson Daily News – originally known as The Jackson Evening Post in 1882, changed the name to The Jackson Daily News in 1907, purchased along with The Clarion-Ledger by Gannett in 1982
Publishing
- University Press of MississippiUniversity Press of MississippiThe University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi:*Alcorn State University*Delta State University*Jackson State University*Mississippi State University...
, the state's only not-for-profit publishing house and collective publisher for Mississippi's eight state universities, producing works on local history, culture and society
Television
- Channel 3, WLBTWLBTWLBT, virtual channel 3 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Jackson, Mississippi, and it is owned by Raycom Media. WLBT transmits its signal from an antenna, 624 meters in height, located near Raymond.-History:...
: NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... - Channel 8, WBXK: darkDark (broadcasting)In the broadcasting industry, dark is a term used to describe a radio station or television station that has gone off-the-air for an indefinite period of time, or as defined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission , a "silent" station...
- Channel 10, WBMSWBMS-CAWBMS-CA is an independent TV station in Jackson, Mississippi, operating on channel 10.WBMS began broadcasting in 1994 as W10BD, affiliated with America's Voice. It was owned by Louisiana state senator Louis "Woody" Jenkins and his company Great Oaks Broadacasting. Jenkins owned two stations in...
: independentIndependent stationAn independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
(simulcast of WXMS) - Channel 12, WJTVWJTVWJTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Jackson, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter in Raymond. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 13 and in high definition on digital channel 433. Owned by Media General, WJTV has...
: CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of... - Channel 16, WAPT: ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
- Channel 23, W23BCW23BCW23BC is a low-power television station in Jackson, Mississippi. It is owned and operated by Jackson State University. The station currently carries some programming from America One....
: Colours TVCoLours TVColours TV was a multicultural American TV network produced by the non-profit organization Black Star Communications. Programs focused on the cultural and educational issues of the Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Native American communities. Some examples of programming included video...
, America OneAmerica OneAmerica One is an over-the-air television network in the United States. The network serves over 170 LPTV, Class A, Full Power, Cable and Satellite affiliate stations...
(owned by Jackson State UniversityJackson State UniversityJackson State University is a historically black university founded in 1877 in Natchez, MS by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state supported...
) - Channel 27, WXMS: independentIndependent stationAn independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
- Channel 29, WMPNMississippi Public BroadcastingMississippi Public Broadcasting is the public broadcasting state network in Mississippi, United States. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Mississippi state government that holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations in the...
: PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
/Mississippi Public BroadcastingMississippi Public BroadcastingMississippi Public Broadcasting is the public broadcasting state network in Mississippi, United States. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Mississippi state government that holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations in the... - Channel 34, WRBJ: The CWThe CW Television NetworkThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
- Channel 35, WUFXWUFXWUFX is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Jackson, Mississippi licensed to Vicksburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 from a transmitter on Thigpen Road in Raymond. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 11...
: My Network TV - Channel 40, WDBDWDBDWDBD is the Fox-affiliated television station for Jackson, Mississippi. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on Thigpen Road in Raymond. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 434...
: FoxFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the... - Channel 49, WJXF-LPWJXF-LPWJXF-LP is a low-power TV station in Jackson, Mississippi. The station, which operates on channel 49, is owned by Equity Broadcasting.WJXF began carrying LAT TV programming beginning May 30, 2007, as part of a new deal between LAT TV and Equity. It was originally announced that LAT TV would...
: dark - Channel 53, WJMF-LPWJMF-LPWJMF-LP is a low-power television station in Jackson, Mississippi. The station, which currently operates on Channel 53, is owned by Rainey Radio...
: dark - Channel 64, WJKO-LPWJKO-LPWJKO is a low-power TBN affiliate station licensed to Jackson, Mississippi, United States. The station is owned by the Word of God Fellowship, owners of TBN's competitor, Daystar....
: TBNTrinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
FM radio
|
WJKK WJKK, better known as Mix 98.7, is a mainstream adult contemporary radio station. Although licensed to Vicksburg, the station serves the Jackson area. The station is currently owned by Meridian-based New South Radio.... : Adult Contemporary WJMI WJMI is a radio station licensed to Jackson, Mississippi, USA with a Mainstream Urban musical format. The station is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.-Station history:... : Hip-Hop WLEZ-LP WLEZ-LP, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on 100.1 FM, is a radio station serving the Jackson metropolitan area with a community radio format. Coverage includes Downtown Jackson as well as the cities of Flowood, Pearl, Brandon, and portions of Ridgeland... : Adult standards Adult standards Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens... K-LOVE K-LOVE is a Contemporary Christian music radio programming service in the United States operated by the Educational Media Foundation. As of January 2011, K-LOVE's programming is carried on over 440 FM stations and translators in 45 states. K-LOVE claims an audience of 250,000 people each week via... ): Contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith... WYOY WYOY is a Top 40 station in Jackson, Mississippi. WYOY debuted in September, 1996, and gave the Jackson area its first Top 40 station since 1993.Current on air members6a-10a Y101 Morning Showgram with Nate and Murphy10a-3p Lauren Rae... (Y101): Top 40, Pop WMSI-FM WMSI-FM is a radio station in Jackson, Mississippi, and owned by Clear Channel Communications. WMSI's signal covers a roughly 90 mile radius around the city with an ERP of 100,000 watts.-History:... : Country Music Country music Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music... WYAB WYAB 103.9 FM is a radio station serving the city of Jackson, Mississippi, including Madison County, Yazoo County, Rankin County, and Hinds County... (103-9 WYAB): Talk Radio Talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live... WJDX-FM WJDX-FM is an oldies station in Kosciusko, Mississippi, serving the Jackson, Mississippi area as "Oldies 105.1". It is owned by Clear Channel Communications. From October 1998 to March 2003...WQJQ was a Jammin' Oldies station.... (Oldies 105.1): Oldies Oldies Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day.... ESPN Radio ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut... WSTZ-FM WSTZ-FM is a classic rock music formatted radio station in Jackson, Mississippi, but is licensed to Vicksburg, Mississippi. WSTZ is owned by Clear Channel. WSTZ serves Jackson and surrounding area with an ERP of 85,000 watts.... (Z106): Classic Rock WKXI-FM WKXI-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary music formatted radio station licensed to Magee, Mississippi, but its studio is located in Ridgeland. The station is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, and is an affiliate of the Tom Joyner Morning Show.... (Kixie 107): R&B, Soul |
AM radio
- 620 WJDX: Fox Sports RadioFox Sports RadioFox Sports Radio, abbreviated FSR, is an international radio network consisting of sports talk programming. The network is a service of Premiere Networks...
- 780 WIINWIINWIIN is a radio station licensed to serve Ridgeland, Mississippi. The station is owned by The Radio People and licensed to New South Radio, Inc.The station was assigned the WIIN call letters by the Federal Communications Commission on July 31, 1995....
: silent - 810 WSJCWSJCWSJC is a radio station licensed to serve Magee, Mississippi. The station is owned by Family Talk Radio. It airs a Religious radio format....
: Family TalkFamily TalkFamily Talk is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams released on the Italian Black Saint label in 1993 and features performances of six of Abrams compositions by Abrams, Jack Walrath, Patience Higgins, Brad Jones, Warren Smith and Reggie Nicholson.-Reception:...
radio - 850 WQSTWQST (AM)WQST is a radio station licensed to serve Forest, Mississippi. The station is owned by Ace Broadcasting, Inc. Its format is southern gospel.The station has been assigned these call letters by the Federal Communications Commission since September 1, 1986....
: southern gospelSouthern GospelSouthern Gospel music—at one time also known as "quartet music"—is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music... - 930 WSFZWSFZWSFZ is a radio station licensed to serve Jackson, Mississippi. The station is owned by Sportsrad, Inc. It airs a sports radio format.SuperSport 930 Daily Broadcast Schedule:The Tim Brando Show - 10am-11am...
: Sporting News RadioSporting News RadioYahoo! Sports Radio, formerly Sporting News Radio is a United States sports radio network that broadcasts sports news, talk, scores, and highlights 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On August 1, 2011, it was announced the network would change its name to Yahoo! Sports Radio, effective... - 970 WJFNWJFNWJFN, aka Super Country, is a classic country radio station in Brandon, Mississippi.WJFN began as WRKN in the late 1960's as a country station. Longtime owners were Roy and June Harris. For a short time the station had a 1950's based oldies format and also had a country gospel format for while. ...
: classic country - 1120 WTWZWTWZWTWZ is a radio station licensed to serve Clinton, Mississippi. The station is owned by Wood Broadcasting Co. Its format is bluegrass, with some religious programming....
: bluegrass gospel - 1150 WONGWONGWONG is a radio station licensed to serve Canton, Mississippi. The station is owned by Marion R. Williams. It airs an Urban AC and Gospel music format....
: gospel - 1180 WJNTWJNTWJNT is a radio station licensed to Pearl, Mississippi. WJNT is currently owned by Inner City Broadcasting and its sister stations are WJMI, WKXI, WOAD, WZNO and WJQS...
: news-talk - 1240 WPBQWPBQWPBQ is part of the Reb Sports Radio Network based in Oxford, Mississippi]. The station broadcasts at 1240 kHz on the AM dial. Its sister stations are KBUD 102.1 FM in Oxford and WMUT 101.3 FM in Grenada....
: news-talk - 1300 WOADWOAD (AM)WOAD is a radio station licensed to Jackson with an urban gospel format and is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.- History :The 1300khz frequency was assigned the WRBC call letters for several years...
: gospel - 1370 WMGOWMGOWMGO is a radio station broadcasting a Urban Contemporary music format. Licensed to Canton, Mississippi, USA, the station serves the Jackson MS area. The station is currently owned by Wmgo Broadcasting Corp.....
: gospel - 1400 WJQS: adult standardsAdult standardsAdult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
- 1590 WZRXWZRX (AM)WZRX is a sports radio station in Jackson, Mississippi. WZRX airs programming from Fox Sports Radio.Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the station was called "W1" . It was a Top 40 rock-and-roll station, but it was not as popular as WRBC-AM...
: CNN Headline NewsCNN Headline NewsHLN, formerly known as CNN Headline News and CNN2, is a cable television news channel based in the United States and a spinoff of the cable news television channel, CNN. Initially airing tightly-formatted 30-minute newscasts around the clock, since 2005, the channel has increasingly aired long-form...
Points of interest
Tourism and culture
Jackson is a city famous for its music – including GospelGospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, Blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, and R&B. Jackson is also home to the world famous Malaco Records
Malaco Records
Malaco Records is an independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi. Malaco is and has been the home of various major soul, blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the...
recording studio. Many notable musicians hail from Jackson.
Jackson, MS is mentioned in the 1973 song Uneasy Rider
Uneasy Rider
"Uneasy Rider" is a 1973 song written and performed by American singer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Daniels. It consists of a narrative that is spoken rather than sung over a guitar melody and is sometimes considered a novelty song...
by Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels
Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...
.
Rap rocker Kid Rock
Kid Rock
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie , known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations...
made a song about Jackson, aptly titled "Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi (Kid Rock song)
"Jackson, Mississippi" is a dark southern rock song from Kid Rock's 2003 self-titled album. The song is about a man dealing with addiction and the effects it's having on a relationship. It was released as a dual single in January 2004 along with "Cold and Empty." It peaked at #14 on the...
", in 2003.
The Rolling Stones sat "in a bar tippling a jar in Jackson" in their song 'Country Honk' on the 1969 album 'Let It Bleed'. "And on the street the summer sun it shines. There's many a bar-room queen I've had in Jackson, but I just can't seem to drink you off my mind."
"Jackson
Jackson (song)
"Jackson" is a song, written in 1963 by Jerry Leiber and Billy Edd Wheeler, about a married couple who find that the "fire" has gone out of their relationship...
" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Billy Edd Wheeler
Billy Edd Wheeler
Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler is an American songwriter, performer, writer and visual artist. He has written songs performed by over 90 different artists including Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, and Elvis Presley...
about newlyweds making the discovery that, after jumping much too quickly into marriage, the "fire" has gone out of their relationship. They both want to go to Jackson, where each looks forward to a new life free of the other. Although the song does not specify whether Jackson, TN or Jackson, MS is the destination, the lyrics do clearly reference gambling. During the period from the 1920s until the 1960s, illegal gambling casinos flourished on the east side of the Pearl River, along the original U.S. Route 80
U.S. Route 80
U.S. Route 80 is an east–west United States highway, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the route number indicates, it was originally a cross-country route, from the Atlantic to the Pacific...
just outside the city of Jackson, MS in Flowood. The infamous casinos might have been the inspiration for those lyrics.
In any event, the best-known single releases of the song include the 1968 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winner by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
and June Carter Cash
June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedienne and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash...
, and the hit Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
and Lee Hazelwood version from the same year. Much later, the song was performed by Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix , formerly credited as Leaf Phoenix, is an American film actor. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his family returned to the continental United States four years later...
and Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
(playing Johnny Cash and June Carter) in the 2005 film Walk the Line
Walk the Line
Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold and based on the early life and career of country music artist Johnny Cash...
.
Those illegal casinos referenced (perhaps) by the song, along with bootleg liquor stores and nightclubs, made up the Gold Coast, a strip of mostly black-market businesses which operated for decades along Flowood Road, just across the Pearl River from downtown Jackson. Though it existed outside the law, the Gold Coast was a thriving center of nightlife and music, with many local blues musicians appearing in the clubs regularly. The Gold Coast disappeared after Mississippi's prohibition laws were repealed in 1966, allowing Hinds County, including Jackson, to go "wet".
In 1978, the USA International Ballet Competition
USA International Ballet Competition
The USA International Ballet Competition, or USA IBC, is one of the world's top competitions for ballet. Located in Jackson, Mississippi, this competition is attended by dancers from all over the world to represent their country for bronze, silver, or gold medals in a variety of categories of...
was founded in Jackson by Thalia Mara, who is also the namesake of Thalia Mara Hall where the competition is held. The following year saw the first USA International Ballet Competition held as part of the worldwide International Ballet Competition (IBC), which itself originated in Varna, Bulgaria in 1964. The competition eventually expanded to rotating annual events between Jackson, Varna, Moscow and Tokyo. It was in 1979 that the event first came to the United States, to Jackson, where it now returns every four years. The rotation is currently among Jackson, Varna, Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, and Shanghai, China
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. Jackson has been the host of the IBC in 1979, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. The next competition in Jackson will be in 2010. The United States Congress recognized Jackson and the USA IBC by passing a Joint Resolution in 1982 that designated Jackson as the official home of the USA IBC.
Periodic cultural events
- CelticFest Mississippi (annual, September)
- Crossroads Film Festival (annual, April)
- Festival Latino (annual, September)
- Jubilee!Jam (annual, June)
- Mal's St. Pattys Day Parade (annual, third Saturday of March, before/after March 17, the fourth largest in the nation with over 50,000 people)
- Sweet Potato QueensSweet Potato QueensThe Sweet Potato Queens is a women's organization based in Jackson, Mississippi, that has over 6000 chapters in over 20 countries.-Organization:...
Million Queen March Weekend
- Sweet Potato Queens
- Mississippi State Fair (annual, held in October)
- OUToberfestOutoberfestOUToberfest is a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual festival held annually during October in Jackson, Mississippi. It was established in 2005 for several reasons including:*a failure of Mississippi Pride organizers in 2004...
(annual gay and lesbian festival, October) - USA International Ballet CompetitionUSA International Ballet CompetitionThe USA International Ballet Competition, or USA IBC, is one of the world's top competitions for ballet. Located in Jackson, Mississippi, this competition is attended by dancers from all over the world to represent their country for bronze, silver, or gold medals in a variety of categories of...
(every four years, June)
Downtown Jackson attractions
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Mississippi Governor's Mansion The Mississippi Governor's Mansion is a historic U.S. residence in Jackson, Mississippi, located at 300 East Capitol Street. It is the second oldest executive residence in the United States that has been continuously occupied as a gubernatorial residence .On November 25, 1969, it was added to the U.S... Mississippi State Capitol The Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Mississippi, housing the Mississippi Legislature... |
The Oaks House Museum The Oaks House Museum, also known as The Oaks, located at 823 North Jefferson Street in Jackson, Mississippi, is the former home of Jackson Mayor James H. Boyd and his wife Eliza Ellis Boyd and their family. Having survived the burning of Jackson during the Civil War, The Oaks is one of the... |
Museums and historic sites
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Mississippi Governor's Mansion The Mississippi Governor's Mansion is a historic U.S. residence in Jackson, Mississippi, located at 300 East Capitol Street. It is the second oldest executive residence in the United States that has been continuously occupied as a gubernatorial residence .On November 25, 1969, it was added to the U.S... Mississippi Museum of Natural Science The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science is located in Jackson and is the largest museum in state of Mississippi.-History:The museum was founded in 1933 by Francis A. Cook as a part of the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission. Francis 'Fannie' Cook led a drive to found the Game and Fish Commission... The Oaks House Museum The Oaks House Museum, also known as The Oaks, located at 823 North Jefferson Street in Jackson, Mississippi, is the former home of Jackson Mayor James H. Boyd and his wife Eliza Ellis Boyd and their family. Having survived the burning of Jackson during the Civil War, The Oaks is one of the... http://www.theoakshousemuseum.org/ |
Historic marker
Jackson, Mississippi received its first Mississippi Blues TrailMississippi Blues Trail
The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...
designation. The ceremony was held and the historic marker placed on the former site of the Subway Lounge on Pearl Street. The Subway Lounge was in the basement of the old Summers Hotel, one of two hotels available as lodging to blacks before desegregation when it opened in 1943. In the 1960s, the hotel added a lounge
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
in the basement that featured jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. In the 1980s, when the lounge was revived, it was catered to late night blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
performers. In 2002, the Subway Lounge was filmed for a documentary entitled Last of the Mississippi Jukes.
Parks
- Battlefield Park
- Grove Park
- LeFleur's Bluff State ParkLeFleur's Bluff State ParkLeFleur's Bluff State Park is a Mississippi state park in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi in the United States. The park is and sits at an elevation of . It is located off of Interstate 55 on the banks of the Pearl River within the city of Jackson...
- Parham Bridges Park
- Sheppard Brothers Park
- Smith Park
- Sykes Park
Downtown Jackson renaissance
Currently, Jackson is experiencing $1.6 billion in downtown development. The public-private projects include new construction, renovation and adaptation of some existing buildings, including conversions into residential space; and improvements to public infrastructure and amenities.Tallest buildings
| Name | Height | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Regions Plaza (formerly AmSouth) | 197 m | 1975 |
| Jackson Marriott Downtown | 178 m | 1975 |
| Regions Bank Building (formerly AmSouth) | 177 m | 1989 |
| Standard Life Building | 176 m | 1989 |
| Trustmark National Bank Building | 166 m | 1995 |
| Lamar Life Building | 158 m | 1994 |
Roller Derby
- Magnolia Roller Vixens – All Female Flat Track Roller Derby League. Formed in 2008.
Summer training camp
- New Orleans SaintsNew Orleans SaintsThe New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They are members of the South Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League ....
– Jackson's Millsaps CollegeMillsaps CollegeMillsaps College is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1890, the college is recognized as one of the country's best private colleges dedicated to undergraduate teaching and educating the whole individual. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Millsaps...
is the former summer home for the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
Sports arenas
- Mississippi Veterans Memorial StadiumMississippi Veterans Memorial StadiumMississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. Veterans Memorial Stadium is the home field of the Jackson State University Tigers. In July 2011, Jackson State University will own and operate the stadium...
– Concerts, Football (home of Jackson State UniversityJackson State UniversityJackson State University is a historically black university founded in 1877 in Natchez, MS by the American Baptist Home Mission Society of New York. The Society moved the school to Jackson in 1882, renaming it Jackson College, and developed its present campus in 1902. It became a state supported...
) - Mississippi ColiseumMississippi ColiseumThe Mississippi Coliseum is a 6,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Jackson, Mississippi, built in 1962 and located on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds complex...
– Basketball, Hockey, Track, Rodeo, Concerts - Smith Wills StadiumSmith Wills StadiumSmith–Wills Stadium is a 5,200 seat baseball stadium in Jackson, Mississippi. It is located on Lakeland Drive, less than half a mile east of Interstate 55, in the northeastern part of the city.-History:...
– Baseball, Softball, Football, Soccer, Concerts (home of the Belhaven CollegeBelhaven CollegeBelhaven University is a private Christian liberal arts university located in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded by Dr. Lewis Fitzhugh and later donated to the now defunct Presbyterian Church in the United States, the school has been independently run by a Board of Trustees since 1972...
baseball team)
Former professional sports teams
- Baseball
- Jackson MetsJackson MetsThe Jackson Mets were a professional baseball team based in Jackson, Mississippi, from 1975 through 1990. As of 2010, they are the longest-tenured club to be based in the Jackson metropolitan area...
– former Texas League AA affiliate of the New York MetsNew York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
(1975–1990); Smith-Wills Stadium - Jackson Generals – former Texas LeagueTexas LeagueThe Texas League is a minor league baseball league which operates in the South Central United States. It is classified a Double-A league. The league was founded in 1888 and ran through 1892...
AA affiliate of the Houston AstrosHouston AstrosThe Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
(1991–1999); Smith-Wills Stadium - Jackson Diamond Kats – of the independent Texas-Louisiana League (later changed its name to the Central Baseball LeagueCentral Baseball LeagueThe Central Baseball League, formerly the Texas-Louisiana League, was a minor league whose member teams were independent of any Major League Baseball affiliations.In 1991, potential owners, Dallas businessman Byron Pierce and U. S...
) (2000); Smith-Wills Stadium - Jackson SenatorsJackson SenatorsThe Jackson Senators was the name of at least two minor league baseball teams that played in Jackson, Mississippi.-First team:The first known Jackson Senators club competed in the Cotton States League before 1953...
– Independent (2001–2004); Smith-Wills Stadium
- Jackson Mets
- Basketball
- Jackson WildcatsJackson WildcatsThe Jackson Wildcats were a United States Basketball League team located in Jackson, Mississippi. The Wildcats were originally located in Glens Falls, New York as the Adirondack Wildcats. The new ownership announced the move to Mississippi on 1 December 2006...
– United States Basketball LeagueUnited States Basketball LeagueThe United States Basketball League , often abbreviated to the USBL, was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985. The final champions are the Kansas Cagerz, who won the title game on July 1, 2007.-History:... - Jackson Rage – World Basketball AssociationWorld Basketball AssociationThe World Basketball Association, often abbreviated to the WBA, is a professional men's spring basketball league in the United States.-History:The WBA was conceived in 2004, with seven teams scheduled to play...
(2004) - Mississippi HardhatsMississippi HardhatsThe Mississippi Hardhats are a World Basketball Association franchise in Hattiesburg, Mississippi....
– World Basketball AssociationWorld Basketball AssociationThe World Basketball Association, often abbreviated to the WBA, is a professional men's spring basketball league in the United States.-History:The WBA was conceived in 2004, with seven teams scheduled to play...
(2005)
- Jackson Wildcats
- HockeyHockeyHockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
- Jackson BanditsJackson BanditsThe Jackson Bandits were a minor league professional ice hockey team and member of the East Coast Hockey League . The Bandits played at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Mississippi between the 1999-2000 and 2002-03 seasons...
– East Coast Hockey League, 1999–2003
- Jackson Bandits
- Soccer
- Jackson Calypso – Women's Soccer
- Jackson Rockers – Men's Soccer
- Jackson ChargersJackson ChargersThe Jackson Chargers were an American soccer team which played in the PDL....
– Men's Soccer
- FootballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
- Mississippi Pride – Regional Football LeagueRegional Football LeagueThe Regional Football League was an American football league formed to be the self-styled "major league of spring football." The RFL season was designed for spring-summer play with the weekend prior to the Fourth of July designated as the annual date for its championship game.The inaugural season...
- Mississippi Pride – Regional Football League