50 Fun Facts About Mississippi

Mississippi became a state on December 10 of which year, as the 20th state?

It seceded on January 9, 1861, the second state to leave the Union.

What is the capital and largest city of Mississippi?

Founded as the capital in 1821, it is named after Andrew Jackson, and Sherman burned it in 1863.

The state's name comes from an Ojibwe word meaning what?

Settlers took the name from the river, which the Ojibwe called misi-ziibi.

Mississippi produces most of the nation's supply of which pond-raised fish?

About 60% of U.S. farm-raised catfish is grown within 65 miles of Belzoni.

What was Mississippi's rank among cotton-producing states by 1860?

Enslaved people made up 55% of the state's population that year.

Coca-Cola was first bottled in which Mississippi city, in 1894?

Joseph Biedenharn did it at his candy company on March 12, 1894; the building is now a museum.

The teddy bear takes its name from an incident on a 1902 hunting trip in Mississippi involving which president?

He refused to shoot a bear that guide Holt Collier had tied to a tree; a Washington Post cartoon did the rest.

Barq's root beer was first bottled in which Gulf Coast city?

Edward Barq opened the Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works in 1898.

Elvis Presley was born in which Mississippi town?

Born January 8, 1935; his twin Jesse Garon was stillborn 35 minutes earlier, and the family left for Memphis when Elvis was 13.

Which Mississippi native created Kermit the Frog?

Born in Greenville in 1936 and raised in nearby Leland, where Deer Creek is claimed as Kermit's birthplace.

Oprah Winfrey was born in which small Mississippi town?

Her birth certificate reads Orpah, after the Book of Ruth; people mispronounced it and Oprah stuck.

William Faulkner set most of his novels in the fictional Yoknapatawpha, a stand-in for which real county?

He was born in New Albany, raised in Oxford, and won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Which Mississippi-born writer won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist's Daughter?

Her home in the state capital is a National Historic Landmark; she was also a keen photographer.

Tennessee Williams, author of A Streetcar Named Desire, was born in which Mississippi city?

He was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911; the pen name came later.

Native Son author Richard Wright was born on a plantation near which river city?

Rucker's Plantation sat between the rail town of Roxie and Natchez; his memoir Black Boy recounts the childhood.

Emmett Till was visiting relatives near which Delta town when he was murdered in 1955?

The 14-year-old from Chicago was accused of whistling at a white shopkeeper; his open-casket funeral galvanised the civil rights movement.

Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963 outside his home in which city?

Byron De La Beckwith walked free after two hung juries in the 1960s and was finally convicted in 1994.

How many troops did President Kennedy mobilise to quell the 1962 riot at Ole Miss?

It remains the largest deployment for a single disturbance in U.S. history; Governor Ross Barnett had briefly jailed Meredith to block him.

What was the goal of Freedom Summer in 1964?

Bob Moses directed it for COFO; three volunteers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, were murdered in Neshoba County.

On what date did the Confederate stronghold on the river surrender to Grant in 1863?

Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, and its fall completed the Anaconda Plan's second stage.

How long is the parkway that runs from the state's oldest river town up to Nashville?

The Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Natchez to Nashville, passing Jackson and Tupelo; the National Park Service maintains it as an All-American Road.

How many people did Hurricane Katrina kill in Mississippi in 2005?

Bridges, barges and houses were washed inland along the whole Gulf Coast; the state later let casinos rebuild on land.

Mississippi was the last state to remove which symbol from its official banner, in June 2020?

Governor Tate Reeves signed the retirement on June 30, 2020; voters chose the New Magnolia flag that November.

What flower is at the centre of the Mississippi flag adopted in January 2021?

It sits among 21 stars with 'In God We Trust' beneath; the flag was designed by Rocky Vaughan.

What did the Ole Miss Rebels' teams go by before adopting the Rebels name in 1936?

The mascot has since gone from Colonel Reb to the Rebel Black Bear to Tony the Landshark in 2018.

Which mascot did Ole Miss introduce on the field in 2018, replacing the Rebel Black Bear?

It replaced the bear in 2018; the bear had replaced Colonel Reb in 2011.

What is the trophy in the Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State rivalry game called?

The Egg Bowl has been contested since 1901 and the trophy awarded since 1927, on Thanksgiving weekend.

What noisy object do Mississippi State fans famously ring at games?

The Bulldogs began as the Maroons in 1895 and play at Davis Wade Stadium, the second-oldest in FBS.

Robert Johnson, the bluesman said to have sold his soul at a crossroads, was born in which town?

He recorded only 29 songs in two sessions and died in 1938 at 27, just before John Hammond came looking for him for Carnegie Hall.

B.B. King was born on a cotton plantation near which Delta town?

He called Indianola, where he moved as a teenager, his hometown; the B.B. King Museum is there.

Muddy Waters grew up on which plantation near Clarksdale?

Alan Lomax recorded him there in 1941; he moved to Chicago in 1943 and became the father of modern Chicago blues.

Which blues singer died at Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel after a car crash on Highway 61?

The hotel is on the Mississippi Blues Trail; Morgan Freeman co-owns the Ground Zero blues club nearby.

Jimmie Rodgers, the 'Father of Country Music', came from which Mississippi city?

The Singing Brakeman was a railroad worker's son and famous for his yodel.

Which NFL quarterback was born in Gulfport and raised in Kiln, Mississippi?

He played college ball for Southern Miss before 20 NFL seasons, mostly in Green Bay.

Jerry Rice played his college football at which school?

Born in Starkville and raised in Crawford, he became the NCAA's all-time leader in receiving touchdowns for the Delta Devils.

Walter Payton, 'Sweetness', starred in college for which Mississippi university?

He was born in Columbia, Mississippi and twice named a Little All-American.

Which shipbuilder in Pascagoula is Mississippi's largest private employer?

Founded in 1938 on the Pascagoula River, it builds ships for the U.S. Navy.

NASA's largest rocket-engine test facility is in which Mississippi county?

Stennis Space Center sits on the Pearl River at the Louisiana line, chosen because Apollo stages had to arrive by barge.

Jefferson Davis spent his last years at Beauvoir, an estate in which Gulf Coast city?

Author Sarah Dorsey invited him there in 1877 to write his memoirs; his wife Varina initially refused to join him.

The Windsor Ruins in Claiborne County consist of how many standing Corinthian columns?

The largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion in the state survived the Civil War only to burn in 1890.

Which Mississippi town, home of the state's first European settlement in 1699, is now called Ocean Springs?

The French founded Natchez as Fort Rosalie in 1716.

Which Spanish explorer passed through northeast Mississippi in 1540?

It was his second expedition to the New World.

The 1830 treaty that forced the Choctaw to give up their Mississippi homelands was signed where?

The forced removal became part of the Trail of Tears; the Mississippi Band of Choctaw is federally recognised today.

In what year did Mississippi legalise casino gambling along the river and Gulf Coast?

After Katrina wrecked the floating casinos, a 2005 law let them rebuild on land.

Which Mississippi city had the largest population decline of any major US city from 2010 to 2020?

It fell 11.42%, from 173,514 to 153,701.

Fannie Lou Hamer was vice-chair of which group she represented at the 1964 national convention?

Born in Montgomery County in 1917, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025.

Roughly what share of US pond-raised catfish is grown within 65 miles of Belzoni, Mississippi?

Belzoni bills itself the Catfish Capital of the World.

Which two hurricanes were the most devastating ever to hit Mississippi?

Both caused near-total storm-surge destruction along the Gulf Coast.

Which ethnic group ran many of the small grocery stores in Delta towns from 1910 to 1930?

The first Chinese arrived as contract labourers from Cuba and California in the 1870s.

Mississippi is one of three states with the U.S. motto on its flag. Which are the other two?

The 2020 law required 'In God We Trust' on the new design and banned the Confederate battle emblem.