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The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
 that lies between the Mississippi
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
 and Yazoo River
Yazoo River

The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Mississippi.The Yazoo River was named by French explorer Ren?-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682 in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth....
s. Technically not a delta
River delta

A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river....
 but part of an alluvial plain
Alluvial plain

An alluvial plain is a relatively flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which Alluvium soil forms....
, it has been said that the Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel
Peabody Hotel

The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration....
 (in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
) and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg
Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. It is located 234 miles north by west of New Orleans, Louisiana on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital....
" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but often David Cohn is credited with the saying.






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Mississippi Yazoo Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
 that lies between the Mississippi
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
 and Yazoo River
Yazoo River

The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Mississippi.The Yazoo River was named by French explorer Ren?-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682 in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth....
s. Technically not a delta
River delta

A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river....
 but part of an alluvial plain
Alluvial plain

An alluvial plain is a relatively flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which Alluvium soil forms....
, it has been said that the Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel
Peabody Hotel

The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration....
 (in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
) and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg
Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. It is located 234 miles north by west of New Orleans, Louisiana on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital....
" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but often David Cohn is credited with the saying. (David Cohn, Where I was Born and Raised, 1948) This region, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil in the world. It includes the following counties: Washington
Washington County, Mississippi

Washington County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 62,977. It is named in honor of the first President of the United States, George Washington....
, DeSoto
DeSoto County, Mississippi

DeSoto County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. DeSoto County is part of the Memphis metropolitan area. Its county seat is Hernando, Mississippi....
, Humphreys
Humphreys County, Mississippi

Humphreys County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. In 2000, the population was 11,206. Its county seat is Belzoni, Mississippi....
, Carroll
Carroll County, Mississippi

Carroll County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population is 10,769. Its county seat is Carrollton, Mississippi....
, Issaquena
Issaquena County, Mississippi

Issaquena County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 2,274. In population, it is the smallest county in Mississippi....
, Panola
Panola County, Mississippi

Panola County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi, just east of the Mississippi Delta. As of 2000, the population was 34,274. Its county seats are Sardis, Mississippi and Batesville, Mississippi....
, Quitman
Quitman County, Mississippi

Quitman County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 10,117. Its county seat is Marks, Mississippi....
, Bolivar
Bolivar County, Mississippi

Bolivar County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 40,633. It is named in honor of Sim?n Bol?var, leader of the liberation of several South American countries from Spain in the early 19th century....
, Coahoma
Coahoma County, Mississippi

Coahoma County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 30,622. Its county seat is Clarksdale, Mississippi....
, Leflore
Leflore County, Mississippi

Leflore County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 37,947. The county seat is Greenwood, Mississippi....
, Sunflower
Sunflower County, Mississippi

Sunflower County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 34,369. Its county seat is Indianola, Mississippi....
, Sharkey
Sharkey County, Mississippi

Sharkey County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 6,580. Its county seat is Rolling Fork, Mississippi....
, Tunica
Tunica County, Mississippi

Tunica County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 9,227. Its county seat is Tunica, Mississippi....
, Tallahatchie
Tallahatchie County, Mississippi

Tallahatchie County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 14,903....
, Holmes
Holmes County, Mississippi

Holmes County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 21,609. It is named in honor of David Holmes , the first governor of the state of Mississippi....
, Yazoo
Yazoo County, Mississippi

Yazoo County is a county located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 28,149. The county seat is Yazoo City, Mississippi....
, and Warren
Warren County, Mississippi

Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. In 2000, its population was 49,644. Its county seat is Vicksburg, Mississippi....
.

The river delta at the mouth of the Mississippi lies some 300 miles south of this area, and is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta
Mississippi River Delta

The Mississippi River Delta is the Holocene area of land built up by alluvium deposited by the Mississippi River as it slows down and enters the Gulf of Mexico....
.

Music

The Delta is strongly associated with the origins of several genres of popular music, including the Delta blues
Delta blues

The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, the Mississippi River on the west to the Yazoo River on the east....
, jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, and rock and roll
Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a form of music that evolved in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its roots lay mainly in rhythm and blues, Country music, folk music, gospel music, and jazz....
. The music came out of the struggles of lives in which poverty and hardship were ever present for mostly black sharecroppers and tenant farmer
Tenant farmer

A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labour along with at times varying amounts of capital and management....
s. .

Travel

calls the Mississippi Delta "a back road traveler's paradise," showcasing the region's rich character in its March 2008 piece, . The story begins:

The springtime sun is as yellow as a daffodil floating in a sea of blue. From high above, it reaches down to warm a vast expanse of smoky-black earth that smells like river. The cotton is flourishing — clear-to-the-horizon fields of it are broken by groves of pecan trees, whispering to each other in a rustle of leaves. And though you can't see Old Man hidden behind the levee, you can feel his presence--the twisting, turning, mighty, muddy presence of the Mississippi River. -Valerie Fraser Luesse

Agriculture and the Delta economy


Plantations

For over two centuries, agriculture
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
  has been the mainstay of the Delta economy. Sugar cane and rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
 were introduced to the region by European settlers from the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 in the 18th century. Sugar and rice production were centered in southern Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
, and later in the Arkansas Delta
Arkansas Delta

The Arkansas Delta is one of the natural regions of the state of Arkansas. It runs along the eastern border of the state next to the Mississippi River....
.

Early agriculture also included limited tobacco
Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines....
 production in the Natchez
Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez is the county seat of and the largest and only incorporated city within Adams County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 18,464....
 area and indigo
Indigofera

Indigofera is a large genus of about 700 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. They occur throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, with a few species reaching the temperate zone in eastern Asia....
 in the lower Mississippi. What began as back bending land clearing by yeoman farmers supported by extensive families was expanded into a labor-intensive plantation system based dependent on the labor of enslaved Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
, who were rapidly succeeded in the 18th century by enslaved Africans. Thousands of Africans were captured, sold and transported as slaves from West Africa. Many entered the Mississippi Delta through the slave market at New Orleans. As slavery was institutionalized as a heritable status, Africans and African Americans for generations worked the commodity plantations, which they made extremely profitable. African laborers brought critical knowledge and techniques for the cultivation and processing of both rice and indigo.

The invention of the cotton gin
Cotton gin

A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seedpods and the sometimes sticky seeds, a job previously done by hand....
 in the early 19th century enabled the widespread production of short-staple cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
, which until then had been too labor-intensive to process. By the early 19th century, cotton had become the Delta’s premier crop, for which there was international demand. It would remain so until well after the American Civil War
American Civil War

The American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several Naming the American Civil War, was a civil war in the United States....
, even in an era of falling cotton prices. Though cotton planters believed that the alluvial soils of the Mississippi Delta region would always renew, the agricultural boom from the 1830s to the late 1850s caused extensive soil exhaustion and erosion. Lacking agricultural research, planters continued to raise cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
 the same way after the Civil War.

Plantations before the war were generally developed on ridges near the rivers, which provided transportation of products to market. At the end of the Civil War, most of the bottomlands behind the ridges were still covered in heavy dense growth of trees, bushes and vines. Most of the acreage of the Delta was uncultivated.

Following the Civil War, 90 percent of the bottomlands in Mississippi were still undeveloped. This led to the state attracting people to its frontier, where their labor in clearing land could be traded for purchase of land. Tens of thousands of migrants, both black and white, were attracted to the area. By the end of the century, two-thirds of the independent farmers in the Mississippi Delta were black. The extended low price of cotton had caused many to go deeply into debt, however, and gradually they had to sell off their lands. From 1910-1920, the first and second generations of African Americans after slavery lost their stake in the land and had to resort to sharecropping and tenant farming to survive.

Sharecropping
Sharecropping

Sharecropping is a system of agriculture or agricultural production in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land ....
 and tenant farming replaced the slave-dependent, labor-intensive plantation system. This labor system inhibited the use of progressive agricultural techniques. In the late 19th century, the clearing and drainage of wetlands, especially in Arkansas
Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
 and the Missouri Bootheel, increased lands available for tenant farming and sharecropping.

Mechanization starting in the 1930s altered agricultural economics again. Thousands of laborers were no longer needed and migrated North in the Great Migration
Great Migration

Great Migration can refer to any one of several different historical migrations of people, including:* The Migration Period in the Roman Empire and parts of Europe, also called the "Barbarian Invasions," between 300 and 700 A.D....
. During the late 20th century, there was an increasing dominance of lower Delta agriculture by families and nonresident corporate entities that held large landholdings. Their operations are heavily mechanized with low labor costs. Such farm entities are capital-intensive, where hundreds and thousands of acres are used to produce market-driven crops such as cotton, sugar, rice, and soybeans.

Mechanization

During the 1920s and 1930s, in the aftermath of the increasing mechanization of Delta farms, displaced whites and African-Americans began to leave the land and move to towns and cities. It was not until the Great Depression
Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
 years of the 1930s and later that large-scale farm mechanization came to the region. The mechanization of agriculture and the availability of domestic work outside the Delta spurred the migration of Delta residents out of the region. Farming was unable to absorb the available labor force
Labor force

In economics, the people in the labor force are the suppliers of labor. The labor force is all the nonmilitary people who are employed or unemployed....
 and entire families moved together.

From the late 1930s through the 1950s, the Delta experienced an agriculture boom, as wartime needs followed by reconstruction in Europe expanded the demand for the Delta region’s farm products. As the mechanization of agriculture continued, women continued to leave the fields and go into service work, while the men drove tractors and worked on the farms. From the 1960s through the 1990s, thousands of small farms and dwellings in the Delta region were absorbed by large corporate-owned agribusiness
Agribusiness

In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that refers to the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, agricultural machinery, wholesale and distribution, processed food, marketing, and retail sales....
es, and the smallest Delta communities have stagnated.

Diversification

Remnants of the region’s agrarian heritage are scattered along the highways and byways of the lower Delta. Larger communities have survived by fostering economic development
Economic development

Economic development is the development of wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. It is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well being of its people....
 in education
Education

File:Inukshuk Monterrey 1.jpgEducation can be seen as a product or a process and considered in a broad sense or a technical sense. According to philosophy of education George F....
, government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
, and medicine
Medicine

Medicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. Other endeavors such as catfish
Catfish

Catfish are a very diverse group of Actinopterygii fish. Named for their prominent barbel s, which resemble a cat's whiskers , catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Pangasius gigas from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores , and even to a tiny parasite species commonly called the ca...
, poultry
Poultry

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds which some people keep for the purpose of collecting their egg , or kill for their meat and/or feathers....
, rice, corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, and soybean farming have assumed greater importance. Today, the monetary value of these crops rivals that of cotton production in the lower Mississippi Delta. Shifts away from the river as a main transportation and trading route to railroads and, more significantly, highways, has made the river cities struggle for new roles and businesses.

In recent years, due to the growth of the automobile
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
 industry in the South, many parts suppliers have opened facilities in the Delta (as well as on the Arkansas Delta side of the Mississippi River, another area of high poverty). Moreover, the 1990s legalization of casino
Casino

A casino is, in the modern sense of the word, a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions....
 gambling
Gambling

Gambling is the wikt:wager#Verb of money or something of material Value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods....
 in Mississippi has boosted the Delta's economy, particularly in the areas of Tunica and Vicksburg.

A large cultural influence in the region is its history of hunting and fishing. Hunting in the Delta is primarily for game such as whitetail deer, wild turkey, and waterfowl, along with many small game species (squirrel, rabbit, dove, quail, raccoon, etc.) For many years the hunting and fishing have also attracted visitors in the regional tourism economy.

Principal towns

  • Batesville
    Batesville, Mississippi

    Batesville is a town in Panola County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,113 at the 2000 census but has grown to about 14,000....
  • Belzoni
    Belzoni, Mississippi

    Belzoni is a city in Humphreys County, Mississippi, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, on the Yazoo River. The population was 2,663 at the 2000 census....
  • Clarksdale
    Clarksdale, Mississippi

    Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi....
  • Cleveland
    Cleveland, Mississippi

    Cleveland is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,841 at the 2000 census.It is best known as the home of Delta State University....
  • Greenville
    Greenville, Mississippi

    Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 41,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2007 census bureau estimates, has since declined to 36,178....
  • Greenwood
    Greenwood, Mississippi

    Greenwood is the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, Tennessee....
  • Indianola
    Indianola, Mississippi

    Indianola is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Sunflower County, Mississippi....
  • Marks
    Marks, Mississippi

    Marks is a city in Quitman County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, the city population was 1,551....
  • Rosedale
    Rosedale, Mississippi

    Rosedale is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,414 at the 2000 census.It is the same "Rosedale" that noted bluesman Robert Johnson sang about in his tune "Traveling Riverside Blues" ....
  • Tunica
    Tunica, Mississippi

    Tunica is a town in Tunica County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States, located near the Mississippi River. Historically part of an agricultural area, the town lies on the fringe of a growing gambling resort area, with major casinos attracting visitors from nearby Memphis, Tennessee and all over the Southeastern United States....
  • Vicksburg
    Vicksburg, Mississippi

    Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. It is located 234 miles north by west of New Orleans, Louisiana on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River rivers, and 40 miles due west of Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital....
  • West Helena
    West Helena, Arkansas

    West Helena is the western portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, Arkansas, United States. As of the United States Census 2000, this portion of the city population was 8,689....
  • Yazoo City
    Yazoo City, Mississippi

    Yazoo City is a city in Yazoo County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle....
     (Some debate whether Yazoo City should be listed among these towns, since it is referred to as the "Gateway to the Delta".)


Famous Deltans


Musicians

  • B.B. King, blues musician
  • Bobbie Gentry
    Bobbie Gentry

    Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American singer-songwriter. Gentry was one of the first female country music to write and produce her own material....
    , singer, musician, "Ode to Billy Jo"
  • Bukka White
    Bukka White

    Bukka White was a delta blues guitarist and singer. "Bukka" was not a nickname, but a misspelling of White's Given name by his second record label, ....
    , blues musician
  • Charlie Patton
    Charlie Patton

    Charlie Patton, better known as Charley Patton is best known as an United States Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of Delta Blues" and therefore one of the oldest known figures of American popular music....
    , blues musician
  • Ike Turner
    Ike Turner

    Ike Wister Turner was an United States musician, bandleader, talent scout, and record producer. His first recording, "Rocket 88" by "Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats," in 1951, is considered by some to be the "First rock and roll record" ever....
    , musician
  • Henry Sloan
    Henry Sloan

    Henry Sloan was an African American musician, one of the earliest figures in the history of Delta Blues. Very little is known for certain about his life, other than he tutored Charlie Patton in the ways of the blues, and moved to Chicago shortly after World War I....
    , musician
  • Howlin' Wolf
    Howlin' Wolf

    Chester Arthur Burnett , better known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player.With a booming voice and looming physical presence, Burnett is commonly ranked among the leading performers in electric blues; musician and critic Cub Koda declared, "no one could match [Howlin' Wolf] for the singular...
    , blues musician
  • Jimmie Rodgers
    Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)

    Jimmie Rodgers was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Among the first country music superstars and pioneers, Rodgers was also known as "The Singing Brakeman", "The Blue Yodeler", and "The Father of Country Music"....
    , country musician
  • John Lee Hooker
    John Lee Hooker

    John Lee Hooker was an influential United States post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County, Mississippi near Clarksdale, Mississippi....
    , blues musician
  • Mississippi John Hurt
    Mississippi John Hurt

    "Mississippi" John Smith Hurt was an influential blues singer and guitarist....
    , blues singer
  • Mose Allison
    Mose Allison

    Mose John Allison, Jr. is an United States Jazz piano and singer.Early lifeHe was born in Tallahatchie County, in the Mississippi Delta....
    , jazz pianist and singer
  • Muddy Waters
    Muddy Waters

    McKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues"....
    , blues musician
  • Robert Johnson, blues musician
  • Sam Cooke
    Sam Cooke

    Samuel Cook, better known as Sam Cooke, was an United States gospel music, R&B, soul music, and popular music singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur....
    , musician
  • Skip James
    Skip James

    Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James was an United States Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter....
    , blues musician
  • Son House
    Son House

    Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music....
    , blues musician
  • T-Model Ford
    T-Model Ford

    James Lewis Carter Ford is an American blues musician better known by his stage name, T-Model Ford. Unable to remember his exact date of birth, he began his musical career in his early seventies and has continuously recorded for the Fat Possum Records label....
    , blues musician
  • Elmore James
    Elmore James

    Elmore James was an United States blues guitarist, singer, song writer and band leader.He was known as "The King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice....
    , blues musician
  • Big Bill Broonzy
    Big Bill Broonzy

    Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific United States blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played Country blues to mostly black audiences....
    , blues musician


Others

  • Archie Manning
    Archie Manning

    Elisha Archibald "Archie" Manning III is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League. He is the father of current Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback Peyton Manning, current New York Giants starting quarterback Eli Manning, and former University of Mississippi receiver, Cooper Manning....
    , professional football player
  • Dave “Boo” Ferriss
    Dave Ferriss

    Dave Meadow Ferriss is a former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. He was born in Shaw, Mississippi, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delta....
    , professional baseball player
  • Emmett Till
    Emmett Till

    Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African American boy from Chicago, Illinois who was murdered at the age of 14 in Money, Mississippi, a small town in the state's Mississippi Delta....
    , lynching victim
  • Frederick W. Smith
    Frederick W. Smith

    Frederick Wallace Smith , or Fred Smith, is the founder, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx, originally known as Federal Express, the first overnight express delivery company in the world, and the largest in the United States....
    , CEO, FedEx
    FedEx

    FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States. The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used until 2000....
  • Haley Barbour
    Haley Barbour

    Haley Reeves Barbour is an United States politician currently serving as the List of Governors of Mississippi of Mississippi. He gained a national spotlight in August 2005 after Mississippi was hit by Hurricane Katrina....
    , Mississippi Governor and former RNC Chairman
  • Hodding Carter
    Hodding Carter

    William Hodding Carter, II was a prominent Southern United States U.S. Political progressivism journalism and author. Carter was born in Hammond, Louisiana, the largest community in Tangipahoa Parish, in southeastern Louisiana, to William Hodding Carter, I , and the former Irma Dutartre....
    , journalist and author
  • James Earl Jones
    James Earl Jones

    James Earl Jones is an United Statesn actor of theater and screen, well known for his deep bass voice....
    , actor
  • Jim Gallagher, Jr.
    Jim Gallagher, Jr.

    James Thomas "Jim" Gallagher, Jr. is an United States professional golfer and sportscaster.Gallagher was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. His father, a career club pro, started him in golf at age 6....
    , professional golfer
  • Jim Henson
    Jim Henson

    'James Maury "Jim" Henson' , was one of the most widely known puppeteers in American television history. He was the creator of The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and the leading force behind their long run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie and The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...
    , Muppets creator
  • Kent Hull
    Kent Hull

    James Kent Hull is a former American football offensive lineman in the National Football League and United States Football League. He played Center for the New Jersey Generals of the USFL and Buffalo Bills of the NFL....
    , professional football player
  • Leroy Percy
    LeRoy Percy

    LeRoy Percy was a wealthy planter from Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. He attended the University of Virginia where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity....
    , U.S. Senator
  • Lawrence Gordon, movie producer
  • Morgan Freeman
    Morgan Freeman

    Morgan Porterfield Freeman, Jr. is an American actor, film director, and narrator. Freeman is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice....
    , actor
  • Shelby Foote
    Shelby Foote

    Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. was an United States novelist and a noted historian of the American Civil War, writing a massive, three-volume history of the war entitled The Civil War: A Narrative....
    , author and historian
  • Willie Morris
    Willie Morris

    William Weaks "Willie" Morris , was an American writer and editor born in Jackson, Mississippi, though his family later moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, which he immortalized in his works of prose....
    , author and editor of Harper's magazine
  • Tennessee Williams
    Tennessee Williams

    Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth....
    , playwright
  • Walker Percy
    Walker Percy

    Walker Percy was an American Southern literature whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962....
    , author
  • William Alexander Percy
    William Alexander Percy

    William Alexander Percy , was a lawyer, planter and poet from Greenville, Mississippi. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee became a bestseller....
    , author, historian
  • Zig Ziglar
    Zig Ziglar

    Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar is an American author, salesperson, and motivational speaker. His latest book is God's Way Is Still the Best Way....
    , inspirational speaker
  • James L. Alcorn
    James L. Alcorn

    James Lusk Alcorn was a prominent United States political figure in Mississippi during the 19th century. He was the leading southern White Republican or "Scalawag" during Reconstruction era of the United States in Mississippi, where he served as governor....
    , Mississippi Governor and United States Senator
  • Stella Stevens
    Stella Stevens

    Stella Stevens is an United States actor, who began her acting career in 1959. She has also been a film producer, film director and pin-up model...
    , actress, film director, author


Festivals

Festivals are important to the Mississippi Delta region, allowing each town or community the opportunity to celebrate their unique heritage. Following is a list of various festivals in the Delta:

March:
  • Italian Festival of Mississippi (Cleveland)


April:
  • Rivergate Festival (Tunica)
  • World Catfish Festival (Belzoni)
  • Leland Crawfish Festival (Leland)
  • Crosstie Arts & Jazz Festival (Cleveland)
  • Juke Joint Festival (Clarksdale)


May:
  • Deep Delta Festival (Rolling Fork)
  • River to the Rails Festival (Greenwood)
  • Mainstream Arts & Crafts Festival (Greenville)
  • Summerfest (Hollandale)
  • Showfest (Greenville)


June:
  • B.B. King Homecoming Festival (Indianola)
  • Highway 61 Blues Festival (Leland)
  • Delta Jubilee (Clarksdale)


July:
  • First Friday Jazz Festival (Greenville)


August:
  • Sunflower River Blues Festival (Clarksdale)


September:
  • Delta Air and Balloon Festival (Greenville)
  • Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival


October:
  • Great Delta Bear Affair
  • Octoberfest (Cleveland)


November:
  • Electroacoustic Juke Joint (Cleveland)


December:
  • Roy Martin Delta Band Festival (Greenwood)


Education


Universities

  • Delta State University
    Delta State University

    Delta State University, also known as DSU, is a regional state university university located in Cleveland, Mississippi, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta....
     ()
  • Mississippi Valley State University
    Mississippi Valley State University

    Mississippi Valley State University is a Historically black colleges and universities located in Itta Bena, Mississippi, Mississippi. The university is commonly referred to as MVSU or simply "The Valley." MVSU is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund....
     ()


Community Colleges

  • Coahoma Community College
    Coahoma Community College

    Coahoma Community College is a community college located in Coahoma County, Mississippi, approximately four miles north of the city of Clarksdale, Mississippi....
     ()
  • Mississippi Delta Community College
    Mississippi Delta Community College

    Mississippi Delta Community College is a community college based in Moorhead, Mississippi which is located in Sunflower County. It also offers courses at locations in Drew, Mississippi, Greenville, Mississippi, Greenwood, Mississippi, and Indianola, Mississippi....
     ()
  • Holmes Community College
    Holmes Community College

    Holmes Community College is a community college located in the state of Mississippi and has three campuses in the cities of: Grenada, Ridgeland, and Goodman, which is the location of the main or original campus....
     ()


Media and publishing

Newspapers, Magazines and Journals
  • Belzoni Banner (published weekly) ()
  • Delta Magazine (published bi-monthly) ()
  • Delta Business Journal (published monthly) ()
  • Clarksdale Press Register (published daily) ()
  • Cleveland Bolivar Commercial (published daily) ()
  • Greenville Delta Democrat Times (published daily) ()
  • Greenwood Commonwealth (published daily) ()
  • The Tunica Times (published weekly) ()


Television
  • WABG (Greenwood)
  • WXVT (Greenville)


The Northern Delta is served by Memphis TV stations.

Transportation

Air Transportation
  • Tunica Municipal Airport
    Tunica Municipal Airport

    Tunica Municipal Airport is a public-use airport located east of the central business district of Tunica, Mississippi, a town in Tunica County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States....
     (Tunica) ()
  • Mid Delta Regional Airport
    Mid Delta Regional Airport

    Mid Delta Regional Airport is a public airport located five miles northeast of the city of Greenville, Mississippi in Washington County, Mississippi, Mississippi, United States....
     (Greenville)
  • Greenwood-Leflore Airport (Greenwood)
  • Cleveland Municipal Airport (Cleveland)
  • Indianola Municipal Airport (Indianola)
  • Yazoo County Airport (Yazoo City)
  • Fletcher Field Airport (Clarksdale)


Highways
  • U.S. Route 82
    U.S. Route 82

    U.S. Route 82 is an east-west United States Numbered Highways in the southern United States. What started as a 1932 addition to the system across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas eventually became a 1,609 mile route extending from the White Sands National Monument of New Mexico to Georgia 's Atlantic Ocean....
     runs from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Brunswick, Georgia
  • U.S. Route 49
    U.S. Route 49

    U.S. Route 49 is a north-south United States highway. The highway's northern terminus is in Piggott, Arkansas, at an intersection with U.S. Route 62....
     runs from Piggott, Arkansas to Gulfport, Mississippi
  • U.S. Route 61
    U.S. Route 61

    U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that runs from New Orleans, Louisiana, to the city of Wyoming, Minnesota....
     runs from Wyoming, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana


Appearance in culture

  • The Mississippi Delta is the setting for several stories by William Faulkner
    William Faulkner

    William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning United States author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short story....
    , most notably "The Bear" from Go Down, Moses
    Go Down, Moses

    Go Down, Moses is a collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by United States author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel....
    .
  • Delta Wedding, novel written by Eudora Welty
    Eudora Welty

    Eudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author and photographer who wrote about the Southern United States....
    , was set on a fictional plantation on the Mississippi Delta.
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a Play by Tennessee Williams. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955 in literature....
    , written by Tennessee Williams
    Tennessee Williams

    Tennessee Williams was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth....
     was set in the Mississippi Delta
    Mississippi Delta

    The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi River and Yazoo Rivers. Technically not a River delta but part of an alluvial plain, it has been said that the Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg, Mississippi" ...
    .
  • The Paul Simon
    Paul Simon

    Paul Frederic Simon is an United States singer-songwriter and musician, perhaps best known for his partnership with Art Garfunkel in the duo Simon & Garfunkel....
     song "Graceland
    Graceland (album)

    Graceland is an album released in 1986 in music by Paul Simon. It was a big hit in the UK topping the charts at #1. It also reached #3 in the US....
    ", from an album of the same name, begins with the line "The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar."
  • Crossroads
    Crossroads (1986 film)

    Crossroads is a 1986 in film cult film starring Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca and Jami Gertz, inspired by the legend of blues musician Robert Johnson ....
     starring Ralph Macchio
    Ralph Macchio

    Ralph George Macchio is an United Statesactor of Italians ancestry. His most notable role was as List of The Karate Kid characters#Daniel LaRusso in the The Karate Kid series....
     (The Karate Kid
    The Karate Kid

    The Karate Kid is a 1984 in film film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Robert Mark Kamen, starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and Elisabeth Shue....
    ) is a movie that is loosely based on bluesman Robert Johnson.
  • Down in the Delta
    Down in the Delta

    Down in the Delta is a 1998 in film drama film directed by Maya Angelou. The film stars Alfre Woodard; Al Freeman, Jr.; Esther Rolle; Loretta Devine; and Wesley Snipes....
    , 1998 film directed by Maya Angelou and starring Alfre Woodard
    Alfre Woodard

    Alfre Ette Woodard is an American actor. She has been nominated for an Academy Awards and has won four Emmy Awards, three SAG Awards and one Golden Globe Award....
     about a woman from the city who moves with her children to the rural Delta.
  • My Dog Skip
    My Dog Skip

    My Dog Skip is an autobiography by Willie Morris.The story is about 9-year-old Willie Morris growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi, a tale of a boy and his dog in a small, sleepy Southern town that teaches us about family, friendship, love, devotion and bravery....
     is set in Yazoo City in the book, and the movie was filmed there.
  • Several scenes from O, Brother, Where Art Thou? are set in the Delta; the film was partially shot in Yazoo City. The film mentions small Delta towns Itta Bena and Satartia, as well as "the Crossroads".


Sources

  • , John Gunther, National Park Service
    National Park Service

    The National Park Service is the List of United States federal agencies that manages all List of areas in the United States National Park System, many U.S....


External links