Mississippi Politics


Book Description

Originally published in 2006, Mississippi Politics quickly became the definitive work on the state's recent political history, campaigns, legislative battles, and litigation, as well as how Mississippi shaped and was shaped by national and regional trends. A central theme of the 2006 edition was the state's gradual transition from a Democratic surety to a Republican stronghold. For this updated edition, authors Jere Nash and Andy Taggart examine the aftermath of the 2007 gubernatorial and 2008 presidential elections—and all the fireworks in between. This new edition adds a chapter covering the last two years and includes analyses of the 2007 and 2008 statewide, legislative, and federal elections; the resignations of Senator Trent Lott and Congressman Chip Pickering; the indictments of Richard Scruggs and other prominent lawyers; President Barack Obama's influence on the state's 2008 voting dynamics; and the election of House Speaker Billy McCoy.




Revolt of the Rednecks


Book Description

In post-Civil War years agriculture in Mississippi, as elsewhere, was in a depressed condition. The price of cotton steadily declined, and the farmer was hard put to meet the payments on his mortgage. At the same time the corporate and banking interests of the state seemed to prosper. There were reasons for this beyond the ken of the poor hill farmer—the redneck, as he was popularly termed. But the redneck came to regard this situation—chronic depression for him while his mercantile neighbor prospered—as a conspiracy against him, a conspiracy which was aided and abetted by the leaders of his party. Revolt of the Rednecks: Mississippi Politics 1876–1925 is a study of the struggle of the redneck to gain control of the Democratic Party in orger to effect reforms which would improve his lot. He was to be led into many bypaths and sluggish streams before he was to realize his aim in the election of Vardaman to the governorship in 1903. For almost two decades thereafter the rednecks were to hold undisputed control of the state government. The period was marked by many reforms and by some improvement in the economic plight of the farmer—an improvement largely owing to factors which were uninfluenced by state politics. The period closes in 1925 with the repudiation and defeat at the polls of the farmers' trusted leaders, Vardaman and Bilbo.




The Transformation of Plantation Politics


Book Description

The Transformation of Plantation Politics explores the effects of black political exclusion, the sharecropping system, and white resistance on the Mississippi Delta's current economic and political situation. Sharon D. Wright Austin's extensive interviews with residents of the region shed light on the transformations and legacies of the Delta's political and economic institutions. While African Americans now hold most of the major political offices in the region and are no longer formally excluded from political participation, educational opportunities, or lucrative jobs, Wright Austin shows that white wealth and black poverty continue to be the norm partly because of the deeply entrenched legacies of the Delta's history. Contributing to a greater theoretical understanding of black political efforts, this book demonstrates a need for a strong level of black social capital, intergroup capital, financial capital, political capital, and a human capital of educated and skilled workers.




Mississippi Politics


Book Description




Mississippi Moonshine Politics


Book Description

For most states, the repeal of prohibition meant a return to a state of legally drunken normalcy, but not so in Mississippi. The Magnolia State went dry over a decade before the nation, leaving bootleggers to establish political and financial holds they were unwilling to lose. For nearly sixty years, bootlegging flourished, and Mississippi became known as the "wettest dry state in the country." Law enforcement tried in vain to control crime that followed each empty bottle. Until statewide prohibition was finally repealed in 1966, illegal booze fueled a corrupt political machine that intimidated journalists who dared to speak against it and fixed juries that threatened its interests. Author and native Mississippian Janice Branch Tracy delivers an intimate look at the story of Mississippi's moonshine empire.




The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission


Book Description

A history of the Magnolia State's notorious watchdog agency established for maintaining racial segregation




The Mississippi Encyclopedia


Book Description

Recipient of the 2018 Special Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and Recipient of a 2018 Heritage Award for Education from the Mississippi Heritage Trust The perfect book for every Mississippian who cares about the state, this is a mammoth collaboration in which thirty subject editors suggested topics, over seven hundred scholars wrote entries, and countless individuals made suggestions. The volume will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about Mississippi and the people who call it home. The book will be especially helpful to students, teachers, and scholars researching, writing about, or otherwise discovering the state, past and present. The volume contains entries on every county, every governor, and numerous musicians, writers, artists, and activists. Each entry provides an authoritative but accessible introduction to the topic discussed. The Mississippi Encyclopedia also features long essays on agriculture, archaeology, the civil rights movement, the Civil War, drama, education, the environment, ethnicity, fiction, folklife, foodways, geography, industry and industrial workers, law, medicine, music, myths and representations, Native Americans, nonfiction, poetry, politics and government, the press, religion, social and economic history, sports, and visual art. It includes solid, clear information in a single volume, offering with clarity and scholarship a breadth of topics unavailable anywhere else. This book also includes many surprises readers can only find by browsing.




In Search of Another Country


Book Description

In this ambitious reassessment of racial politics in the deep South, Joseph Crespino reveals how Mississippi leadrs strategically accommodated themselves to the demands of civil rights activists and the federal government seeking to end Jim Crow, and in so doing contributed to a vibrant conservative countermovement. Crespino reveals important divisions among Mississippi whites, offering the most nuanced portrayal yet of how conservative southerners bridged the gap between the politics of Jim Crow and that of the modern Republican South.




The Transformation of Southern Politics


Book Description

Stressing the relevance of The Transformation of Southern Politics as a background for understanding the South into the next century, Jack Bass and Walter De Vries write that the "themes of change in southern politics still involve the rise of the Republican Party, black political development and the Democratic response to it--and the interaction of these forces with social and economic issues." The Transformation of Southern Politics examines the post-World War II political evolution of the eleven southern states and traces the effects of such influences as Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, urban migration, the growth of the Republican Party, and the rise of African Americans in the political landscape. Relying on the methodology that V. O. Key used in his 1949 classic Southern Politics in State and Nation, the work draws on interviews with more than 360 politicians, scholars, journalists, and labor leaders, and includes a wealth of data on voting trends, political perceptions, and population flow to present a comprehensive portrait of the region up to the 1976 presidential election. In the preface to the Brown Thrasher edition, Bass and De Vries offer an overview of the region's current political climate, including an analysis of the 1994 mid-term elections. They also provide excerpts from their interview with Bill Clinton during his first campaign for political office.




Legislators, Law and Public Policy


Book Description

This book evaluates Mississippi politics since the pivotal 1978 Connor v. Johnson decision, which replaced multi-member legislative districts with single-member districts. Mary DeLorse Coleman examines how, after an arduous journey through the judicial system, this decision changed the profile of Mississippi politics from its domination by the agrarian elite to its integration by multi-racial representatives. The study issues a challenge to the legislature, formerly a stronghold of white leadership, to foster legislation which will erase racial and class divisions. The analysis begins with a review of black politics from 1865 to 1986, followed by an in-depth account of the Connor litigation. Attention turns to the subsequent voting actions of the Mississippi legislature and what variables predict member voting. Although Mississippi politics is the book's primary topic, Coleman demonstrates how it serves as a touchstone from which to view politics throughout the deep South and Black politics in general. A bibliography and general subject index complete the work.