City of Jackson

Jackson, Mississippi, 1955

Courtesy of the Archives and Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Ralph Hargrove Photograph Collection

Text adapted from Medgar Evers Historic District National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Mississippi became a state in 1817. Jackson, the Mississippi state capitol and the largest city in the state, was founded in 1821. The city grew slowly.

The city population in 1860 was 3,191. The Civil War had a devastating effect on the city, with US troops occupying Jackson on three occasions and physical destruction accompanying multiple battles. Although the Reconstruction period saw greater political freedom for the city's newly emancipated residents, by 1875, white control of the state's electoral process was re-established and would continue for another one hundred years.

Even with the short-term political gains for blacks during Reconstruction, life in Jackson was based on strict racial segregation, whether it involved schools, churches, or residential neighborhoods.

The black population of Jackson grew steadily in the decades following the Civil War. Many settled in the Farish Street neighborhood, which by the turn of the century, boasted numerous successful businesses. The surrounding area was home to the many of the city's African Americans, including businessmen, ministers, educators, physicians, craftsmen and tradespeople, and citizens engaged in a host of occupations.

During World War II and in the immediate post-war years, Jackson's population grew rapidly.

The Elraine subdivision was the first modern subdivision designed for middle-class blacks after World War II in Mississippi. The subdivision was developed by Winston J. Thompson, a black entrepreneur, and a majority of the houses were built by Leroy Burnett, a black builder. Many of the early residents were teachers or others engaged in professional and clerical employment that placed them in the middle class.

Mississippi in the 1950s

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, that separate schools were inherently unequal, white supremacists in the state policed racial lines with even greater vigilance. White Citizens’ Councils, with their origins in the Mississippi Delta and their membership drawn from among middle-class professionals, spread a strategy of massive resistance to school desegregation throughout the state and beyond and endorsed violence as a way to deter voting and to enforce all aspects of white supremacy. In addition, the state legislature created the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission to spy on and undermine its citizens who challenged white supremacy, and it questioned the authority of the federal government to determine who could vote and other civil rights matters.