A unique place in American Cultural History:

• the birthplace of the "blues," a gritty merging of negro spirituals, slave work songs and field hollers that heavily influenced American popular music styles including country, jazz, rock & roll and hip-hop
  
  
• the constituency of the first two African-American U.S. Senators, Hiram Revels in 1870 and Blanche K. Bruce in 1874, both elected by the Mississippi State Legislature
  
  
• the inspiration (and home) for some of America's most celebrated authors including Willie Morris, Tennessee Williams, Hodding Carter, Shelby Foote, Walker Percy and Richard Wright

Unique Economic Challenges:

• the transformation of an agricultural economy based on family-owned farms employing numerous workers to larger corporate-owned farms managed from outside the region and using more mechanization and very little human capital
  
  
• the urban migration of many residents to larger cities where more employment opportunities are available
  
  
• the vestiges of segregated society in educational, health and economic disparities between white and African-American residents

Source: Some information obtained from www.wikipedia.org, article tite: "Mississippi Delta" and from www.senate.gov.
Text by Haley Montgomery