Areas Served
Jackson MS
Jackson is the capital of Mississippi and also is among two county seats of Hinds County. Named after General Andrew Jackson, it was established in 1821 to be the state capital. After the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863, General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union troops over-ran Jackson and burned it to the ground. There was a gas boom in the 1920s, and also it’s nicknamed “The City with Soul.”
The Jackson market has a populace of 579,332. It belonged to the Choctaw Indians at one time. Mississippi Choctaw are currently part of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and live in a number of Native-American towns in the state.
Louis LeFluer
The very first European inhabitant was Louis LeFleur, and also Jackson was initially referred to as LeFleur’s Bluff. In 1821, a state-commissioned summary stated LeFleur’s Bluff was a beautiful location and also had lots of water and trees and also access to the Natchez Trail. The site then ended up being the seat of state government. It was plated in 1822 in a grid pattern, and city blocks contain numerous parks. The railway went through Jackson in 1840, which stimulated growth after the Civil War.
Jackson was a manufacturing center for the Confederacy during the War Between the States, making it a target of Union troops in 1863. Considering that the city was destroyed, few antebellum structures have actually made it through. Nevertheless, the Governor’s Mansion, the Old Capitol building, and the Jackson City Hall remain. After the Civil War, economic recovery was slow. Mule-drawn streetcars ended up being electric in 1899. A brand-new capitol was built in 1903.
Eudora Welty
Born in Jackson in 1909, writer Eudora Welty won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for, “The Optimist’s Daughter.” The Jackson Town library was named after her, and also her house is a National Historic Landmark. Jackson experienced a boom in the very early 20th century, and a brand-new Union Terminal was constructed. The King Edward Hotel opened in 1923 and was a center for prominent events. The 1919 Standard Life Building set the record for the biggest reinforced concrete building at the time.
Natural gas fields were found in 1930 resulting in another boom that lessened the results of the Great Depression. This sector tailed off in 1955.
Hawkins Field
Throughout Mississippi’s extended ban on booze, alcohol consumption and also betting thrived across the river in Flowood’s Gold Coast. Those businesses shut down when Mississippi legalized alcohol in 1966. The state permitted riverboat betting in 1990, and numerous casinos have opened. Hawkins Field ended up being a crucial U.S. Army airbase in World War II, containing the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School after Nazi Germany overran the Netherlands.
Civil Rights
Jackson was an essential center of civil rights demonstrations in the ’60s and also was the terminus of the James Meredith March. Meredith was the very first African American to register at the U of Mississippi. The first lung transplant occurred at the University of Mississippi Medical Facility in 1963. Malaco Records calls Jackson its home base and is a leader in gospel, blues, and soul. Paul Simon recorded at Malaco in 1973.
Harvey Johnson JR
Harvey Johnson, Jr. ended up being Jackson’s first African-American mayor in 1997, and he was a champion for the Convention Facility. Jackson was denoted as one of the 10 friendliest cities in the United States in 2013. Jackson is in Hinds County and some parts of Madison and also Rankin counties. The eastern boundary is the Pearl River. It’s bordered on the north by Ridgeland, on the east by Flowood and Richland, the south by Byram and the west by Clinton. It has a total landmass of 113.2 square miles and is drained by the Big Black and Pearl Rivers.
Volcano
Jackson sits on top of a dead volcano that’s 2,900 feet below the earth. The buried peak is under the Mississippi Coliseum. Jackson-Evers International Airport terminal has continuous service to six cities.
Jackson MS website: https://www.jacksonms.gov/