Poverty in Mississippi the State

Poverty in Mississippi

The state of Mississippi, the 20th to be admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817 (Mississippi state facts, December 27, 2006); located in the Deep South region of the United States and bordering the Mississippi River and the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico at its southern edges (Mississippi state facts) is today also the poorest among all 50 American states, especially in its rural and agricultural areas (Mississippi state facts; Ownby, 1999; Rogers; 1979). As of February 25, 2007, Mississippi had a total population of 2,921,088, including a large minority population (over 40%) consisting mostly of African-Americans ("Mississippi," February 25, 2007). Multiple; varied; and complex reasons; historically and now for Mississippi's place at or near the bottom of states' comparative economic rankings include that:

Mississippi has the largest proportion of poor families and persons of any

State and poverty is more frequent among persons over the age of 65, persons living alone, black families, female headed families, and rural residents. Mississippi also has the largest proportion of school age children in poverty. (Rogers (1979) Poverty in Mississippi: A statistical analysis)

Historically speaking, however, although according to Ownby (1999) Mississippi has long possessed a lack of material and commercial sophistication compared to other places, but poverty was not such a widespread or chronic problem until the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era of 1865 through 1877 (see Carpetbagger, February 20, 2007). The South's (and especially slavery's) Civil War defeat precipitated steep economic decline in the state, which had been, before the war, fifth-wealthiest in the Union due to the lucrative combination of land ownership; flourishing cotton crop; widespread slave ownership, and the free slave labor that accompanied it (Mississippi, 2004). Four of the key (closely interrelated) reasons for Mississippi's post-Civil War economic decline were that: (1) slaves, half the pre-Civil War Mississippi population, and counted then as property, were free; (2) emancipation of Mississippi's slaves bankrupted numerous white landowners who no longer had free labor; (3) opportunistic Northern Carpetbaggers moved south to exploit (with Freedmen helping) plantation owners' new hard times (Carpetbaggers, February 20, 2007).

However, Mississippi's 21st century economy has clearly matured, and diversified, since then. Still, poverty lingers, especially (but not only) in rural places (Mississippi, 2004; Rogers, 1979). Demographic; geographical; educational; family-compositional; transportation-based, climate; and other factors, combined, including most recently the damage to the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina, contribute. Hurricane Katrina's August 29, 2005 devastation of Mississippi's Gulf Coast destroyed myriad thriving riverboat gaming casinos, many of which have still, 18 months later, to rebuild. These facilities have been extremely profitable sources of gaming and other entertainment revenue since 1990 when the state first made them legal ("Mississippi," February 23, 2007) and therefore, key sources of both state income and local employment opportunities for Gulf Coast residents (Appel, October 7, 2005; "Mississippi").

Katrina displaced myriad Mississippians from homes and jobs; damaged and destroyed roads, bridges, businesses, trees and power lines; and then spawned numerous storm-generated tornadoes, doing even further damage (Hurricane Katrina, February 25, 2007). Katrina's aftermath also then placed even more financial strain, including families' in other parts of the state needing now to shelter displaced (and likely unemployed) relatives and others (Appel, October 7, 2005). As National Geographic News (Appel, October 7, 2005) reported from Biloxi, Mississippi after Katrina pulverized that Gulf Coast gaming (and job) Mecca:

Several weeks after the hurricane, this neighborhood of bungalows is still scarcely more than piles of rubble... According to the office of Mississippi

Governor Haley Barbour, of the 431,000 households who have registered for disaster assistance with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management

Administration (FEMA), 77% are staying in the ZIP code in which they lived before the storm hit... One reason so many Mississippians are staying is that they have few resources and few alternatives. (in poverty-stricken

Mississippi, Katrina's damage lingers)

In 1990, the Mississippi State Legislature, in order to expand and increase the state's weak revenue stream, made riverboat gambling along the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast areas legal. This made Mississippi the second-most profitable gaming area (behind only Nevada) in the nation (Hurricane Katrina, February 23, 2007). After Katrina's August 29, 2005 hit, though, "an estimated $500,000 per day in tax revenue was lost..." (Hurricane Katrina).

Further, 250,000 Mississippians' homes were ruined by Katrina; yet as of late February 2007, Habitat for Humanity the non-profit, Southern-based Christian volunteer group that builds homes for the poor, has rebuilt just ten of these in Mississippi. That "reflects, in part, the more complex houses that Habitat builds in the United States, as well as the mind-numbing issues -- involving insurance costs and government regulations -- that seem to have bogged down efforts to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina... (Volunteer group lags in replacing Gulf houses, New York Times, February 22, 2007).

Even without that latter disastrous devastation, though; but also in spite of huge latter-day gaming profits, Mississippi has, just as it did back in 1979, according to Rogers:.".. The largest proportion of poor families and persons of any State and poverty is more frequent among persons over the age of 65, persons living alone, black families, female headed families, and rural residents. Mississippi also has the largest proportion of school age children in poverty..." In 1979, the report Poverty in Mississippi: A statistical analysis (Rogers) ordered by the Governor's Office of Human Resources suggested "Ameliorative steps...include policies relating to migration, selective placement programs, taxation, educational opportunity, employment opportunities, retirement plans, and minimum wage legislation.

Those same remedies would be even more ameliorative today, especially given the additional human needs and economic and other deficits rained down and blown around by Katrina (yet still largely unaddressed a year and a half later). As current solutions to chronic and ongoing Mississippi poverty, moreover, combinations of good and inexpensive educational opportunities; jobs; and existing and/or expanding infrastructure could, if well-planned and supported, economically, long-term; and then carried out purposefully; persistently; patiently (and with unflagging seriousness of commitment) make the state again economically viable. Too many Mississippians, though, become and remain economically disadvantaged, since they are to begin with poor, and then poorly educated; underemployed (or chronically unemployed), and lacking in opportunity or capability to acquire better-quality and more useful education, skills, jobs, and higher incomes.