History

Jackson describes itself as the city with a soul because of the people who live there contribute to the community with a sense of passion, grace, and heart in an effort to make it a better place to be and experience. It is a place that respects its past by celebrating the art, literature, intellect, and history that give the city its unique atmosphere today.

Founded in 1821, the site of Jackson is thought to have originally been established by a French-Canadian trader named Louis LeFleur. While the town was, at first, called LeFleur’s Bluff, the name was eventually changed to Jackson in honor of Major General Andrew Jackson, who became the seventh president of the United States. The town was officially renamed Jackson after it had been chosen by the Mississippi State Legislature to be the state capital as well as a permanent seat of government in Mississippi.

Jackson, which had been chosen on the basis of its central location in relation to other important cities, as well as the convergence of several transportation routes, became a seat of war in 1861 after Mississippi seceded from the Union. The population, which hovered at approximately 3,000, increased dramatically with the coming of the war. Although Jackson did not participate heavily in the Civil War in the beginning, its location ensured that it got to see all the wounded and dying soldiers who fought on the front lines. In addition, the town took a turn for the worse financially as the war took its toll on the economic situation of the U.S.

In 1863, things became worse when General Grant decided he had to take Jackson as a Confederate base in order to protect his troops. He occupied Jackson very easily and later on, Union soldiers inflicted heavy damage on Jackson by destroying railroads, bridges, factories, warehouses, penitentiaries, as well as the personal property of many Jacksonians. Shortly after this occupation and vandalism began, the state legislature moved out of Jackson, and the city became a no-man’s land due to its situation between Federal-occupied regions and Confederate regions. Throughout the war, Jackson was captured a total of 5 times and it was the fifth time that eliminated the city from the war completely. People eventually trickled back onto Jackson, but not without severe psychological damage and an inherent mistrust of their state government. What they had experienced and seen convinced them that the Federal government was strong enough to do whatever it wanted and march through their city at any given time and that their own government could no longer protect them.

The Brown v. Board of Education case that shook the platform of racial injustice within the nation affected Jackson as well. The Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) planned a Freedom Ride in 1947 which included an inversion of the normal racial injustices. For example, white would sit at the back of the bus and blacks would sit at the front. At public stops, black people would use white-only facilities while white would use those facilities meant for the blacks. While this was shot down, during Kennedy’s presidency, CORE proposed another Freedom Ride. The Freedom Riders’ end stop was New Orleans. Although they never made it because more than 300 of them were arrested in Jackson and tried and sent to jail, they did force the Kennedy administration to take a stand on racial segregation and segregated bus travel on interstate buses was outlawed because of this.

Before this, efforts to raise awareness about racial injustice were taking place, too. In Tougaloo in March of 1961, nine African-American students attempted to use the all-white library at Tougaloo College. When these students refused to leave, they were arrested for disturbing the peace although they were not expelled from the college. They became known as the Tougaloo Nine. At the Jackson State College nearby, student organized a vigil that was broken up by the president of the college as well as a police squad. One student was knocked to the ground by the president himself, and four others were arrested for their participation in the event. When the Jackson state students held an illegal rally for the nine the next day, they were attacked by the police with tear gas and clubs. The Tougaloo Nine, with their brave actions, started the tide of change in Mississippi.

There were several separate but important incidents that continued to affect the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson. One of these was the assassination of civil rights activist, Medgar Evers outside his house in Jackson. In 1963, the same year that Medgar Evers was killed, people in Jackson organized a voter registration event that resulted in nearly 80,000 new voters being registered – most of them being African-American.

In 1964, lawsuits backed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund resulted in the desegregation of schools in Mississippi and in Jackson. Despite this, many African-Americans were still met with hostility and intimidation so that the Supreme Court had to act and ruled in the Alexander v. Holmes case of 1969 that dual school systems were to be immediately terminated. Hate crimes continued against people of other ethnicities, however, primarily perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan.

Today, Jackson is home to roughly 200,000 people. 72% of the total population is Caucasian and about 21% of the population is African-American. The Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Centre displays artifacts surrounding the great cultural change and the African-American experience in Mississippi. Today, it is a place of tolerance and acceptance and it is full of people who are aware of their history and who strive to make Jackson a better place to be.