Just exactly what makes a Mississippian a Mississippian?

DJournal.com ^ | 7/14/02 | Danny McKenzie

[stainlessbanner]

Just exactly what makes a Mississippian a Mississippian?

Our topic for today, class, is defining Mississippi's heritage.

Just exactly who are we? Where did we come from? How did we get here? What is it about Mississippi that is easily distinguishable?

These are, of course, questions that have been asked more than once down through the ages. There are, of course, no easy answers.

It's one thing to say you'll know a Mississippian when you meet one, but it's quite another to distinguish one of us from one of "them" when one of them is from western Alabama, southern Tennessee or eastern Arkansas. (We will, for the prevention of fistfights, make no comparisons to our good neighbors to the west, in Louisiana.)

And it's yet another thing all together when our family's been in Northeast Mississippi since the turn of the 19th century and we're spending a weekend with someone else whose family traces its origins back three hundred years on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

And it's yet another thing all together when we're having a cold drink whose family helped build the Illinois Central Railroad in the Mississippi Delta.

And it's yet another thing all together when we're sharing a plate of fried green tomatoes with a family who owned a dry goods store in downtown Jackson before the War of Northern Aggression.

Mississippi can certainly claim its place high among the literary giants of the South, and, for that matter, the entire world. We'll slap a Faulkner, Welty, Morris or Wright on you in a minute.

But Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, Alex Haley and Flannery O'Connor were pretty fair Southern writers and they weren't from Mississippi.

We'll also proudly stake our claim as the Birthplace of the Blues and fire off a Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. But when names like Blind Lemon, Georgia Tom, Tampa Red and T-Bone Walker are tossed into the conversation, it becomes clear that we aren't the sole proprietors of that art form.

For longer than anyone cares to admit, consideration of races in Mississippi has always been a black-and-white issue. We've been wrong about that, of course, but that's the way it's been.

Basically, we've only paid lip service to the Native Americans in our state (until Philip Martin got everybody's attention), and pretty much ignored the Asian Americans (particularly the Chinese), Hispanics, Central Europeans, Italians, and many other cultures that have been here longer than many of us.

Maybe we're too hung up on all this. Maybe we just ought to say anyone who lives here now, whether by birth or by choice, is a Mississippian and let it go at that.

Then again what would we have to talk about on those sultry summer evenings when we're sitting out under the magnolias and sipping iced tea?

We all know Mississippi is the only state where magnolias grow.

Danny McKenzie is associate editor of the Daily Journal.

[stainlessbanner]

Let's hear it Mississippians - what are you made of?

[Black Agnes]

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

If Trent Lott is any kind of an indicator, I'd say a Mississippian doesn't have all that much of a backbone.

[mykej]

"If Trent Lott is any kind of an indicator, I'd say a Mississippian doesn't have all that much of a backbone."

All the calcium has gone to his hair.

[AppyPappy]

The heat index is 103 in Biloxi right now. You people are mad for living there.

[TomServo]

Thanks for the ping! Hats off from Tennessee to our Southern Brothers and Sisters!

[Black Agnes]

A lot of us don't claim Trent Lott. (Vacant Lott, Empty Lott, Not-A-Lott...etc)

[Salman]

I had a magnolia in my front yard in the Hudson Valley region of New York.

Or are Yankee magnolias like Yankee biscuits, not the real thing?

[epluribus_2]

PALEOZOIC ERA

Life was largely confined to the sea from the Silurian Period back through the Cambrian and beyond. Plants and amphibians colonized land during the Devonian. The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian were noted for exotic coal forests; Europeans group them together as the Carboniferous Period.


Permian Period (286-245 mya)
The supercontinent Pangaea began to break up.

Pennsylvanian Period (325-286 mya)
Lush, moist forests inhabited by giant amphibians and

Mississippian Period (360-325 mya)
insects produced vast coal reserves.

Devonian Period (410-360 mya)
The first vertebrates conquered land during this "Age of Fishes."

Silurian Period (440-410 mya)
Fishes with jaws and insects evolved.

Ordovician Period (505-440 mya)
The first vertebrates appeared.

Cambrian Period (544-505 mya)
An "explosion" of life produced the first hard-shelled creatures.


.
PRECAMBRIAN EON



Precambrian Era (4,500-544 mya) This immense time span stretches back to the birth of Earth!

[sheltonmac]

Actually, I would think Mongolians would be more common in New York than Magnolias.

[Gaston]

"Basically, we've only paid lip service to the Native Americans in our state (until Philip Martin got everybody's attention)"

Seems they are still afraid of saying the C word (Choctaw) in Mississippi. Philip Martin sounds white enough but, let's not mention that C word.

http://www.choctaw.org/

[SGCOS]

Just exactly what makes a Mississippian a Mississippian?

An IQ equal to the amount of teeth you have.

[Catspaw]

The heat index is 103 in Biloxi right now. You people are mad for living there.

I met someone last week who's going to Biloxi next month. I said, "are you nuts? Do you know how hot it is down there?" He assured me that they wouldn't be leaving the casino.

[craqed]

Yes We Are!

Could I get you a glass of TEA while I'm up?

[craqed]

you forgot to mention that of the people voting to keep the flag, approximately half (dont' remember the figures off hand) were black.

[craqed]

then beware the bite i have with 139 (or 159 depending on teh test) teeth i have.

[Sub-Driver]

http://www.drbukk.com/gmhom/park.html

[varon]

Just exactly what makes a Mississippian a Mississippian?

Being able to spell Mississippi backwards, faster than frontwards?