The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity

The Mississippi Delta, an alluvial basin bordered on the Mississippi River, 150 miles at its widest extent, is said to begin 'in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and end on Catfish Row in Vicksburg." Ironically, the Delta's greatest economic days were in the post-Civil War period when its rich land was fully exploited for cotton cultivation. It is a region of contrasts, with wealthy pleasure-loving planters controlling its wealth and nearly two-thirds of its population poor blacks. It reacted most strongly against the racial changes of the 1950s and 1960s and was a leading centre of the White Citizens Councils' resistance to desegregation. Cobb breaks new ground in describing the economic development of the Delta since the 1930s. The Federal Government provided the money for this revival, but Cobb shows how these funds went almost exclusively to the wealthy, established planters, since the appropriations were funnelled through Mississippi's reactionary congressmen. Further, the Civil Rights revolution has brought the vote to Delta blacks but has kept economic power still in control of the planters. The Delta is a region with a rich cultural heritage. It is the subject of William Faulkner's and Eudora Welty's fiction; it fostered such writers as Shelby Foote. Willie Moris, Walker Percy, Elizabeth Spencer; a great heritage of black blues singers comes from the region, among them Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Cobb's book is a cultural history that explores the political, economic, social, and cultural heritage of the region, accounts for its uniqueness, and criticizes its parochialism and racism. …