Mississippi

Small talk before getting to business is genuinely appreciated in Mississippi, part of a Southern hospitality built on front porches, sweet tea, and an unhurried pace. The state’s nickname, “The Magnolia State,” comes from the large white-flowered tree chosen by Mississippi schoolchildren in a vote back in 1900.

Blues music was born in the Mississippi Delta, and its influence on rock and roll and jazz gives the state a very large place in American music history, honored at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale.

Fried catfish with hush puppies, Delta tamales brought by Mexican workers a century ago, and Mississippi mud pie, named for the dark riverbank soil, reflect the state’s layered food culture. Historic towns like Natchez and Vicksburg preserve buildings from the 1800s.