Mississippi (Alternity)

State of Mississippi
Timeline: Alternity
OTL equivalent: Northern Mississippi and Alabama

State of the United States of America Flag of Mississippi Seal Location of Mississippi in the United States
Capital	Aberdeen
Largest City	Birmingham
Other Cities	Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Decatur
Language	English
Ethnic Groups   Main	White (non-Hispanic) White (Hispanic)
Others	Native American, Black, Asian
Demonym	Mississippian
Government	Representative democracy
Legislature	State Legislature
Governor	Kirk Fordice (R)
Population	4,082,600
Admission	December 1819
Currency	USD
Time Zone	Eastern Standard
Summer	Eastern Daylight
Abbreviations	MS

Mississippi (MS) is a state located in the Southern United States. It was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state on December 10, 1819 and shares borders with Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, West Florida to the south, and Louisiana and Arkansas to the west, across the river for which the state is named. Birmingham is the largest city in the state, while the state capital of Aberdeen (pop. 100,000) is the fifth-largest.

Mississippi was a major grower of cotton in the US prior to the Civil War, and was the first state to secede from the Union in 1861, and became one of the founding members of the Confederate States of America. During the war, the Mississippi River was the center of a Union campaign headed by General (and later 17th US president) Ulysses S. Grant, who laid siege to and captured the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg in neighboring West Florida. Mississippi was also the last to be readmitted to the Union, in 1866, and underwent radical political changes in the latter half of the 19th century, which included two new state constitutions, and the typical Jim Crow laws of the era that restricted the rights of blacks. In the 1950s and 60s, Mississippi was a center for the Civil Rights Movement and the scenes of protests by now-legendary figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Part of the state's true legacy, on the other hand, comes from the invention of five popular and/or mainstream music types (gospel, country, jazz, blues, and rock and roll) that, to this day, are composed and listened to by Americans nationwide.

Counties

Mississippi is subdivided into 32 counties, of which, the 10 largest are listed below in order of population.

Map of counties in Mississippi.

Rank	Name	County Seat	Population
1	Jefferson County	Birmingham	715,000
2	Elk County	Huntsville	369,000
3	St. Clair County	Riverside	240,000
4	Cherokee County	Hokes Bluff	230,000
5	Georgia County	Dadeville	210,000
6	Decatur County	Scottsboro	203,000
7	Shelby County	Alabaster	195,000
8	Fayette County	Tuscaloosa	185,000
9	Hancock County	Jasper	175,000
10	Leon County	Coldwater	167,000