Poverty Of The Mississippi Delta

Many African Americans were afraid and frightened in staying in the Mississippi Delta, so many began to relocate and the population continued to decrease dramatically. Not only was the moving due to lack of security, many residents wanted a better job and better living conditions. Poverty was depriving citizens from their basic necessities of life like food, shelter and revenue. On the average, seven African Americans were lynched or beaten each year in the Mississippi Delta since the ending of slavery. Sunflower County illustrated a major decrease in population. In the mid 1970s, the county population consisted of majority African Americans making up roughly 80.9 percent of the county population.

As poverty remains, the residents of the Mississippi Delta continue to suffer from the cruelty of poverty due to poor healthcare and poor job opportunities Regardless, of how poverty is measured, deprived people in rural places like the Mississippi Delta that deal with the challenges of being poor are more likely to have health issues and limited job opportunities. This entire region of Mississippi is suffering from high density of bad health. In the Mississippi Delta, many residents do not have the income to afford proper health insurance. For example, Tunica County illustrated one of the highest percentages of families living below the poverty level of 50.5 percent, and the highest unemployment and uninsured residents, which was at 17 percent in the state of Mississippi.

Henceforth, Mississippi leads the nation in a number of health care problems, especially in the Mississippi Delta because the majority of the residents is living under the poverty line and cannot afford decent healthcare. In addition, Michael Harrington wrote in...

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...ion of African Americans, the Mississippi Delta drove deeper into poverty because the land was unattended causing the livestock to die, and technology was limited. The movement of thousands of African Americans is known as the Great Migration. Moreover, in the chart below, it demonstrated the stagnation of the population of several counties in the Mississippi Delta. The populations decrease severely in several counties due to segregation, absence of political involvement, and lack of career opportunities. One of the most severe depopulation counties of the Mississippi Delta was Issaquena County, beginning its ratio of approximately 8,000 people dropped to almost 1,386 people. As for Washington County, the population was at approximately 70,672 residents, where 71 percent of the population reported as non-white. The population of the each county dropped constantly.