Talk:Mississippi Delta

Title

This article is perfect the way it is- 'the delta' in this case is not a geographic phenomenon but a cultural one. It is a term frequantly used in Mississippi to describe this very specific region and its culture (for instance, "Delta Blues" originated in this region). Maybe the title of the article should be "Mississippi Delta (Culture)" or something like that. Its funny, because I happen to live in Southern Louisiana (which is technically the "delgeographical sense) yet it is not referred to as such. Only in Northwest Mississippi. You were completely right in considering the phrase "The Delta" as a cultural one, because as a person who was born and raised there, I can attest to the cultural phenomena that has occurred in this small area that should always be comfortably called "The Mississippi Delta". Whether it is literally the delta of the river or not, the title carries connotations, whether good or bad, that give this special area an identity.

Is this right? Part of my family lives in Southern Illinois and I would never consider parts of Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee as "the Delta". Just further south. Rmhermen 18:52, Dec 13, 2003 (UTC)

I have no idea, I was curious and found the definitions on the linked National Parks Service site (http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/volume2/natural.htm). ( 18:57, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

That page can no longer be found. This seems like a confusing and unwarranted extension of this clearly defined term delta. Anyone want to work on this before Hurrican Ivan floods it? Wetman 21:20, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, it's confusing. I'd call this "Mississippi River Valley" or "Mississippi River basin", but delta is more particularly the lower parts near Louisiana and Mississippi, I would think. --Delirium 06:29, Jan 13, 2005 (UTC)

In Mississippi, "The Delta" refers to areas along the Mississippi River noted for very flat land with extremely fertile soil in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, while the "Mississippi River Valley" refers to states along the entire course of the river. Jimwilliams57 06:35, Jan 15, 2005 (UTC)

What about the specific counties that make up the Delta?Ktardy (talk) 05:33, 30 August 2018 (UTC)ktardy

Its my understanding that alluvial plains are perched at the base of mountains, and in the openings of canyons between mountains. I'm not quibbling about the Mississippi Delta (as opposed to the Mississippi River Delta) being a cultural region... that works for me. I'm just saying it isn't clear that "alluvial plain" is the right word. Maybe. But if we think in geological terms instead of human ones, isn't the region even that far north part of the area where the river channel flips and flops before entering the gulf? That makes it a delta in geo speak, I think, as opposed to an alluvial plain. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:bQP2UMCUnwYJ:ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/Soil_Survey_Handbook/629_glossary.pdf+geological+terms+delta+%22alluvial+plain%22&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh9JRqm244x3gZAZmzYYm07-170vwX9-03F7_6_NvDKVTzR68DOIJqlI84E3vzzYfBQxmQ4wQV0_SAeV1KlJMo1fox49MUWZe40khtW1_c77ZhliFBMcIp28YLhmSX6rNrHs-Pg&sig=AHIEtbQhq0HsO7WM92sx2fwOLz83By07Ng —Preceding unsigned comment added by NewsAndEventsGuy (talk • contribs) 20:06, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Alluvial plain says otherwise — it's just a place where alluvium gets deposited. It doesn't have to be immediately downstream from the place the sediment was picked up by the stream.

—WWoods (talk) 02:56, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

This geology glossary may be helpful. ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/Soil_Survey.../629_glossary.pdf In the primary meaning of the term, its used for huge landforms that are near their source, as the Great Plains are near the Rockies. The glossary frowns on use of "alluvial plain" for broad flood plains. Regarding "delta" some believe originally it was a reference to the delta of the Yazoo river, where it joins the Mississipppi. http://www.southernspaces.org/2010/bioregional-approach-southern-history-yazoo-mississippi-delta NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 02:20, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Memphis Has Always Been the "Capital" Of the Delta

I find this article to be -- what would the word be? Misleading? Memphis, Tennessee has ALWAYS been the capital of The Delta. This is from an Anthony Bourdain piece on CNN:

"2. The Mississippi Delta's unofficial capital is in Tennessee. "Memphis, which stands on a bluff just across the Mississippi state line, was built on the cotton fortunes from the rich farmland to the south. It's the logical place to begin a Delta adventure."

My roommate for four years at university was from the Delta -- he told me Memphis is the capital of the Delta. One of my closest friends after college was from the Delta. He told me Memphis is the capital of the Delta.

Just search MEMPHIS and DELTA and you'll find hundreds of references to this. If the article doesn't say that Memphis is the region's unofficial capital, it will mention Memphis as being part of the Delta. Here is the National Park Service article on the Lower Delta in which Memphis is mentioned TWENTY TIMES.

This article is misleading, in my opinion. --Montju (talk) 14:24, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Mississippi Embayment

Vote to Merge this section to the other page. I created the Mississippi Delta (disambiguation) according to the different definitions I've seen (though I'm not a resident of the area). This page is one that definitely uses the term Mississippi Delta to refer to the area extending all the way up to Illinois, so it's fine to link to a Mississippi River Valley page from this one, but it should definitely be distinct from what's refered to by the Delta in Delta Blues. Furthermore, I vote for renaming Mississippi embayment to Mississippi River Valley, if for no other reason than I can't figure out what embayment means or why it applies to the Illinois section of the river (and even if it is technically correct, River Valley is more immediately meaningful to the random reader). --Interiot 05:29, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

The Mississippi River valley refers to the entire area from Minnesota to the Gulf that is drained more or less directly by the Mississippi. I don't think it's accurate (show me if I'm wrong) that "Mississippi river valley" is ever used to refer to just that part up to Cairo – that's the embayment region only. The Mississippi embayment is a specific and significant named physiographic feature that deserves its own article. I don't know about the "cultural" Mississippi Delta reaching to Memphis; I'll take the word of the author of that article that it's so. The Mississippi River Delta article was definitely needed to focus on the delta itself. I've modified teh disambiguation page to say "embayment", not "valley".

Speaking of which, shouldn't Mississippi Delta be the disambiguation page, with the current content moved to Mississippi Delta (cultural)? -- Kbh3rd 17:00, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Cotton farming

It would be nice to include some information about the history of The Delta. At the least, it seems like everyone agrees that the Mississippi/Yazoo Delta was the heart of Cotton farming in the south at one point, due to the extremely fertile land in the flood plain. This in turn had other trickle-down effects on its history (slavery, poverty, but I'm not knowledgable enough to write a good paragraph or two on this).

Robert Johnson

The Robert Johnson paragraph seems a bit of a non-sequitor here... no? --RobHutten 20:47, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

If he's really really notable in the region (eg. vicksburg was historically very important on the Mississippi River, so it's briefly mentioned in that article), then maybe it fits. I'm not a local though, so I don't know whether he's of such importance that the brief blurb should be kept. --Interiot 14:13, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

According to an article on the web site of the Mississippi Historical Society (http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/features/feature43/), Robert Johnson was "the most potent legend in the blues." This statement indicates to me that he does deserve mention in this article, although it would be good to mention a few other notable Blues singers (such as Muddy Waters) as well. --Jimwilliams57 01:08, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Copyvios

The recent text added seems to be a copyvio of several pages, including http://www.blueshighway.org/. The text from http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/volume2/history.htm might be able to be kept. Some of the other text (and links) may be salvagable. Unfortunately I have pressing issues and can't process this right now, but it's clear enough that some amount of the text is a copyvio. --Interiot 00:27, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I've restored some of the links and text that did not seem to be a copyright violation. Text was also copied from http://www.pbs.org/theblues/roadtrip/deltahist.html (as noted in the article) and http://www.thingstodo.com/states/MS/delta.htm. I've kept the text from the National Park Service, per {{PD-USGov}}. I removed the list of museums, because the descriptions were certainly copyvios, but I kept the other lists because I don't think short lists (without dscriptive text) are copyvios.

The text that was removed had quite a few internal links in them, so optimally someone can rewrite the text so as to make it not a copyvio, or otherwise find ways to reincorporate the valuable links. --Interiot 13:50, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Ole Miss

Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ole Miss in Oxford? I know that Oxford is not in the Delta. Is there a branch somewhere in the Delta? Jimwilliams57 04:31, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

There's a branch in Southaven, which is just off The Delta. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.227.2.128 (talk) 05:52, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

WHERE IS THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN SLAVERY???

Why are you purposfully vague on the historic origins of the Missippi Delta blues and the genre of music it created? This music was created by BLACK SLAVES and they should be credited. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.229.102.208 (talk) 20:42, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

How on earth, in this day and age, you think you can get away with omitting the history of African slavery, and its direct economic, social and cultural impact in helping to establish the economic foundation of America and Europe? Why are you white-washing this history? This article is a travesty! You ought to be a shame of yourself! No wonder students who quote Wikipedia are FAILING on their term papers!--74.229.102.208 (talk) 20:57, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I dont understand where the quote of Africans bringing critical farming technics came from. Cotton and rice were farming was perfected hundreds of years before they were purchased from there starving tribes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.63.124.4 (talk) 15:14, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Too many lists

The article needs more narrative, especially its history, including after the Civil War. There are too many lists. A separate page should be set up for "List of Notable people from the Delta" so that more than musicians and politicians can be included. There have been many nationally known writers, too.--Parkwells (talk) 19:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey was born and lived in Attala County, Mississippi which is near (about 50 miles away), but not in the Delta. I could find no references to her ever living in the Delta. -- Jimwilliams57 (talk) 15:12, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Source

"Mississippi Delta: the land economic recovery never visits." McClatchy Company. Sunday April 11, 2010. WhisperToMe (talk) 13:51, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Needs category: Mississippi Delta region

Given that all or part of 17 counties are included in the Delta region, it deserves a category so they can easily be identified together. Parkwells (talk) 16:13, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Agriculture and the Delta Economy

Fourth paragraph; "In the opinion of Jefferson Davis and others later living in Mississippi, their being imported into slavery reflected the will of Providence, as it led to their Christianizing and to the improvement of their condition, compared to what it would have been had they remained in Africa.[8] According to Davis, the Africans "increased from a few unprofitable savages to millions of efficient Christian laborers"

Can anyone defend the relevance of these two sentences? It seems like thinly veiled mitigation of the evils of slavery, with no real importance to either the overall article or the particular sub-topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ViolentNewContinent (talk • contribs) 16:49, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

The quotation has representative of the thoughts & values of the men who owned the land and slaves in the Delta, and indicates they were proud of what they did and did not have any special guilt feelings. I think that the consensus of historians indicates the quotations are an accurate reflection of what those people thought. As far as mitigating different evils, that's POV & is not the job of Wikipedia one way or the other. Rjensen (talk) 18:28, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

This article is a mess. It's as if the author confused the Delta region of the state of Mississippi, with the Mississippi river basin as a whole. The Delta region has not been settled for more than two centuries, as the article states; nor was it a big part of the slave economy of the antebellum era. It wasn't even open for settlement until 1820. What's more, the Jefferson Davis quote is wholly out of place. Davis wasn't a resident of the Delta. Lorzu (talk) 06:35, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

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Demographics

I am removing the statement "From 1900 to 1930 planters recruited Chinese immigrants as field hands..." which is false and is misquoting Vivian Wong's essay (https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25163098?uid=3739760&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102707780097). Wong says "The majority of Chinese who settled in the Mississippi Delta arrived between the years 1910 and 1930." She doesn't say they were field hands. The Delta Chinese had mostly abandoned the plantations by the end of the 1870s. John Jung book <Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton> and many of the online articles have interviewed individual families, so we know they were mostly laundrymen, workers, and store-owners from other U.S. states who moved to Mississippi in the early 20th century. Even Wong's statement is misleading because most Delta Chinese were born in Mississippi. It is more accurate to say the majority of Chinese families arrived between 1910 and 1930. Winston Ho 何嶸 (talk) 20:35, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

I am making a similar correction to the "Agriculture and the Delta economy" section. Someone should really add something about the Italian and Jewish populations in the Delta. Winston Ho 何嶸 (talk) 20:39, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Black Foodways in the United States

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2023 and 5 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Tallahatchie (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Chckn nug, Ndtta.

— Assignment last updated by Mantaray2 (talk) 18:24, 23 April 2023 (UTC)