Mississippi
MS celebrates Jefferson Davis’ birthday, Memorial Day as state holiday. What to know
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Mississippi will honor Confederate President Jefferson Davis this three-day weekend.
The state isn’t the only one to honor him with a state holiday or local celebration, but it is the only one to combine it with Memorial Day.
It’s the third of three Confederate holidays on the state calendar, starting with a celebration of Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. in February and Confederate Memorial Day in April.
Here’s what you need to know about when and why Mississippi celebrates Confederate holidays and what other states still honor them.
Why does Mississippi celebrate Jefferson Davis?
Davis was born in Kentucky on June 3, 1808, but Mississippi pairs it with Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. The president of the Confederacy spent most of his life in the Magnolia State and served it in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
The Davis family moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1812. In 1824, he graduated from West Point, the U.S. Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Davis settled near family near Vicksburg, planted cotton and owned slaves in Warren County.
In 1845, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and resigned in less than a year to fight with the Mississippi Rifles in the Mexican War. In 1847, he was wounded and later was appointed to fill a seat in the U.S. Senate.
In 1851, he resigned to run for governor of Mississippi but did not win. He campaigned for Franklin Pierce and served as the president’s secretary of war.
He was re-elected to the Senate in 1857.
He resigned and announced Mississippi was seceding from the Union four years later.
By October of 1861, he was president of the Confederate States of America.
After Lee surrendered, Davis and his family ran but were later captured. He was held on treason charges for two years. The federal government dropped charges against him in 1869.
By 1877, he moved to Beauvoir in Biloxi and died in New Orleans in 1889.
The Biloxi building now serves as a presidential library. It’s open daily and offers tours. The organization that maintains it will celebrate his 217th birthday on Saturday, May 31, with a showing of Shirley Temple’s “The Littlest Rebel” and a Mississippi Rifles Honor Salute. Admission is $15 per person, and movie tickets cost another $2.
Alabama also has a state holiday for Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the first Monday in June. In Florida, it’s a local observance, according to timeanddate.com, but not an official state holiday that offices and schools or businesses would close for.
Does anyone want Mississippi to drop Confederate holidays from the state calendar?
Yes. There were multiple bills to remove Lee’s birthday and Confederate Memorial Day from the state calendar in the most recent regular session of the Mississippi Legislature.
None were successful.
Mississippi still honors Robert E. Lee on MLK Day
Two U.S. states honor Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the federal holiday for Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is always scheduled to take place on the third Monday in January. President Ronald Regan signed the bill creating the holiday into federal law in 1983. It was first observed in 1986.
King was born on Jan. 15, 1929.
When the federal holiday was adopted in the 1980s, Mississippi and Alabama lawmakers opted to add it to an existing holiday honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Many states in the South initially adopted this approach. Most, including Lee’s home state of Virginia, have since dropped celebrating Lee, who was born on Jan. 19, 1807.
Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day
Mississippi celebrated Confederate Memorial Day on Monday, April 28 this year. Only four states still honor the Civil War dead with a day off for public workers, though others still treat it as a holiday.
The Magnolia State takes it a step further and celebrates April as Confederate Heritage Month.
Confederate Memorial Day was created in Georgia on April 26, 1866. It honored the deaths of Confederate soldiers on the first anniversary of the day that Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Union Gen. William Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina.
Many in the Confederacy felt that negotiation marked the end of the Civil War. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant two weeks earlier at Appomattox Court House, but Johnston stayed in the field with almost 90,000 soldiers.
The holiday spread to the other Confederate states. Some changed their celebration dates to something more locally significant.
In Alabama and Florida, it’s on the fourth Monday in April. Alabama treats it as an official holiday.
Texas celebrates it as a state holiday on Jan. 19.
North and South Carolina celebrate on May 10, but state offices close only in South Carolina.
June 3 is when Kentucky and Tennessee honor the dead from the Civil War, and Tennessee calls it Confederate Decoration Day.
Does Mississippi celebrate Juneteenth as a state holiday?
No. Mississippi does not honor Juneteenth, though it is a federal holiday.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday that honors June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas were set free. The order for the state came about two and a half years after the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.
Civil War reenactors teach living history in Mississippi
When are Mississippi state holidays in 2025?
Many state holidays in Mississippi sync up with federal holidays, but not all of them, according to the list from the Department of Finance and Administration.
- Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year’s Day.
- Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert E. Lee.
- Monday, Feb. 17: Washington’s Birthday.
- Monday, April 28: Confederate Memorial Day.
- Monday, May 26: National Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis’ birthday.
- Friday, July 4: Independence Day.
- Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day.
- Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day or Armistice Day.
- Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day.
- Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day.
2025 US federal holiday schedule
Here are the federal holidays in 2025, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management:
- Wednesday, Jan. 1: New Year’s Day.
- Monday, Jan. 20: Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Inauguration Day.
- Monday, Feb. 17: Washington’s Birthday.
- Monday, May 26: Memorial Day.
- Thursday, June 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day.
- Friday, July 4: Independence Day.
- Monday, Sept. 1: Labor Day.
- Monday, Oct. 13: Columbus Day.
- Tuesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day.
- Thursday, Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day.
- Thursday, Dec. 25: Christmas Day.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.
GEORGE COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) — A George County High School senior is dead after an SUV hit him while bicycling on Highway 26 Friday night.
Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) officials said at 8:15 p.m. the MHP responded to a fatal crash on Highway 26 in George County.
Those officials said a Ford SUV traveling west on Highway 26 collided with 18-year-old Tyree Bradley of McLain, Mississippi, who was bicycling.
Bradley was fatally injured and died at the scene, MHP officials said.
The crash remains under investigation by the MHP.
See a spelling or grammar error in this story? Report it to our team HERE.
Copyright 2026 WLOX. All rights reserved.
Some losses feel like they drag on longer than the box score suggests, and Mississippi State’s 3-1 opener at Texas A&M fits that category.
It wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a game where the Bulldogs looked outmatched.
It was just one of those nights where the early mistakes stuck around and the offense never quite found the swing that could shake them loose.
The frustrating part is how quickly the hole formed. Two solo homers and a wild pitch in the first two innings put Mississippi State behind 3-0, and that was basically the ballgame.
Against a top tier SEC team on the road, spotting three runs that early is a tough ask. The Bulldogs didn’t fold, but they also didn’t cash in when the door cracked open.
“I liked our fight. I think we’re really just working through some things offensively, and trying to stay together,” Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts said. “This team still believes, and we’re going to battle and fight every chance we get, and I think I saw a lot of that. I’m encouraged for what that means for us moving forward, but, you know, they’re a good hitting team, and we’ve got to be able to shut them down early. I don’t think Peja [Goold] had her best stuff, but she continued to battle out there and find ways to get outs.”
They had chances. Two runners stranded in the fifth. Two more in the sixth. Another in the seventh. Des Rivera finally got the Bulldogs on the board with an RBI single, but the big hit that usually shows up for this lineup never arrived.
It wasn’t a lack of traffic. It was a lack of finish.
If there was a bright spot, it came from the bullpen. Delainey Everett gave Mississippi State exactly what it needed after the rocky start.
“That was just a huge relief appearance by Delaney to keep us in it,” Ricketts said. “It’s really good to have her back and healthy these last few weeks because these are the moments where we really need her and rely on her. We know that she’s going to be a big part of the remainder of the season going forward as well.”
Three hitless innings, one baserunner, and a reminder that she’s quietly putting together a strong stretch.
There were individual positives too. Nadia Barbary keeps climbing the doubles list. Kiarra Sells keeps finding ways on base.
But the bigger picture is simple. Mississippi State is now 6-10 in the SEC, and the margin for error is shrinking. Nights like this one are the difference between climbing back into the race and staying stuck in the middle.
They get another shot this morning with the schedule bumped up for weather. The formula isn’t complicated.
Clean up the early innings, keep getting quality relief, and find one or two timely swings. The Bulldogs didn’t get them Friday. They’ll need them today.
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Mississippi
Mississippi farmers struggle through years without profit as war with Iran deepens crisis
YAZOO COUNTY, Miss. — Mississippi Delta farmers are facing another expensive planting season as fertilizer and fuel costs continue to climb.
Farmers in Yazoo and Sharkey counties, Clay Adcock and Jeffrey Mitchell, said it has been years since their crops turned a real profit.
“I guess it would be since 2022,” Adcock said.
“Last 2.5 to three years since we had a very profitable year,” Mitchell said.
Rising input costs squeeze farmers
Adcock said he was paying $300 per ton of fertilizer before the war with Iran broke out. He is now paying double for the same amount. Mitchell saw similar spikes.
“Fertilizer was up 25% before the Iranian conflict already,” Mitchell said. “Then since that started Diesel fuel is up 40% in the last six months.”
Survey and research from the American Farm Bureau show they are not the only ones feeling the pinch.
“We’ve got trouble with the farming community,” Adcock said. “And you can see that with the bankruptcies that are there and no young farmers that can afford the capital to get started.”
Mitchell said today’s farmers face a shrinking industry of suppliers. 75% of all fertilizer in the U.S. comes from four companies: Yara USA, CF Industries, Nutrien and Koch Industries.
“With the world market on fertilizer, pretty much everyone has the same price,” Mitchell said. “It’s not like you can go to store B, get a better price.”
forces
Oil and natural gas cut off in the Strait of Hormuz forces energy companies worldwide to compete for less supply. The spike in costs passes on to fertilizer producers, who pass higher prices on to distributors, leaving family farms at the end of the line with the most expensive bills.
“They deliver it to us and we’re at their mercy,” Adcock said.
Adcock said he would like to see more regulation to even the playing field among fertilizer companies and prevent potential price gouging.
“There should be guiderails in place to keep fertilizer producers within a range and if they get out of that range it throws up red flags as they do in the SEC with stocks,” Adcock said. “Have some consistency in our business.”
Mitchell said the costs will circle back to consumers at the store. The spike in diesel also increases the cost of transporting finished crops after harvest to stores.
“Everything will be higher once it gets to Kroger or Wal-Mart or wherever,” Mitchell said. “They’ll just pass it onto consumers.”
It is too early to tell what the final prices will look like once harvest season is over. Each farmer said one way consumers can help is to buy as much produce as possible directly from farmers at markets and buy American items.
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