1. In 1939, the Mississippi state legislature passed a law making it illegal for any public school teacher to be a member of the NAACP. This was part of a broader effort to suppress black activism in the state.

2. On October 4, 1961, the University of Mississippi admitted its first African American student, James Meredith. Meredith's enrollment sparked a violent backlash from segregationists, including riots and the deployment of federal troops by President John F. Kennedy.

3. In 1974, the American blues musician and Mississippi native, Sonny Boy Williamson II, was posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Williamson was known for his distinctive harmonica playing and his influence on later blues and rock musicians.

4. On October 4, 1980, Mississippi gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson passed away in Chicago. Jackson was renowned for her powerful voice and her role in the civil rights movement, including performing at the March on Washington in 1963.

5. In 2017, the Mississippi state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem, became the last flag in the country to include a symbol of the Confederacy. Following national protests against systemic racism, calls for the flag to be changed intensified, and in June 2020, the state legislature voted to remove the emblem. A new design for the flag was later adopted in November of that year.