I call Mississippi "God's Country" myself.
Sterotypes don't work here anymore. Growing up in Marshall county in NW Miss., I never knew of any Klan or anything in my area. I go to Hawaii on spring break from college in 1988, and the lady there hearing my southern drawl thinks I'm from Texas. No I say I am from MS. She immediately asks if I am in the KKK, as "Mississippi Burning" was a movie out at the time.
Fast forward to the mid 90's, and the KKK had a rally in Memphis. There wer no local area KKK present, it was some from PA and IN.
Long post, please bear with me.I was stationed at the CBC Gulfport base. I loved the Gulf Coast. Some of the blacks (they weren't from or never lived in the South) who were in interracial relationships said they were worried initially when they got orders to come to Mississippi. Some said it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be.
However, one white woman who is married to a black servicemember said that when she went to the Three Little Pigs BBQ place in Hattiesburg they received a lot of dirty looks from the locals in there. Some of the blacks (they were mostly from places like Seattle and San Fran) from one particular battalions would say don't get caught north of Hattiesburg after 6pm or the Klan may get you. At my first command was at a regiment at CBC Gulfport, my particular group consisted of 14 service members. I was an E-1 at a group with men E-5 thru E-8, the only female and 1 of only 3 blacks in the entire group. The other 10 white guys were from MS, AL, or GA and were what most people would consider rednecks. I will confess I was little worried at first being the only female and so junior to everyone else. But that ended up being my favorite command. Those guys were like big brothers to me, if I had any problem they were the first ones there to help. I was sick in the hospital and they came with get-well cards. One of the chief's favorite things to tell me was "I have been in the Navy longer than you have been born". I miss them they were true good Southern men.
In my history class we have a lot of foreign students. We had to read Ann Moody's book Coming of Age in Mississippi. Yesterday we had a discussion on it and some of the students said the book made them cry. One Puerto Rican girl said that she would gladly spit on their graves. I tried to explain to her that everyone in MS is not like that. One girl from MS said that in the 1980's some people in MS were trying to get autographs from the guy who killed Medgar Evers.
What makes it worse is that some people from that era are still living, so it makes it seem more recent then it actually is. No one alive can give us first hand accounts of what happened during 1850's, yes we can read it but it is nothing like being there. But with this you have people who can give you first hand accounts of the type of stuff that happened. My great aunt was born in 1914 and died in Sep 2001. She was like a history book for me and was surprised that she could recall many events that took place during that time (she lived in Mississippi, but left in the 1950's and moved to Louisiana).
Personally I think it is going to take a long time for MS to erase that image they have. I have to give MS credit they have worked hard to erase the image, but a lot of people from that era are still living. Not saying I would like all of them to die, it will some time for some individuals to change their opinion of MS.