"Jackson is the most populous city in Mississippi," Johnson told Conference News Daily in an interview six weeks into his second term as mayor. "It's the capital of Mississippi. And yet I'm an African-American and mayor of the city. If someone had suggested that 35 years ago, it would have been a laughable notion."

Three and a half decades after African-Americans won the right to vote in Mississippi, the state has more blacks in government than any other state in the nation. In 1999 there were 850 African-American elected officials in Mississippi, from county board members to state legislators to Congressman Bennie Thompson. By comparison, New York state, with a much larger population, had only 305.

But Mississippi also tops another, less flattering list. It ranked last among the 50 states in a personal income survey released by the Commerce Department this spring. Recent census numbers show that 18.2 percent of Mississippi residents live below the poverty level. Only Louisiana and West Virginia had higher poverty rates.

With that backdrop, there's little wonder that words such as "economic opportunity" and "development" appear frequently in campaign speeches in Mississippi. The state's politicians, black and white, are eager to dispel the image of the impoverished South and have launched commercial crusades to attract tourist dollars, out-of-state investment and high paying jobs.

"One of our goals," said Sherry Vance, spokeswoman for the Mississsippi Development Auhtority, "is to improve the quality of life for our citizens by increasing their opportunities to obtain jobs that pay higher wages, thereby increasing the state's per-capita income."

Last year the state started a new initiative offering incentives for companies moving to Mississippi. The initiative yielded 195 new businesses in the state last year, Vance said. The largest investment was a new Nissan plant under construction outside Jackson. Vance said it will employ 4,000 people and create about 20,000 spin-off jobs, including supply and service jobs.

Economic initiatives are under way on a local level as well. Mayor Johnson said he wants to revitalize downtown Jackson, parts of which have been decaying since the 1960s and 70s, when businesses fled the city center for outlying residential areas. Some of the worst signs of neglect can be seen within a few blocks of the State Capitol and City Hall. The King Edward Hotel, a historic landmark that has been boarded up since it was closed in 1967, is an eyesore in Jackson's skyline. Across the street, debris is piled up in front of Union Station, another historic building in desperate need of repairs. Johnson said there are plans to renovate both properties.

But the most important economic development project, one that might be used to measure the success of Johnson's administration, is the revitalization of the Farish Street Historic District.

For the first half of the last century, Farish Street was a thriving African-American commercial area where restaurants and barber shops competed for space with the offices of black doctors and lawyers. But when segregation ended, so did the area's prosperity, since black businesses were free to disperse throughout the region.

Johnson wants to bring them back by providing the infrastructure they need to do business. With the help of a $1.5 million federal grant, Johnson is planning to replace water and sewer lines, repave the sidewalks and install new street lights.

"We're looking to create an entertainment district," Johnson said, "a two block area that will bring people in to go to night clubs and restaurants and retail establishments."

Johnson, along with many of the state's elected officials, envisions a bustling commercial district with both black- and white-owned businesses. But right now, it's no more than a vision. Farish Street is still dominated by abandoned buildings with vegetation sprouting through cracks in crumbling brick walls. Rusty business signs hang over doors that no longer open.

And that worries Harvey Freelon, the only business owner yet to invest in the Farish Street district."I need company. That's all I ask for," said Freelon, who opened a nightclub and adjoining restaurant last year.

"With more businesses, it brings more traffic. With more traffic, I get more spillover business."

Freelon complained that the development of the district isn't happening fast enough. And while he blamed the city, county and state governments for not speeding up the process, he also said that race is a factor.

White-owned businesses are not interested in investing in downtown Jackson, Freelon said, because it's a predominantly black area and because whites have no political control in city hall.

"They're the ones who have the power to develop," he said, referring to the white community. "We're still a segregated society. And it's sad." If downtown Jackson is waiting for an economic miracle, Tunica County in Northwestern Mississippi has already cashed in big on its strategy for economic development: casinos. Before the first casino opened in 1992, two years after the state voted to allow gambling along the Mississippi River, Tunica County was the poorest in the state and one of the poorest in the nation.

Nine years and $3 billion in casino investments later, Tunica is host to the third-largest gaming resort in the nation, after Las Vegas, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

"It's given the citizens of this area the hope for a brighter future," said Webster Franklin, executive director of the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau. Franklin said jobs created by the casinos reduced the unemployment rate from 26 percent in 1992 to 5 percent this year. In the same time period, average salaries increased by 25 percent.

"Anyone who wants a job in Tunica County can find one," Franklin said. The county expects 12 to 14 million visitors this year, 90 percent of them coming from outside Mississippi. Gambling, of course, is the main attraction, but the county is expanding into other forms of entertainment as well. Two golf courses recently opened and a river park and marina are under construction on the banks of the Mississippi.

Gambling has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue, not only in Tunica but in other casino locations such as Biloxi, Gulfport, Vicksburg and Natchez. But relying on gambling to lift the state from the bottom of the income rankings may not be enough.

"Casinos are probably going to grow at a slower rate from now on," said Henry Thomas, director of the Center for Business Development and Economic Research at Jackson State University. "Success in the future lies in attracting manufacturers that can create a lot of jobs and economic development for the state."

Part of that challenge, Thomas said, is making sure the benefits of economic development are enjoyed by all communities, regardless of color.

"Black leaders have been very good in getting some economic development in places where it normally wouldn't go," Thomas said. "But we have a long way to go and it's going to take a concerted effort to move us up."