Mississippi's economy was steadily growing thanks to federal funding and agricultural diversity. (Handouts dated 11/20/2014) Jimmy Carter became president in 1976 and during this time the economy was terrible. During his presidency America faced a major energy crisis, the Iranian hostage crisis and the Camp David Accords. The president and government were slowly failing not only Mississippi, but all of the Americas (Lecture Notes 02/12/14) In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president. Reagan supported low taxes and less federal oversight, which meant states like Mississippi could decide race relations. Reagan used racially coded language and cut many government programs that conservative white Southerners loved. This created yet another racial barrier. In 1988 George H. Bush took office and slowly cleaned up Reagan's mess. Bush declared, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” but was ultimately forced to raise taxes. The government was failing once again. In 1992, Bill Clinton took over as president and introduced welfare reforms resulting in an improvement in the economy. There was virtually no unemployment, a strong stock market, and energy was available. Thanks to Clinton, the government was doing its best to both fight poverty and change race relations. In 2000, George W. Bush was president and the United States was slowly returning to normalcy