In 1902 while on a hunting expedition in Sharkey County, Mississippi, President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt refused to shoot a captured bear. This act resulted in the creation of the world-famous teddy bear.
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William Grant Still of Woodville, Mississippi composed the Afro-American Symphony.
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After the Civil War, famed hat maker John B. Stetson learned and practiced his trade at Dunn's Falls near Meridian, Mississippi.