Hattiesburg is a college town in the pine belt of southern Mississippi, home to around 150,000 people in the metro area. Two universities — the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey University — give the city a younger, more cosmopolitan edge than you might expect from a mid-sized Southern town. The university keeps prices honest and the food scene alive.
The city has a significant Civil Rights history that rewards careful attention. Mobile Street was the heart of Hattiesburg's African American commercial district, and the African American Military History Museum and Smith Drug Co. document the local voter registration campaigns and the role of nearby Camp Shelby in training Black servicemen during World War II. Hattiesburg was one of the focal points of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project.
New Orleans is about 90 minutes south, and the cultural gravity of that city is felt here — in the food, the music, and the general attitude toward a good time. The Coney Island Cafe has been open since 1923; the downtown block around it has some of the best lunch options in southern Mississippi.
Hattiesburg has two things genuinely rare in Mississippi: a free zoo and the state's only working drive-in theater. The University of Southern Mississippi runs frequent public arts and performance events through the academic year.