Hattiesburg's population first expanded as a center of the lumber and railroad industries, from which was derived the nickname "The Hub City".

Originally called Twin Forks and later Gordonville, the city received its final name of Hattiesburg from Capt.

Hattiesburg is centrally located less than 100 miles from the state capital of Jackson, as well as from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama.

The completion of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) from Gulfport, to the capital of Jackson, Mississippi, also ran through Hattiesburg.

The region around Hattiesburg was involved in testing during the development of weapons in the nuclear arms race of the Cold War.

Around 10,000 structures in the area received major damage of some type from the heavy winds and rain, as the hurricane tracked inland.

The city has struggled to cope with a large influx of temporary evacuees and new permanent residents from coastal Louisiana and Mississippi towns to the south, where damage from Katrina was catastrophic.

[14] In 2011, the Hattiesburg Historic Neighborhood District was named one of the "Great Places In America," to live by the American Planning Association.

[15] In 2013, the Hattiesburg Historic Neighborhood District celebrated the 38th Annual Victorian Candlelit Christmas and Holiday Tour of Homes.

The purpose of the pageant is the selection and presentation of a young, knowledgeable lady to help promote the state in tourism and economic development.

The 2011 winner was Ann Claire Reynolds, a junior at University of Southern Mississippi who was majoring in elementary and special education.

Hattiesburg and the unincorporated African-American community of Palmers Crossing played a key role in the civil rights transitions of the 1960s.

When he persisted, the newly formed Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a taxpayer-supported agency ostensibly set up to encourage tourism, conspired to have him framed for a crime.

For years, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People leaders Medgar Evers, Vernon Dahmer, and other Forrest County civil rights activists fought to overturn the conviction.

[18] The MSSC conducted outrageous activities against citizens of the state: MSSC agents investigated citizens while the organization created blacklists of activists and black professionals who were suspected of working for civil rights, conducted economic boycotts against black-owned businesses, and arranged for blacks to be fired from state and local jobs.

Forrest County Registrar Theron Lynd prevented blacks in the area from registering to vote, based on such devices in the state constitution as poll taxes, and literacy and comprehension tests, subjectively administered by whites.

[19] In 1962, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began one of its first voter-registration projects in Hattiesburg under the auspices of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).

In cooperation with the NAACP and local civil rights leaders, they formed the Forrest County Voters League.

Despite the serious risk of both physical and economic retaliation, nearly half of Forrest County blacks participated, the highest turnout in the state.

[21] January 22, 1964, was "Freedom Day" in Hattiesburg, a major voter registration effort supported by student demonstrators and 50 northern clergymen.

Many whites opposed civil rights efforts by blacks, and both summer volunteers and local African Americans endured arrests, beatings, firings, and evictions.

On the night of January 10, 1966, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan attacked the Hattiesburg home of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer with firebombs and gunfire.

After four previous trials had ended in deadlocks, KKK Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers was finally convicted in August 1998 for ordering the assassination of Dahmer.

[30] Miocene plant and animal fossils discovered in Hattiesburg's vicinity indicate the area was once more swamp-like and dominated by low-growing palm trees.

Although the most severe damage occurred in the Oak Grove area, especially near Oak Grove High School, the tornado continued eastward into Hattiesburg, causing widespread EF1-EF3 damage to the southern portion of the University of Southern Mississippi campus and the areas just north of downtown.

[43] Hattiesburg is home to several national business branches that hold thousands of jobs across the Pine Belt.

Jones Capital recently celebrated the groundbreaking of their new $50 million corporate headquarters facility in Midtown Hattiesburg across from The University of Southern Mississippi.

The City of Hattiesburg purchased the depot and 3.2 acres (1.3 ha) of land from Norfolk Southern Railway in 2000, and began a seven-year, $10 million restoration.

The completed depot now functions as an intermodal transportation center for bus, taxi and rail, as well as a space for exhibitions, meetings and special events.

Amtrak's Crescent train connects Hattiesburg with the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans.