Current Time in Jackson, Mississippi

The current local time in Jackson, Mississippi is displayed live at the top of this page and updates every second. Jackson is the capital and largest city of Mississippi, situated on the western bank of the Pearl River in the west-central part of the state, approximately 180 miles north of New Orleans. With a population of around 153,000–170,000, Jackson is the state's only city with more than 100,000 residents and serves as Mississippi's political, cultural, and economic hub. Its official slogan is "The City with Soul" — a nod to its deep roots in blues, gospel, folk, and jazz music.

What Time Zone Is Jackson, Mississippi In?

Jackson is in the Central Time Zone, using the IANA identifier America/Chicago. It observes Central Standard Time (CST) at UTC−6 during winter, and Central Daylight Time (CDT) at UTC−5 during daylight saving time in summer. This is the same timezone as Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis.

Jackson is always one hour behind New York and the US East Coast year-round. When it is 9:00 AM in Jackson, it is 10:00 AM in New York. It is one hour ahead of Denver (Mountain Time) in winter, and typically two hours ahead of Los Angeles (Pacific Time).

Does Jackson, Mississippi Observe Daylight Saving Time?

Yes. Jackson observes Daylight Saving Time. Clocks spring forward one hour at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday in March, moving from CST (UTC−6) to CDT (UTC−5). Clocks fall back at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday in November, returning to CST.

About Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson's story begins at a bluff above the Pearl River where a French-Canadian fur trader named Louis LeFleur established a trading post in the early 1800s, a spot known as LeFleur's Bluff. In 1821, Mississippi legislators chose this site for the new state capital, renaming it Jackson in honour of General Andrew Jackson — hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 and future seventh President of the United States. The city was laid out in 1822 using Thomas Jefferson's checkerboard plan, with alternating blocks designated as parks, and the state legislature held its first session there on December 23, 1822.

Jackson's darkest hour came during the Civil War. Following the fall of Vicksburg in 1863, Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman captured and burned Jackson to the ground in July 1863, leaving little but chimneys standing among the ruins — earning the city the bitter nickname "Chimneyville." Among the few antebellum structures that survived were the Governor's Mansion (which Sherman used as his headquarters) and the Old Capitol building, where Mississippi had passed its ordinance of secession on January 9, 1861.

Jackson rebuilt and grew steadily through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fuelled by railroad expansion and a natural gas boom in the 1920s that helped it surpass Meridian as Mississippi's largest city. By 1944, the population had reached 70,000. But it is Jackson's role in the American Civil Rights Movement for which the city is most profoundly remembered. As the state capital, Jackson became a focal point for the struggle against segregation throughout the 1960s. The Tougaloo Nine — students from Tougaloo College — staged a landmark sit-in at the "whites only" Jackson Public Library in 1961. Medgar Evers, the first NAACP field secretary for Mississippi, coordinated boycotts, sit-ins, and voter registration drives from Jackson until his assassination by a Ku Klux Klan member on June 12, 1963 — the same night President Kennedy delivered his televised civil rights address to the nation. Evers's home in Jackson is today a National Historic Landmark. The city's Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, opened in 2017, stands as one of the most comprehensive civil rights institutions in the United States.

Today, Jackson is home to several major universities including Jackson State University (founded 1877), Millsaps College, Belhaven University, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The city's cultural landscape features the Mississippi Museum of Art, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the Mississippi Blues Trail, and the historic Farish Street District — once the heart of Black business and entertainment in the South. The Ross Barnett Reservoir, created by a 1960s flood-control project on the Pearl River about 20 miles northeast of downtown, provides the city with its water supply and a major outdoor recreation destination.