Long challenged by a sluggish economy, South Carolina - a state reaching from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean - has enjoyed a renaissance of growth in recent years thanks to a population boom. Boasting four million citizens, the South Carolina now ranks 26th out of the 50 U.S. states in population. The state's economy was built on 18th and 19th century plantations, when indigo and rice were the major products.

During the 1700s, these crops made South Carolina's planters and merchants the wealthiest inhabitants of what would become the United States.

South Carolina's economy did not start to recover from the Civil War until the 1890s, when the textiles industry took hold. Mills in the "Up Country" north of Columbia, South Carolina's capital, began to hire large numbers of poor white farmers from the area, and the rapid expansion of such industry helped the state recover from its sharecropper economy.

The expansion of military bases during World War II helped revitalize the state, and more recently manufacturing has also improved the economic outlook. Today, textiles are still a major part of South Carolinian industry. Charleston also produces asbestos, wood, pulp, steel products, chemicals, machinery and apparel.

Although the state has shifted from its former agricultural thrust to an industrial economy, South Carolina still ranks third in U.S. peach production; it also ranks fourth in overall tobacco production. Watermelons, peanuts and cattle are among other agricultural products. The state is also home to the nation's only commercial tea plantation.

South Carolina was the first U.S. state to secede from the union in the 1860s -- and the state's racial tensions affected politics as recently as the 2000 election, with a controversy over the Confederate battle flag being flown over the state Capitol. The NAACP urged a boycott of South Carolina until the flag was removed from the Capitol dome, and Gov. Jim Hodges said he wanted it removed.

Eventually the state Senate reached a compromise and the Confederate flag was moved to the Capitol grounds. A monument documenting African-American history was built nearby. Long riddled with racial prejudice against black South Carolinians - who made up the majority of the population - the state lost many black inhabitants, who often relocated to Northern states.

The state's politics changed drastically with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As the electorate came to represent the state's population, politicians began to operate differently.

Strom Thurmond, who in 1957 set a record for filibustering a civil rights bill, appointed black staffers and a black federal judge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Party affiliation is sharply divided: In the 2000 election, whites voted 69-27 percent for George W. Bush and blacks voted 91-7 percent for Al Gore. Overall, however, South Carolina remains a Republican stronghold.

--By Jessica Moore, Online NewsHour