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Neshoba County Fair 2018

Neshoba County—once the heart of the Choctaw nation—has a knack for being the crucible from which Mississippi births history. It was here, in the summer of 1964, that the murders of three young Civil Rights workers—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—aroused the nation’s anger and helped secure the passage of the Civil Rights Act. It was also here, 16 years later, that Ronald Reagan became the first presidential candidate to ever speak at the Neshoba County Fair, where he promised to usher in a new era of “state’s rights” to a mostly white crowd for whom “state’s rights” meant a rebuke of the advancements of the Civil Rights era. In 2009, it was here, in the same year America inaugurated its first black president, that Philadelphia made James Young—a Pentecostal preacher who was 8 years old at the time of the infamous slayings – its first black mayor. For two days during the Neshoba County Fair’s 2018 season, the Jackson Free Press documented the politics and the people who are still wrestling with the past and writing the history of the fair, the town, the state and the nation in ways big and small. In these photos, the marks of Mississippi’s progress can be discerned, and glimpses of our future seen in a new generation of fairgoers, but the ghosts of our past never linger far outside the frame. They hide not only in the still-coded—if repackaged—speeches some politicians continue to give, but behind the haunted stars and in the very fabric of a state flag countless attendees carry.

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Two fairgoers rest on the steps of the Neshoba County Fair Post Office in Philadelphia, Miss., on Aug. 1, 2018.

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As political speeches get underway on Wednesday morning, a woman takes refuge from the sun beneath her umbrella.

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Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson (left) talks to Kennedy Guest, while his brother, Patton Guest, watches a political speaker onstage. Patton and Kennedy are the sons of Michael Guest, who is running as the Republican candidate for Mississippi’s third congressional district.

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More than 600 cabins of all colors, shapes and sizes sit on 60 acres of land at the Neshoba County Fair. The cabins are no match in quantity, however, for the endless parade of campaign signs.

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Two boys at the Neshoba County Fair carry replicas of the embattled Mississippi state flag, which bears in its upper left-hand corner the emblem of the the Confederacy. Hundreds of older fairgoers with a greater reference for the its history also carry it—a sacrosanct relic connecting them to ghosts they aren’t ready to give up.

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Rocking chairs are a staple of the cabins at the Neshoba County Fair—as are children’s toys sitting in the dirt just beyond the porch.

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Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood—a Democrat who is widely expected to run for governor in 2019—speaks to reporters at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, as Republican protesters holding posters surround him wearing the printed faces of Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Pres. Barack Obama and former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton as masks.

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Mississippi Sec. of State Delbert Hosemann waves with outstretched arms at fairgoers at the Neshoba County Fair hours after announcing plans to run for higher office.

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Outside the festivities, attendees purchase tickets to the 129th Neshoba County Fair. The fair began in 1889 as a two-day agricultural event, but today is known as an eight-day “house party.”

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On Aug. 2, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel speaks at the Neshoba County Fair, while a supporter, joined by many others, holds up a replica of the Confederate emblem-bearing Mississippi State flag. Since 2015, McDaniel has made a rallying cry out of opposing any effort to change the flag.

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Supporters hold up signs and state flags as Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel talks to reporters after speaking at the Neshoba County Fair.

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Former U.S. Sec. of Agriculture and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy speaks at the Neshoba County Fair, where his son, Mike, a former wide receiver for the Washington Redskins, joins him. If he were to win, Espy would be the first Democrat Mississippi has sent to the United States Senate since 1982, but he’s made history before: In 1986, Espy was elected as the first black congressman from Mississippi since reconstruction.

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After Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel's speech at the Neshoba County Fair, supporters surround him with campaign signs, supportive posters and replicas of the state flag.

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Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy is flanked by supporters of his U.S. Senate bid as he talks to the press after delivering a speech at the Neshoba County Fair on Aug. 2, 2018.

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Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith bows her head silently moments before taking the stage, where she will face a crowd largely comprised of hostile supporters of State Sen. Chris McDaniel.

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"Tough crowd," Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant muttered to himself, as he watched Republican Sen. Roger Wicker struggle with a steely, often hostile crowd packed with supporters of Republican Miss. State Sen. Chris McDaniel. Moments later, Bryant took the stage himself, where he defended his decision to appoint Cindy Hyde-Smith—who had been relentlessly booed by the crowd moments earlier—to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Thad Cochran.

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Supporters of Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith greet her at the Neshoba County Fair.

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The William Harmony House, seen here on Aug. 2, 2018, is one of dozens of cabins at the Neshoba County Fair.

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Sydni Tangle Pine of the Standing Pine community in Carthage, Miss., was crowned the 2018-2019 Choctaw Indian Princess on July 18, 2018. This fall, she will be a senior at Leake Academy. Here, she attends the Neshoba County Fair on Aug. 2, 2018.

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