The annual Mississippi State Fair in Jackson became a target for Black boycotts. Traditionally, people attended the fair on separate days. In 1961, SNCC Freedom Riders, recently released from Parchman, joined Black college students to organize a boycott of the fair. A small group marched through the fairgrounds with picket signs reading “No Jim Crow Fair for Us!” More than 100 Black youths demonstrated outside the fairgrounds. Black attendance at the fair dropped dramatically. The boycott was repeated the following year.
Pictured: A black and white photograph of Black demonstrators standing outside of the entrance to the Mississippi State Fair. A White officer can be seen gripping the arm of a protestor. Two additional officers stand in the background. The entrance sign reads: “Mississippi State Fair Agricultural and Industrial Exposition.” On the next line the sign reads: “Negro State Fair, Oct 16.”
Credit: MDAH Photographs Collection
