ABSTRACT
In 1889, they traveled in covered wagons and on horseback to the Neshoba County Fair. Nearly a century later, they arrived in station wagons, campers, and family cars. The fair, held on an expansive campground outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, had grown bigger each year, drawing thousands of visitors from throughout the South. The Neshoba County Fair was more than just fun and games. In 1980, Mississippi governor William Winter called it the premier showcase for politicians. Reagan was the first presidential candidate in the ninety-one-year history of the Neshoba County Fair to speak at the event. New Orleans was an unlikely location for the ideological battle between the Reagan administration and civil rights leaders. Philadelphia continued to be a painful example of how tough and resistant to change the old-boy network was in big-city police departments. The Philadelphia Police Department was still haunted by the ghosts of the Frank Rizzo era.
