Did this headline from 1943 catch your attention? Recently one of my colleagues who has spent most of his life in the northern part of the country contacted me. He had never heard of a Negro State Fair. To say he was in a state of shock might be an understatement. He couldn’t believe what he was reading.
Since I grew up in the South and have spent most of my life in the South, I responded that during the days of segregation it was common to have a White State Fair and a Negro State Fair in the southern states. The person I was communicating with had never heard of such a thing. So, to educate the disbelieving colleague and perhaps others in the profession, this Footnote is dedicated to you.
Since the Friday Footnote is visiting Mississippi we will explore the Negro State Fair in Mississippi and then look at the Negro State Fair in the other southern states. I wrote the introduction and provided the information about the Missississippi Negro State Fair but Dr. Jim Connors of South Dakota State University is responsible for the rest of the content for this Footnote.
The History of Segregated Agricultural Fairs
The interesting part of studying history is that there is always something new to learn. Most people involved in agricultural education are aware that segregation has played a big part of the history of the discipline. There were separate agricultural schools for black and white students, and separate youth organizations, the Future Farmers of America, and the New Farmers of America (NFA). There were also separate land-grant universities (1862 Morrill Act & 1890 Morrill Act), and separate agricultural extension services for black and white farmers.
However, it never occurred to me (Jim Connors) that there was another separate agricultural component, agricultural fairs. Segregation resulted in blacks and whites congregating in separate businesses, educational institutions, and places of worship. They also held separate agricultural fairs or attended fairs on separate days, so the races did not have to intermingle.
The Mississippi Negro State Fair
Because of segregation in the south there was a separate State Fair for Negros during most of the 1900s. It appears that Vicksburg hosted the first negro state fair in 1906 (Jackson Daily News, Oct. 1, 1906). The location of the Negro State Fair soon switched to Jackson and was held on the state fairgrounds. An article in the Vicksburg Post in 1915 indicates the fair was a great success. Exhibits of corn by corn club boys was a feature event of the fair. A number of white people visited the fair including the Governor and his wife. The fair was opened each year by a mammoth parade.
One of the big features at the 1929 Negro State Fair was the Famous Texas Rangers Rodeo Wild West. Over the years the fair attracted home demonstration exhibits such as canning and quilt making and livestock and crop exhibits from prominent Negro farmers. 4-H members, New Homemakers of America (NHA) students, and the New Farmers of America.
At the 1959 Fair there was a “Junior livestock judging contest open to youth who are bonafide members of NFA and 4-H Club boys’ organizations in Mississippi.” (The Mississippi Enterprise, Jackson, Oct. 10, 1959).
In 1962 fifty-four of the 82 counties in Mississippi had NFA and 4-H entries in the fair. NFA and 4-H members had cotton, corn, sweet potato, livestock and hog entries. See Figure 1.
Figure 1. Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Oct. 16, 1962
In 1949 a “Negro Day” was added to the white state fair. The fair officials indicated this in no way replaced the Negro State Fair. However, it did set a precedence. During the next several decades the Negro State Fair continued but took a backseat to the White State Fair. Eventually, because of financial considerations, the Mississippi State Fair Association created a Negro Division. Over time this was followed by three “Negro” days at the fair and several “White” days at the fair. With the civil rights movement during the 1960s the Negro State Fair became a relic of the past.
Colbert County (AL) Colored Fair
The idea for this footnote came from a picture of a fair ribbon owned by David Laatsch, former Wisconsin agriculture teacher and FFA historian. David owns a blue fair ribbon from the Colbert County Colored Fair Association.
The Colbert County Colored fair took place in Colbert County, Alabama around 1912. An article in the Alabama Dispatch (October 17, 1912) stated, “The fair…was the only fair for African American to take place in the state.” The paper also notes that at the end of the fair thousands of African Americans had attended this event. All signs point to this fair generating a large amount of interest in the African American community.
Figure 2. Colbert County Colored Fair Association Blue Ribbon (courtesy of David Laatsch)
North Carolina Negro State Fair
There were colored fairs in other states decades prior to 1910s. As early as 1879, Charles N. Hunter (1852-1931), black teacher in North Carolina established the Negro State Fair in Raleigh. Hunter was a noted educator who established the North Carolina Industrial Association that would organize the Negro State Fair. He was known throughout the state as the “Booker T. Washington of North Carolina.” The fair struggled with funding and facilities and eventually ceased operation after the 1931 fair.
In commenting on the demise of the Negro State Fair, the history of the North Carolina State Fair (McLaurin, 2003, p. 36) states,
Not only did African Americans lose one of the few statewide institutions available to them, but as a consequence of the state’s segregationist laws they were also prohibited from attending the “white” state fair. For the next eighteen years, North Carolina’s African American population remained a totally forgotten people at fair time.
Figure 3. L. Charles N. Hunter (1852-1930),
R. North Carolina Colored State Fair – Historical Maker (West Raleigh, NC)
Georgia Colored Fair Association
According to Thompson (2009), one of the first recorded colored fairs was held in Dublin City, Laurens County, Georgia in October 1905. A few days after the fair, a group of individuals proposed the establishment of the Georgia Colored Fair Association. The objective of this association was:
To carry on and conduct fairs throughout in [sic] Laurens and throughout the state for the purpose of exhibiting the commercial and industrial development of the Colored race along the lines of agriculture, manufacturing, mechanical, arts, and sciences…to enlighten, inspire, develop, and encourage said race.
Virginia Colored State Fair
A Colored State Fair was held on the grounds of the Virginia State Fairgrounds in Richmond in October 1910. The opening statement in the Catalogue and Premium List of the Colored State Fair reads:
The separation of the two races on street cars in cities, on railroads, steamboats and other public carriers throughout the State by the laws of Virginia, and the separation of the races in church and other social gatherings makes it necessary to have a separate State Fair.
The organizers of the Colored State Fair hoped to attract local farmers to exhibit livestock, poultry, machinery, dairy and farm products, flowers, manufacturers, arts and “women’s fancy work” similar to other white fairs. The Virginia Colored State Fair even designated one of the days as “White Folks’ Day” to encourage Caucasian citizens to attend the fair.
Figure 4.: White Folks’ Day Advertisement (Richmond Times Dispatch, Oct. 27, 1910)
Texas State Fair
When no Negro fair existed, African Americans were often allowed to attend the state fair on one designated day. The Texas State Fair was established in 1887. Just two years later in 1889, the fair designated one day as Colored People’s Day to encourage African American participation.
Love (n.d.) states that:
Designated days were set aside for blacks and other groups. Colored People’s Day and Negro Achievement Day were designated to highlight the gains and achievements of blacks, but the seething reality is that many of the world’s fairs and state fairs, particularly in the United States, were segregated.
After the Texas State Fair instituted a Ku Klux Klan Day in 1923, blacks stopped attending the fair and would not participate again until 1936 when Negro Achievement Day began. At the 1936 fair, Negro Achievement Day and the Hall of Negro Life attracted over 400,000 African Americans to the fair. However, it took another 20 years until fair officials semi-officially ended segregation and eliminated the separate Colored People’s Day and Negro Achievement Days. But it still took until 1967 to officially end segregation policies and practices at the State Fair of Texas.
Figure 5. Young African American Student protests segregated fair in Texas (Hickman, 1994).
Montgomery County (TN) Negro Agricultural Fair
Negro fairs were still prevalent even into the decades of the 1950s and 1960s as segregation persisted. Pope G. Carrett Sr., successful businessman, from Clarksville, Tennessee, helped to establish the Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair in 1948. The fair ran for 14 years until it ceased operation in 1962.
Figure 6. Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair – Historical Marker (Clarksville, TN)
Conclusions
Local, county, and state fairs are celebrations of American life, culture, and agriculture that should welcome all individuals, regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The history of segregated fairs, separate days and events for certain races, etc. is a scar on the history of American agriculture. In the face of overt racism, African Americans across the country established their own, Negro fairs to celebrate individual accomplishments and their place in American agriculture history.
Activity
- Visit your county or state historical society and research any segregation policies for local, county or state fairs in your state.
- Research the history of your county fair and determine when African Americans began to participate and exhibit agricultural products at the fair.
References
Brinson, C. S. (2020). The Colored State Fair. Stories of Struggle. https://storiesofstruggle.com/the-colored-state-fair
Keiser, S. (2015). Colbert County colored fair. Alabama Cultural Resource Survey. https://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/1625
Love, S. E. (n.d.). Blurred lines: Segregation at the state fair of Texas. East Texas History. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/400
Marsteller, D. & Marsteller, T. (2022). The Montgomery County Negro Agriculture Fair. The Historical Marker Database – Hmdb.org. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=205338
McCarry, J. (1997). County fairs: Where America meets. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.
McLaurin, M. A. (2003). The North Carolina state fair: The first 150 years. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources & North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The Uncommon Wealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia (2021). “Attractions and Amusements of Every Kind Will be the Order of Things”: The history of the Virginia Colored State Fair. https://uncommonwealth.virginiamemory.com/blog/2021/10/01/attractions-and-amusements-of-every-kind-will-be-the-order-of-things-the-history-of-the-virginia-colored-state-fair/
Thompson, S. B. (2009, May 3). Colored Fair Associations: The early years of the colored fair associations of Laurens County. Laurens County African American History. https://laurenscountyafricanamericanhistory.blogspot.com/2009/05/colored-fair-associations.html