Homecoming remains an important enough tradition in the Delta that the violence that happened in Leland and Rolling Fork in October didn’t diminish the crowds. Relatives still traveled home. Dozens still set up grills and canopies at games. Mississippi Today produced a collection of stories of homecoming events in the Delta, where traditions have evolved over time.

RULEVILLE — Trumpets blared through the hallways of Thomas E. Edwards Sr. High School. Three administrators, including one who was pregnant, dashed down the green-and-white tiled hallway toward the auditorium.

“What happened to the grannies with the sewing kits in their bags?” one asked, out of breath.

Homecoming Queen Jaiilah Holmes would need to make her entrance soon, but her dress was coming apart at the shoulders. The rest of the homecoming court was already announced and seated. The emcee was stalling.

Down the hall from the gym, in a classroom with algebraic equations scrawled on the white board, an administrator and a teacher were helping repair the queen’s regalia.

Jazlyn Hopkins, Jaiilah’s mother, bent in black gladiator sandals to adjust her daughter’s tiara. The teen blushed, projecting a wide smile. She shimmered in a white dress with a silver floral pattern down both sides and a bodice encrusted with imitation pearls.

Trumpeting resumed as Hopkins and a teacher trailed the queen, carrying her six-inch train. 

The gym lights flicked off. The crowd cheered.

Jaiilah emerged from behind thick curtains in a glimmering gown wired with a green light.

The house lights revealed what a party supply company billed as a Venetian masquerade scene. White construction paper covered the floor, and black palm trees framed the space. Two black thrones perched atop a raised platform where the teen royals took their seats before dozens of clear banquet chairs. Girls in black gowns wore sashes that read Miss Psychology, Miss Drug Education and Miss Algebra I.

An incentive to achieve

In the last decade, the school started celebrating academic achievement as well as congeniality for homecoming-specific titles to motivate students to excel in their academic coursework as well as extracurriculars. Now, most of the 40 categories for the homecoming court recognize excellence in an academic course, giving many students a chance to wear a sash or crown.

“It starts something big,” school resource officer Lafagus Carpenter said about how the titles motivate students. “They start feeling like they got some work to them. They start seeing what they can be.”

Nikita Foster was most proud that her son Thomas won homecoming king because of his academic performance and involvement in athletics and other activities. She adjusted the crown atop his head as he powered on his phone outside the gym. He had thick dreadlocks that wouldn’t accommodate the sparkling headwear. 

Through dual enrollment, Thomas is a high school senior and a sophomore at Mississippi Delta Community College. He hopes to enter the University of Southern Mississippi as a junior kinesiology major and, after graduating, work as an exercise scientist.

“It’s just like a sense of peace and happiness to see them grow up,” Foster said. “I’m so proud.”

Monthslong planning for a royal touch

Many homecoming attendees and title holders prepare their outfits and campaigns months in advance. Edwards High previously boasted pyrotechnics as part of the homecoming display in the gym, contracting with a local decorator who made use of her contacts.

Jazlyn Hopkins had a designer in nearby Indianola make a custom dress for her daughter. She wanted her daughter to feel “glamorous.”

By the time the designer, Chezzrae Fowler Parker, began working on Jaiilah’ dress in September, other parents started calling about her custom gowns. A photograph of a lapis dress she made for a Gentry High School senior last spring lingered in some of their minds, and on their social media timelines.

The night of homecoming, administrators connected the clasps on the flowing gold and emerald robes worn by the king, Antwan Brinkley, and Jaiilah, the queen. They initiated a dance to the R & B record, “Hey Girl.” The attendants followed the steps of a choreographed waltz.

The evening ended with speeches from the king and queen, and announcements from principal Errick Lakes.

Elementary and middle school boys in black-and-grey patterned tuxedo jackets and Venetian masks met their families outside. Blown-up photos of King Thomas and Queen Jaiilah were unfurled at the back auditorium entrance.

Parents and neighbors captured the queen’s prance down the black carpet. Their focus was kept until the last beat. When the pageant came to a close, spectators fumbled through their purses and pockets for their car keys and made the rounds of relatives and former classmates.

The Edwards High parking lot was full by the court’s last dance. Cars were parked wherever people could find a spot, sometimes diagonally in front of double parked vehicles. Some slipped out of the gym early to avoid the rush of sedans and trucks — and the possibility of a fender-bender.

One mother gave directions to a cousin unaccustomed to squeezing out of a tight parking spot. 

“It’s a town of 2,000. It never gets this packed,” she said.

The car eased out, nearly nicking a Pontiac sedan and illuminated parents and attendants with its crimson taillights. Engines roared, and teen queens in floor-length gowns lifted their hoop skirts off the dirt road home.