Homecoming remains an important enough tradition in the Mississippi 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.

GREENWOOD — A foldable chair is a staple during homecoming season in the Mississippi Delta. It’s your front-row seat for all the homecoming parade offers: music, spectacle and pageantry.

Parade participants rent luxury cars and refashion the tailgates into chariots for rugrat royalty. Students as young as 8 wear crowns and royal get-ups to sit on the hood of a car in a sash.

The float with the Greenwood High School homecoming court is a glorious spectacle. Scarlet capes flutter behind the school’s newly crowned homecoming king Melton Adams and queen Kiyah Davis. Melton boasts a coat encrusted with opalescent jewels, and Kiyah dons a flowing gown with a hoop skirt underneath. Greenwood High School’s prince and princess share a Victorian sofa on a ledge lower. Two oversized strings of pearls trail each side of the float.

The homecoming court along with the less ornate floats and trucks pave the way for the main attraction: Greenwood’s music man and his teen marching band.

Less than 30 minutes before the Greenwood High School band was set to join the parade line, band director Olander Emmons was listening to an upset student who had left his instrument at home and couldn’t participate in the parade. Emmons directed the forlorn teen to the band room. The 17-year-old walked away to get a spare instrument.

Tired of singing the blues

Emmons, like many of his students, joined Greenwood’s band in sixth grade. He played the saxophone, but his first instruments were the drums and then the piano. He learned to play both at church.

Emmons was working as a staffer at the local unemployment office when he ran into his high school band director while grocery shopping at Walmart. She remembered his skill as a music reader. He was already working as an independent musician, playing receptions and churches around the Delta when she scouted him for the band director job. He saw it as an opportunity to develop as an artist and mentor a new generation at his high school alma mater.

He knows how to play most of the instruments in the band, particularly the brass ones. His goal coming into the role three years ago was to write new songs for the band to perform. 

“I wanted the fans to wait in the stands to hear the band,” Emmons said. “And not go to the concession stand.”

A longtime gospel fan, he began listening to more blues music despite his religious upbringing. He felt inspired to incorporate more music from the region into the band’s setlist. Emmons has also tried to develop a “show band” for Greenwood High, incorporating choreography from Lovely Anderson, the dance team coach. 

Emmons said his band has grown from 60 to 125 members since he took over. 

He holds open auditions for the middle and high schools each year, pairing students with instruments. Some instruments like the bassoon require students with longer fingers, while others, such as a trombone, require students with longer arms. He pairs students with instruments for reasons both personal and biological.

Channeling pain through the music

Greenwood High has a poverty rate of almost 82%, according to state data from the 2023-24 school year. Gun violence claims the lives of a disproportionate number of teenagers in the region, a statistic that comes up in conversations with students about transportation after practice as well as in class. Sometimes Emmons’ students share stories from their neighborhoods, and those experiences inspire their own compositions, including recent performances at jamborees across the region.

“Music allows them to be able to vent,” Emmons said.“I hear a lot of kids that go through it. They try to put all the pain into the instruments they play.” 

During the homecoming parade, a hot October sun beat down on the streets of Greenwood as music filled the humid air. Dancers in pink outfits and teenagers in gowns and capes crisscrossed Cotton Street. Teachers and parents walked across cracked roads to their ride to the game.