It was over 40 years ago that Malcolm White and some of his friends invented Jackson’s St. Paddy’s Day Parade.
It was a dubious start. They snarled afternoon rush hour traffic in downtown Jackson at 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, March 17, 1983. Drivers were honking, and people were waving. Malcolm was thinking everybody was really getting into the spirit of things. The reality was commuters just wanted the paraders to get out of the way, so they could get home. Afterwards, the parade was moved to the Saturday following St. Patrick’s Day.
From such humble beginnings come great things. The event is way more than a makeshift parade now. “The parade” takes up a weekend and then some. Especially when you factor in the annual Sweet Potato Queens reunion prior to the parade. And yes, the Sweet Potato Queens were invented in that first parade. Sweet Potato Queen Jill Connor Brown donned her queen’s sash, rode in the back of a pickup truck, and tossed sweet potatoes to bystanders.
Veteran Jackson newsman Bert Case told Malcolm White after that first parade that it would never catch on. Bert was the Grand Marshal of the 25th annual parade, by the way.
If you have never been to a St. Paddy’s Parade in Jackson, try to make it on the 23rd of this month. Get downtown early enough to grab a good spot. Cleverly designed floats and marchers all decked out as their favorite fairy tale character or action-adventure hero or whatever else they can come up with, pass by for an hour or so tossing beads and trinkets.
Downtown Jackson becomes a reunion Mecca the Saturday of the parade. Families or fraternities or businesses stake out a plot of real estate the Friday afternoon before — preferably somewhere with space around it, like the median of Court Street, where there’s room to put up a tent and set up a grill and a table. By midmorning Saturday, the cookers are at work turning out masterpieces of culinary delight. You can count on barbecued “something,” with beans, potato salad, and liquid refreshments on the side. I’ve never been offered anything to eat that I didn’t like while walking the parade route. The only other time downtown Jackson smells this good is during the Mississippi State Fair with all the food vendors cooking at the fairgrounds.
I have covered the parade for television many times, most recently with my friends at WJTV for the past several years. But this year I am honored to have been selected as the parade’s Grand Marshal.
St. Paddy’s isn’t just foolishness. The benefactor of funds raised by the parade is Children’s of Mississippi, the state’s only children’s hospital.
I have covered the parade for television many times, most recently with my friends at WJTV for the past several years. But this year I am honored to have been selected as the parade’s Grand Marshal. The theme is “Telling Mississippi’s Story.” I’m assuming that’s why I am Grand Marshal this year. I’ve been doing just that on television for the past 40 years. Or it could just be the Luck of the Irish.
