Mississippi Today (https://mississippitoday.org/author/eshelton/)
Eric J. Shelton is a 2018 corps member in Report for America, a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms, and joined the team as our first photojournalist. Shelton began his photojournalism career with the Associated Press after graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has since worked across Texas and Mississippi as a photojournalist, most recently serving as photo editor of the Killeen Daily Herald. Throughout his career, Shelton has documented issues concerning drug abuse and poverty, and he has won awards from the Mississippi Associated Press Managing Editors and the Arkansas Press Photographers Association.
The competition is a tradition at the Neshoba County Fair that dates back to the early 1900s – a tradition that embodies the racial dynamics of the event
The roots of stickball run deep in Choctaw culture. The fiercely competitive game – played long before there was football, baseball and basketball – is played with sticks and a small orange ball. Mississippi Today photographer Eric J. Shelton captured the action from the World Series of Stickball, played annually at the Choctaw Indian Fair, near Philadelphia, in this slideshow.
Marcus Alford is in Jackson teaching and training dance students during the USA International Ballet Competition. But the former student football trainer who introduced dance stretches to Coach Bear Bryant’s football team is much more than that. This week, Mississippi Today photographer Eric Shelton spent time with the graceful instructor and the dancers as these athletes worked on their craft.
Utica is a rural town that is often overlooked and left out of conversations about economic development. Yet, residents of the town are fighting for its future.