Dr. Jerry Sanson
Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum
December 2025
Many studies of the World War II home front include information on the dedication of the American people to the war effort. People in Central Louisiana, for example, hosted events for soldiers in training, bought war stamps and bonds, contributed tons of material to scrap drives, volunteered for Civil Defense service, and contributed to the war effort in other ways. Some of their activities, however, created simple entertainment and recalled a normal way of life often put aside from 1941 until 1945.
The Weekly Town Talk (the weekly edition of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk) reported one such activity in its October 21, 1944, edition. A copy of that edition is in the collection of the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum.
Alexandria Junior Chamber of Commerce members noticed the success of the mule races held in Greenwood, Mississippi, every autumn and the national publicity that the races brought to the town. Jaycee members decided to create their own mule races in Alexandria to provide diversion from war news, and incidentally, make money to donate to local charities. The first annual Mule Derby Louisiana was scheduled for Saturday, October 21 at Bringhurst Field baseball park in Alexandria.
Jaycees promoted the event by promising those who attended that “Horsemanship, strategy and finesse in mule handling are required, when the notably stubborn animals are saddled and bridled for a race . . . Patrons will be furnished more excitement in one race than most tracks offer in a season.” In addition, “Racing forms will include gallop, lope, sideway stumbling and other motions known only to a mule and will furnish considerable suspense as to the outcome of each event.” If you have ever attended a donkey basketball game, you probably have an idea of how this event unfolded.
Historians often maintain that World War II affected almost every aspect of the American home front, and it is unarguable that it did, but it is refreshing to read of the Mule Derby Louisiana and the hint of normalcy that such an event brought to wartime life.
