Reagan Begins His 1980 Campaign In Philadelphia, Mississippi
By all accounts Ronald Reagan, who declared in his inaugural address that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," wasn't personally racist. But he repeatedly used a bogus tale about a Cadillac-driving Chicago "welfare queen" to bash big government. And he launched his 1980 campaign with a pro-states'-rights speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a small town whose only claim to fame was the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers.