They stood out at the ribbon cutting. Amidst the crowd of local media clamoring to get a photo of Governor Phil Bryant as he opened Yokohama Boulevard, three journalists were not from a local outlet, or even a Mississippi media group. John Larson, Tracy Wholf and Brian Epstein came here to shoot a segment for Public Broadcasting Service’s NewsHour called “Main Street,” which examines small-town America and life for people across the country.

Larson has done this segment all over the nation, from Pueblo, Colorado to Nashau, New Hampshire; Columbus is their seventh stop. He said that Main Street is a metaphor for the middle class, and that they notice common themes along their travels.

“You see resilience, you see faith and you usually see incredibly hard working families,” Larson said.

Since the recession, Larson has also seen how those on Main Street have had to get by with less.

The crew came to document Columbus’ Main Street and Lowndes County’s manufacturing development and were here for about four days.

“There are many cities and towns across the country trying to do the same thing, that aren’t having the ribbon cuttings,” Larson said.

This is the first stop for Larson in his crew in Mississippi and the Deep South. They toured the PACCAR and AirBus factories; they met with the LINK and local governments; they attended this weekend’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations.

Larson said that when touring small-town America, statistics rarely tell the real story.

“Main streets consist of people, and depending on who you speak with, people have very different realities,” Larson said. “Statistics help us understand the challenges. They help us understanding the setting, the issues. But really it’s the people that make the town. You’ve got some extraordinary people here. That’s why the national media comes here.”

Larson started this series with PBS three years ago, during the fever of the 2012 election. Politicians, he said, speak of Main Street all the time. PBS wanted to get a feel for what Main Street meant in America today, and they wanted to know if prominent politicians ever had a true Main Street experience.

“I find Main Street is populated with passionate, hard working Americans,” Larson said. “Some of which are suffering more than others, some of which are enjoying new start-ups and recreating small businesses. It’s a wide, varied, nuanced, American story.”

Main Streets used to be abandoned for malls and sprawl, but Larson said he has noticed that traditional Main Streets seem to be building back up again, and so too is the middle class. Trips like the one to the Golden Triangle allow Larson and his crew to witness American resiliency.

“People trust the American middle class,” Larson said. “We’re the hardest working people in the world, we really are. Americans are resilient, they’re tough. They may be battered, they may have lost their jobs, but there aren’t many quitters out there.”