The Most Southern Place: 2019

Thursday, July 18, 2019

FIRST, READ THE NINE SHORT ESSAYS AVAILABLE ONLINE AND REVIEW THE LINKS HERE. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/551b6cffe4b04e2cba1e2b00/t/5707e8b3e32140e265aec506/1460136232399/Additional+Resources.pdf

At least ONE of the following TWO books:

Barry, John M. 1988. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. New York: Touchstone.

Daniel, Pete. 1997. Deep’n As It Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood. Oxford University Press.

AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR BOOKS:

Cobb, James. 1992. The Most Southern Place on Earth: the Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ferris, William. 2009. Give My Poor Heart Ease. the University of North Carolina Press. NOTE- this book comes with a CD of original field recordings and a DVD of documentary films, at least one of which we will watch during the workshop. It’s a valuable teaching resource.

Willis, John C. 2000. Forgotten Time: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Civil War. Virginia: The University of Virginia Press.

Saikku, Mikko. 2005. This Delta, This Land. University of Georgia Press.

ONE OF THESE FOUR BOOKS:

Crowe, Chris. 2003. Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case. Dial Books.

Curry, Constance. 1995. Silver Rights. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.

Asch, Chris Myers. 2008. The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer. New Press.

Lemann, Nicholas. 1991. The Promised Land: An Account of Sharecropping Families in Their Journey from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago. Pan McMillan.

AND WE ALSO RECOMMEND THESE FOR ANYONE WHO IS ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA:

Dattel, Gene • 2009 • Cotton and Race in the Making of America: the Human Costs of Economic Power • Ivan R. Dee, Publisher.

Faulkner, John • 1942 • Dollar Cotton • A Hill Street Classics Book.

Ferris, William • 1978 • Blues from the Delta • New York: Da Capo Press

Taulbert, Clifton • 1995 • When We Were Colored • New York: Penguin Group.

Beito and Beito • 2009 • Black Maverick • University of Illinois Press

Tyson, Timothy B • 2017 • The Blood of Emmett Till • Simon and Schuster

Wilkerson, Isabel • 2011 • The Warmth of Other Suns • Vintage Press.

Overview of our Week in Videos 7/13/19

Our July group was videotaped the entire week. Take a look at these, I think you will enjoy them.
Look at the July 2019 group.
http://deltacenterdsu.com/photos-portfolios-and-videos

Diaspora and Mojo bags 7/13/19

Our last day of class included a professor from Texas, Dr. John Strait. The discussion included the diasporas evident in the history of this region, our nation and the world.

And then the mojo....
Every place that I have ever visited I have wondered if I would return. Well Lee, our fearless leader and Ol Miss alum, was bound to get us back as we prepared our mojo bags filled with pieces of the Mississippi Delta. We were instructed to put them on our desks and not to open them.

Here is my bag with a list of contents.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Taste of the Day 7/13/19

Each day we had a " taste of the day."
I missed our welcome reception on Sunday because of flight problems. I guess that they had some yummy stuff like pickled okra and pimiento cheese sandwiches. Another day we had tamales that reflected the Mexican heritage here. When asked by someone how long the Mexicans had been in the Delta, Lee said "forever." Hispanic history in this region is obvious here as Cleveland is in Bolivar county. This county was named after the South American liberator Simon Bolivar! Chinese fortune cookies were another daily taste. My favorite taste was pound cake and chicken wings. The weirdest one was koolickles. Dill pickles brined in sugar and Koolaid. It just reminded me of sweet pickles with a twist.

Mississippi Delta Famous People 7/11/19

Marvin Gay wrote one of his songs here.

Morgan Freeman's Blues place in Clarkesdale

The amount of famous people that come from the Mississippi Delta would blow your mind! This is a place of wonder and curiosity.

Martin Luther King Shot Here 7/12/19

We visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenessee. This museum is built around the Lorraine Motel where it is believed to be the location of the killer of Dr. King. The museum was a well constructed and thought out display of the events of the time. It was also a reminder how far we need to go.

It is our responsibility to uphold the American dream for all.

This is a replica of the bathroom through which Dr. King was shot. You can see the targeted area in the previous picture.

Memphis BBQ 7/12/19

I love BBQ! We are at Central BBQ in Memphis.

If you want to see me eating this, go to Memphis Field trip July 2019 http://deltacenterdsu.com/photos-portfolios-and-videos

Stax Museum of Soul Music 7/12/19

Stax Museum in Memphis.

We just so happened upon this interview with Kameron Whalum, member of Bruno Mars band. He also did a dance routine with the audience.

Issac Hayes (Shaft) cadillac

Like and Tina Turner

Sam Cooke

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Cotton Was King 7/12/19

Cotton ruled the Mississippi Delta for years. It created a culture of superiority and enslavement. These days cotton production is a different story here. Many have switched to corn, soy beans or maybe some winter wheat. The United States is third in cotton production. We visited a cotton museum in Memphis today.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Juke Joints 7/11/19

Po Monkeys Jike Joint (now closed) was in the middle of a cotton field.

Current day juke joint is Reds in Clarkesdale.
Also Morgan Freeman owns a place called Ground Zero in the same town.

They Murdered Emmett Till 7/11/19

Many of the blacks who lived here were part of the great migration north. In the summers many people would come back to visit the South. As they came back home, they were reminded of the do's and dont's of this very dangerous area. Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy who was in those shoes as he traveled back here from Chicago with cousins. Emmett whistled at a white woman. The events that unfurled from that incident included getting pulled out of his grandfather's house in the middle of the night, beaten and killed.
His cousin Wheeler had come down from Chicago with him and was in the house when he was taken. We listened to the events from him today. Also in attendance was Devery Anderson, a man who wrote a book about the incident and a pastor from Sumner. Our group sat in the Sumner court house, the very same place where the trial took place.
I cannot begin to explain the emotion of the day. Emmett's murderers were found not guilty even though after the trial they admitted they killed him.
Please read more about this event! Feel free to drop by so I can tell you more.

Sumner Courthouse

Emmett's cousin Wheeler and I

Civil Rights Worker 7/11/19

Today we met a man who was raised in this area who became active in the civil rights movement as a young adult. A turning point for Charles McLaurin was when he was denied entrance in the state fair in Jackson, Mississippi because he was black.
His personal story was riveting as he explained his role in getting black Mississippians to become registered voters.
He talked about the freedom riders, freedom summer, registering black voters and how he became Fannie Lou Hammer's campaign manager. His story would blow your mind...because it was a terrifying look at our nation's true past.