Northern Mississippi

The Great River Road

We continued our trip down the Great River Road. But in this part of the lower Mississippi, we seldom saw the river for two reasons: The river has changed channels many times, leaving swampy lowlands near the river as well as the second largest man-made structure, the levees built on both sides of the river in modern times to control the channel and reduce flooding. We stop at the Tunica River Park for our first view of the river. We arrived before opening time of the museum or the steamboat ride, but we get a look at the sandbars on the river.

Our first major stop was the Tunica, Mississippi museum. As we enter the docent greets us with the brief history of the county: this was the poorest county in the country until the casinos were allowed along the river and attracted the crowds from Memphis. The town has been transformed: this museum, 4 lane highways, new public facilities, and the biggest factor, jobs. The museum told the story of the county from prehistoric to modern times. It was a more personal trip through the history we had seen yesterday in the Civil Rights Museum and worth the stop. The county has been 80% black ever since cotton became the primary crop in the early 1800's. Some interesting factoids: during the civil war, all the money collected for schools, went to the army. The county went without schools until after reconstruction (in the 1870's). Even then the funding for schools was haphazard, largely because most of the land here was in private hands, bought directly from the Indians, rather than the plan through most of the country, where one sixteenth of the land had been devoted by the federal government to support local schools. After the civil war, most of the blacks became share croppers, working the land for a percentage of the crops, but, of course, they got most of their supplies from their landlords and were perpetually in debt. During the civil rights movement, this area escaped most of the violence. But the court decision that integrated schools “now” instead of “with deliberate speed” caused most of the whites to leave the public schools. Even today, the public schools are mostly black with a few poor whites.

Cotton Gin

In the afternoon, we visited the B.B. King Museum providing the story behind this great blues artist. Both his parents had died by age 9 and by age 10 he was living alone until age 14. He began life in the fields, eventually driving a tractor. But when he had an accident with a tractor, he fled to Memphis to try out his talent playing the blues. He would play on amateur night at the Beale Street clubs. After being told that if he got a show on WDIA, the black radio station, he could have a permanent job at the club. He did get that job, which allowed him to advertise where he was playing. His real name is Riley B. King, but he called himself Blues Boy King, which was shortened to B.B. King. His radio show eventually led to traveling the Southern Black circuit, the beginning of his life on the bus (which he still does today). At that time, in the segregated South, the problem was finding rest rooms, restaurants, and hotels which would accept blacks. Rock n Roll was replacing Blues throughout the country in the late 50s and early 60s, but B.B. continued on. In the 60’s he had a date in San Francisco playing for the hippies, his first mostly white audience and he was shocked when he was received with a standing ovation. This began his world-wide career playing the blues for a world-wide audience, including us in Fort Collins a few years ago.

B.B. King on WDIA radio