Beauty Emerges From Struggle In Memphis
The designation of Memphis as “Grind City” seems fairly well-entrenched at this point. The city’s modern image as a decidedly working-class place synonymous with struggle …
Civil Rights
Celebrating Freedom in Benton County on the Fourth of July
Benton County, Mississippi has always been a rough place. Formed out of part of Marshall and Tippah counties, it sits in the middle of the …
Big Don Valentine and the Hollywood All-Stars at a Fayette County, Tennessee Juke
Juke joints are a dying breed, but they loom large in blues history as well as in the popular image of blues culture. Eagerly sought …
A Delta Journey: A Chilly Homecoming in Grambling
When I woke up in West Monroe, the first thing I noticed was how extremely chilly it was, and that didn’t improve all that much …
Catfish’s Big Day in Belzoni
I had no phone service at all while I was at Swiftown, but as I approached Belzoni, my phone started ringing. Blues musician Duwayne Burnside, …
Brunch on Full Blast and Murals in the Bywater
Sunday morning, Darren Towns and I headed over to yet another new breakfast spot in New Orleans, this one in a familiar location, 139 South …
The Brunswick Picnic and the Independent Order of Pole Bearers
The modern concept of life insurance did not come to the South until after the Civil War, and when it did come, the early Southern …
A Death In The Delta: Tallulah’s Tragic Decline
In my childhood, Interstate 20 east ended at Waverly, Louisiana, which I remember as a railroad crossing with a store (where we would stop for …
The Last Hurrah For Foote Homes and Booker T. Washington High
When the United States Department of Education complained about the location of Memphis’ all-Black Kortrecht High School in the middle of a noisy, smokey rail …
Remembering Howlin’ Wolf in West Point, MS
West Point, Mississippi is the northern point of what is commonly called the Golden Triangle (the other two points are Starkville and Columbus), and not …