The Marianna Cut-Off: Singing the Blues in Hughes
The St. Francis County, Arkansas town of Hughes looms large in the blues world. Alan Lomax visited in 1959, recording musicians like William Brown, Roland …
ghost town
A Delta Afternoon: The Sad Death of Parkin
The Cross County, Arkansas town of Parkin is yet another rural town ravaged by Arkansas’s forced school consolidation law. The loss of its local schools …
A Void in Vaiden
Vaiden, Mississippi is a town on Highway 51 in Carroll County, and since 1873, the county seat of the second judicial district of that county. …
The Remnants of Hulbert, Arkansas
Crittenden County, Arkansas, despite being across the river from Memphis, has struggled to develop over the years. Although there were frequent attempts to develop a …
Slow Times In Swiftown
About halfway between Morgan City and Belzoni on Mississippi Highway 7 is a wide spot in the road called Swiftown. It consists of a couple …
Loss And Abandonment At Morgan City, Mississippi
Just outside of a town called Morgan City, Mississippi, I spied what appeared to be a large historic home across the flat fields near the …
The Forgotten Town of Austin, Mississippi
Tunica County, Mississippi once had dreams of greatness. After all, it bordered the most important navigable stream in North America, and had some raised hills …
The Lost Town of Mercer and the Bridges at The End of the Road
In December of 1979 or so, my parents had taken me to Jackson, Tennessee for my birthday. We had eaten at the Old English Steak …
To New Orleans Across The Mississippi Delta
Originally, I was to have headed out to New Orleans on Saturday, which would have enabled me to go to Houma for a parade with …
Remembering Phelix High School and the Town of Sunset
Segregation of the races was the law in most of the Southern United States from around 1890 on, but as the Progressive era dawned in …