The Field Is Empty, The Drums Silent
A friend of mine in Senatobia had heard that there might be fife and drum going on at a party on the Compress Road between …
History
Bull Day in Covington’s Frazier Park-A Day of Peace and Community
Orlandus “Bull” Cobbins of Covington, Tennessee was only 29 years old when he was senselessly murdered at a relative’s home by two men who wanted …
Como Revisited
The small Mississippi town of Como in Panola County is a most unlikely dining destination. Traditionally a cotton and market town, Como came by its …
The Marianna Cut-Off: The Old South in Marianna
Lee County, Arkansas was named for Robert E. Lee at its founding, and by its folklore, at the suggestion of a Black resident, which highlights …
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 …
The Marianna Cut-Off: What’s Left of Chatfield
Ghost towns are generally places where it is evident that a town was located at the spot, but in parts of the Arkansas Delta, there …
A Delta Afternoon: The Ghosts of Earle
On September 10, 1970, the Rev. Ezra Greer and his wife, Jackie, who was a candidate for mayor of Earle, Arkansas, led a march from …
A Delta Afternoon: Wynne’s Abandoned Childress High School
I had been told that Wynne, Arkansas once had a number of juke joints in its northwestern section, which was the town’s Black community. But …
Wilson: The Jewel of the Arkansas Delta
The Arkansas Delta has definitely seen better days. The decline of the cotton economy, the loss of industry in the 1980s, and a declining population …
In Search of Harlem Alley
In the spring of 1983, I was going to Central Baptist School in the Bartlett area, and I rode with our basketball team to Forrest …