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[[Image:Mississippi Yazoo Delta.jpg|thumb|220px|The shared [[flood plain]] of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers]]
[[Image:Mississippi Yazoo Delta.jpg|thumb|220px|The shared [[flood plain]] of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers]]


The '''Mississippi Delta''' is the distinct northwest section of the state of [[Mississippi]] that lies between the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and [[Yazoo River]]s. Technically not a [[River_delta|delta]] but part of an [[alluvial plain]], it has been said that The Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel (in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]) and ends on Catfish Row in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]]" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but most often [[David Cohen]] is credited with the saying). This region, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil on the planet. It includes [[Washington County, Mississippi|Washington]], [[Humphreys County, Mississippi|Humphreys]], [[Carroll County, Mississippi|Carroll]], [[Issaquena County, Mississippi|Issaquena]], [[Quitman County, Mississippi|Quitman]], [[Bolivar County, Mississippi|Bolivar]], [[Coahoma County, Mississippi|Coahoma]], [[Leflore County, Mississippi|LeFlore]], [[Sunflower County, Mississippi|Sunflower]], [[Sharkey County, Mississippi|Sharkey]], [[Tunica County, Mississippi|Tunica]], [[Tallahatchie County, Mississippi|Tallahatchie]], and [[Yazoo County, Mississippi|Yazoo]] counties.
The '''Mississippi Delta''' is the distinct northwest section of the state of [[Mississippi]] that lies between the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and [[Yazoo River]]s. Technically not a [[River_delta|delta]] but part of an [[alluvial plain]], it has been said that The Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel (in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]) and ends on Catfish Row in [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]]" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but most often [[David Cohen]] is credited with the saying). This region, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil on the planet. It includes [[Washington County, Mississippi|Washington]], [[Humphreys County, Mississippi|Humphreys]], [[Carroll County, Mississippi|Carroll]], [[Issaquena County, Mississippi|Issaquena]], [[Quitman County, Mississippi|Quitman]], [[Bolivar County, Mississippi|Bolivar]], [[Coahoma County, Mississippi|Coahoma]], [[Leflore County, Mississippi|LeFlore]], [[Sunflower County, Mississippi|Sunflower]], [[Sharkey County, Mississippi|Sharkey]], [[Tunica County, Mississippi|Tunica]], [[Tallahatchie County, Mississippi|Tallahatchie]], and [[Yazoo County, Mississippi|Yazoo]] counties.


⚫
== Music ==
The [[Mississippi Delta]] has a mystique of mythological proportions. It was virgin wilderness and swamp at the turn of the [[twentieth century]], cleared for [[cotton]] and [[plantation]] life by the 1930's, dominated by politically powerful gentleman planters, peopled by Black [[sharecroppers]], Italian immigrants, Chinese, Lebanese and Jewish merchants. It is the source of "[[The Great Migration]]" north, and thus the home of the [[African-American]] populations of many Northern cities, like [[Chicago, Illinois]] and [[Detroit, Michigan]].
The Delta is strongly associated with the origins of several genres of popular music, including the [[Delta Blues]], [[Jazz]], and [[Rock and roll|Rock and Roll]], as well as with extreme levels of poverty [http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/confederates/horwitz4.html] [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4675562] [http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/msdelta/pref.htm]. In recent years, due to the growth of the [[automobile]] industry in the South, many parts suppliers have opened facilities in the Delta (as well as on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River, another area of high poverty).


Bluesman [[Robert Johnson]]'s official grave site is at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Morgan City, but it is heavily debated if this is his actual final resting place. There are numerous towns and churches throughout the delta that claim be the site of his grave.
It is the home of the [[blues]], [[gospel]], [[soul food]], the [[civil rights movement]]. It was home to [[Tennessee Williams]], [[Eudora Welty]], [[Richard Wright]], [[Clifton Taulbert]], [[Shelby Foote]], and [[Hodding Carter]]. It is where [[Teddy Roosevelt]] saved the original "[[Teddy Bear]]," and where [[Elvis Presley]] learned to dance and sing and drive a Cadillac. It is the land where [[Muddy Waters]] and [[Robert Johnson]] wrote the lyrics that eventually made the [[Rolling Stones]] and [[Eric Clapton]] famous.

== The South’s South ==

The Delta is the American story, shrunk in time and space. [[William Faulkner]] said it was "deswamped and denuded and derivered in two generations." [[Shelby Foote]] claimed that one could see "a hundred years of history in twenty years in the Delta," and [[James Cobb]] wrote "When it comes to history, the Delta was clearly a region in a hurry."

Analysts from [[Howard Zinn]] to [[James Cobb]] have claimed that the Delta is the South's South, a place where American traits and experience are revealed with blinding clarity. Students of contemporary American culture will not find a better place to explore American history and culture in the field.

== The Mississippi Delta Blues ==

The [[Mississippi Delta]] is generally considered to be the birthplace of the [[blues]], with the new musical form emerging around the turn of the [[nineteenth century]]. But the story of the blues dates back before the [[Civil War]] and to the West coast of [[Africa]] where countless men, women and children were captured by slave traders and shipped across the [[Atlantic Ocean]] for forced labor on Southern [[plantations]].

[[Slaves]] from many African countries carried the songs and music of their respective homelands to America. There, amidst the hard work, fear and oppression, the slaves found a temporary escape in music and expressed both hope and despair in their songs. The musical traditions of numerous African cultures blended as the slaves worked side by side in the steamy fields of the south. Field hollers and work songs were a means of expression and communication — which were often not otherwise allowed by the plantation overseers. With few instruments and little or no money, the slaves used their own voices and clapped percussion as musical tools. Their original methods of creating music became significant elements in the creation of the raw [[Delta Blues]] style.

As slaves — and then freed slaves — became more integrated into American culture, the church became a regular part of their Sundays. While the white churchgoers sang formal hymns, the black Southerners brought their passionate vocals, clapping, stomping, and call-and-response methods of singing into their own churches. By the 1870's the resulting style of song, called the Negro Spiritual, became an integral part of music in the south and was a major influence in the evolution of the blues.

But it wasn't until 1903, when bandleader [[W.C. Handy]] — the self-proclaimed "Father of the Blues" — "discovered" the blues on a train platform in [[Tutwiler, Mississippi]] in the unusual guitar licks of a passing traveler. Handy's composition "[[Memphis Blues]]", published in 1912, was the first to include "blues" in a song title. Handy's "discovery" and promotion of the new style eventually led to acceptance of the blues as a viable musical form and launched it into the mainstream and beyond black folk culture, forever changing the face of American music.

Dusty [[juke joints]] were the main stage for early blues musicians and often the only local source of entertainment for rural blacks. Blues musicians also traveled as part of [[Vaudeville]] or Medicine shows and enthusiasm for the blues spread as the shows commanded huge audiences across the south.

The Mississippi Delta was fertile ground for the roots of the blues. With its history of slavery, racial oppression, the [[Ku Klux Klan]], and [[Jim Crow]] laws, plus baking heat, rampant illiteracy and poverty, the Delta was a cruel place for many African Americans well into the middle of the [[twentieth century]]. The blues documented the experience of southern blacks better than any other form of cultural expression.

The songs and music of the early Delta blues were passed down orally, in written form, and later preserved in field recordings made by traveling ethno-musicologists such as the father and son team of John and [[Alan Lomax]] in the early 1940's. The earliest blues records were made in the 1920's, but very little recording took place in the Mississippi Delta area. Delta blues musicians like [[Charley Patton]] and [[Skip James]] headed to northern cities for recording sessions then returned to their homes in the Delta to continue playing [[juke joints]], country dances, and fish fries.

In the 1920's and '30s Delta bluesmen [[Charley Patton]], [[Son House]], and [[Robert Johnson]] influenced the next generation of Mississippi born blues greats like [[Muddy Waters]], who took the music north as they joined the mass exodus of blacks from the rural south in the '40s and '50s. The acoustic sound of the Delta blues was amplified and electrified in [[Memphis]] and [[Chicago]] to accommodate the tastes of the newly urban black population, and, with the growth of its recording industry, [[Chicago]] eventually eclipsed the Delta as the center of the blues.

The Delta area has produced the largest number of influential and important blues artists and, though never a major center of the music business, it is still the emotional heart of the blues for musicians, fans, travelers, and historians.

[http://www.pbs.org/theblues/roadtrip/deltahist.html/ (from PBS Blues Road Trip)]


== Agriculture and the Delta Economy ==
== Agriculture and the Delta Economy ==
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*[[Muddy Waters]], blues musician
*[[Muddy Waters]], blues musician
*[[B.B. King]], blues musician
*[[B.B. King]], blues musician

⚫
== Museums ==

'''Delta Blues Museum (Clarksdale)'''
*Fans of this original music form will enjoy video, photographs, sound/slide shows, life-size figure of [[Muddy Waters]], the 'All Shook Up' exhibit, live blues music, and [[BB King]]'s guitar - 'Lucille.'

'''Birthplace of Kermit The Frog Exhibit (Leland)'''
*Commemorates the Delta boyhood of [[Jim Henson]], creator of the [[Sesame Street]] characters and his delightful [[Muppets]]. [[Kermit the Frog]] is displayed along with other Henson memorabilia.

'''The Greenwood Blues Heritage Museum (Greenwood)'''
*A showplace dedicated to memory of [[Robert Johnson]] and the other central [[Delta blues]] music artists through the exhibition of photographs and memorabilia.

'''Greenville Air Force Base Museum (Greenville)'''
*From [[World War II]] to the [[Cold War]], Greenville did its part to train the airmen and women who would defend our freedom. This museum tells their story. There is a magnificent history of the base, dating back to [[World War II]] when the Greenville Army Flying School was established.

'''Dockery Plantation (Cleveland)'''
*Dockery Farms accounts for the region's relative importance in the Blues culture. Dockery farms was home base for a family of Blues musicians and is unmatched in significance. The founder and father of this group was the Blues pioneer, [[Charlie Patton]]. Patton's style had a major influence on the music of [[Kid Bailey]], [[Dick Bankston]], [[Willie Brown]], [[Son House]], [[Howlin' Wolf]], and many others.

'''308 Blues Club and Café (Indianola)'''
*The 308 Blues Club and Cafe is nestled within the heart of the Mississippi Delta in Indianola. A place where [[cotton]] is still king and catfish ponds are a plenty... and "Birthplace of the Blues". The 308 Blues Club and Cafe is quickly becoming one of the area's most popular meeting places. Have an evening with us and soak up the Soul of the Mississippi Delta.

'''Catfish Capitol Visitors Center (Belzoni)'''
*The Capitol features hand crafted exhibits by state artisans and members of the renowned Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild. Outside the Capitol, sculptures fashioned from spawning cans, hatchery tanks, and seining nets dot the landscape. Presiding over the outdoor exhibit is Belzoni’s own “King Cat,” the world’s largest [[catfish]].

'''Cottonlandia Museum (Greenwood)'''
*The name is Cottonlandia, but our museum is about so much more than [[cotton]]. Mississippi artwork combines with history - local, military, and agricultural - along with an immense collection of [[Native American]] artifacts to create a museum that has something for everyone to enjoy.

'''Winterville Mounds and Museum (Greenville)'''
*Winterville Mounds, named for a nearby community, is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by a [[Native American]] civilization that thrived from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. The mounds, part of the Winterville society's religious system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies.

'''Tunica Riverpark (Tunica)'''
*Overlooking the [[Mississippi River]] from a harbor on the eastern bank, the museum features informative exhibits, two stories of history including an observation deck and aquariums with native aquatic life. The park also includes a 130-acre riverside forest with walking trails.


== Festivals ==
== Festivals ==
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*[[U.S. Highway 61]] runs from Wyoming, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana
*[[U.S. Highway 61]] runs from Wyoming, Minnesota to New Orleans, Louisiana


==External links==
== Sources ==
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/ Nile of the New World], John Gunther, [[National Park Service]]

== External links ==


*[http://www.visitthedelta.com/ Mississippi Delta Tourism Association]
*[http://www.visitthedelta.com/ Mississippi Delta Tourism Association]
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*[http://www.dra.gov/ Delta Regional Authority]
*[http://www.dra.gov/ Delta Regional Authority]
*[http://www.aboutgreenwoodms.com/ About Greenwood, Mississippi]
*[http://www.aboutgreenwoodms.com/ About Greenwood, Mississippi]
*[http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/ National Park Service - Lower Mississippi Delta Region]


{{Mississippi}}
{{Mississippi}}

Revision as of 13:46, 12 February 2006

For other uses, see [[:the geographic region of the U.S. state of Mississippi]].
The shared flood plain of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers

The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. Technically not a delta but part of an alluvial plain, it has been said that The Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel (in Memphis) and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg" (various writers have been attributed with composing this memorable line, but most often David Cohen is credited with the saying). This region, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil on the planet. It includes Washington, Humphreys, Carroll, Issaquena, Quitman, Bolivar, Coahoma, LeFlore, Sunflower, Sharkey, Tunica, Tallahatchie, and Yazoo counties.

Music

The Delta is strongly associated with the origins of several genres of popular music, including the Delta Blues, Jazz, and Rock and Roll, as well as with extreme levels of poverty [1] [2] [3]. In recent years, due to the growth of the automobile industry in the South, many parts suppliers have opened facilities in the Delta (as well as on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River, another area of high poverty).

Bluesman Robert Johnson's official grave site is at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Morgan City, but it is heavily debated if this is his actual final resting place. There are numerous towns and churches throughout the delta that claim be the site of his grave.

Agriculture and the Delta Economy

For over two centuries, agriculture has been the mainstay of the Delta economy. Sugar cane and rice were introduced to the region from the Caribbean in the eighteenth century. Sugar production was centered in southern Louisiana, along with rice, and later in the Arkansas Delta. Early agriculture also included limited tobacco production in the Natchez area and indigo in lower Mississippi. What began as back bending land clearing by yeoman farmers supported by their extensive families, quickly developed into a labor intensive plantation system based initially on Native American and later on African slave labor in the eighteenth century.

The emergence of the cotton gin revolutionized the production of cotton and by the early 1800's cotton had become the Delta’s premier crop, and would remain so until the Civil War. Though cotton planters believed that the alluvial soils of the Mississippi Delta region would always renew, the agricultural boom from the 1830's to the late 1850's caused extensive soil exhaustion and erosion. Yet, lacking agricultural research, planters continued to raise cotton the same way after the Civil War.

Following the Civil War, sharecropping and tenant farming replaced the slave-dependent, labor intensive plantation system. This labor system inhibited the use of progressive agricultural techniques. In the late 19th century, the clearing and drainage of wetlands, especially in Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel, increased lands available for tenant farming and sharecropping. Lower Delta agriculture evolved during the twentieth century into large farms owned by nonresident corporate entities. These heavily mechanized, low labor, and capital-intensive farm entities, consisting of hundreds and thousands of acres, produce market-driven crops such as cotton, sugar, rice, and soybeans.

During the 1920's—1930's, in the aftermath of the increasing mechanization of Delta farms, displaced whites and African-Americans began to leave the land and move to towns and cities. It was not until the Great Depression years of the 1930's that large scale farm mechanization came to the region, but farm mechanization did not occur overnight in the Delta. The mechanization of agriculture and the availability of domestic work outside the Delta spurred the migration of Delta residents out of the region. Farming was unable to absorb the available labor force and entire families moved together.

From the late 1930's through the l950's, the Delta experienced an agriculture boom, as wartime needs followed by reconstruction in Europe expanded the demand for the Delta region’s farm products. As the mechanization of agriculture continued, women continued to leave the fields and go into service work, while the men drove tractors and worked on the farms. From the 1960's—1990's, thousands of small farms and dwellings in the Delta region were absorbed by large corporate-owned agribusinesses, and the smallest Delta communities have stagnated.

Scattered remnants of the region’s agrarian heritage are scattered along the highways and byways of the lower Delta. Larger communities have survived by fostering economic development in education, government, and medicine. Other endeavors such as catfish, poultry, rice, corn, and soybean farming have assumed greater importance. Today, the monetary value of these crops rivals that of cotton production in the lower Mississippi Delta.

Principal Towns

Famous Deltans

Festivals

Festivals are important to the Mississippi Delta region, allowing each town or community the opportunity to celebrate their unique heritage. Following is a list of various festivals in the Delta:

April

  • World Catfish Festival (Belzoni)
  • Leland Crawfish Festival (Leland)

May

  • Deep Delta Blues Festival (Rolling Fork)
  • River to the Rails Festival (Greenwood)
  • Main Street Arts Festival (Greenville)
  • Summerfest (Hollandale)

June

  • Highway 61 Blues Festival (Leland)

July

  • First Friday Jazz Festival (Greenville)

September

  • Delta Air and Balloon Festival (Greenville)
  • Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival

December

  • Roy Martin Delta Band Festival (Greenwood)

Education

Universities

Community Colleges

  • Mississippi Delta Community College ([6])
  • Coahoma Community College ([7])

Media and Publishing

Newspapers, Magazines and Journals

  • Delta Magazine (published bi-monthly) ([8])
  • Delta Business Journal (published monthly) ([9])
  • Clarksdale Press Register (published daily) ([10])
  • Cleveland Bolivar Commercial (published daily) ([11])
  • Greenville Delta Democrat Times (published daily) ([12])
  • Greenwood Commonwealth (published daily) ([13])

Television

  • WABG (Greenwood)
  • WXVT (Greenville)

Transportation

Air Transportation

  • Mid-Delta Regional Airport (Greenville)
  • Greenwood-Leflore Airport (Greenwood)
  • Cleveland Municipal Airport (Cleveland)
  • Indianola Municipal Airport (Indianola)
  • Yazoo County Airport (Yazoo City)
  • Fletcher Field Airport (Clarksdale)

Highways

Sources

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