John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson was perhaps the most influential harmonica player in the 1940s. His untimely and violent death in the late 1940s cut his career short, however, and he missed out on the 1950s blues scene in Chicago. In 2012, journalist Dan Morris wrote this article about his memorial in Tennessee…
We need input from everyone who attended and participated in the 2024 Homecoming Festival. Please answer the next series of questions to help the MS John Hurt Foundation and Mt. Zion Memorial Fund provide the best possible experience in the future…
The Mt Zion Memorial Fund (MZMF) is partnering with the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation (MJHF) to present a two-day celebration of the life and musical legacy of Carroll County native Mississippi John Hurt on October 5-6, 2024. The event will take place on the former site of the Mississippi John Hurt Museum, which burned to the ground in February on County Road 109 in the Avalon community of Carroll County.
This blog post details our efforts to memorialize Blind Roosevelt Graves in Mississippi City Cemetery in Gulfport, MS. the dedication will be held on August 10, 2024.
In 2024, the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund started to conduct historical research on perhaps the most important historic site in Clarksdale—the Riverside Hotel, and this blog post explains how you can be a part of the participatory research process!
In this re-published article from the Jackson Clarion Ledger, one journalist finds the mystery surrounding the blues trail marker honoring legendary bluesman Mississippi John Hurt and the cause of the Mississippi John Hurt Museum fire as winding as the maze of narrow roads that crisscross the eastern edge of the Delta.
Please give a huge congratulations to our very own vice president, Shannon Evans, for receiving the Oakley Award from the Board of Trustees of the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS).
Shannon Evans is dedicated to preventing the silencing of African American History as the Vice President of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, which is nominating her for the 2023 Oakley Award from the Association of Gravestone Studies.
Since the pandemic derailed our original campaign, the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund has renewed its campaign to mark the grave of Roosevelt Graves in Gulfport, MS
In this republished ProPublica article, Seth Freed Wessler explains that, despite layers of federal and state regulations nominally intended to protect culturally significant sites, the expansion of a Microsoft data center inspired authorities in Virginia to desecrate a historic cemetery.
