Roosevelt Graves Memorial Dedication
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.
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Research is Respect: The Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, MS
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!
Saga Unfolds in Hurt Museum Fire & Historical Marker
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.
Shannon Evans Wins Oakley Award!
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).
Hostility & Hatred
In October 2023, MZMF field agent Joe Austin attended the Mississippi John Hurt Memorial Walk to witness the dedication of the historical marker at St. James MB Church Cemetery. In this blog post, he explains how hostility and hatred have inhibited efforts to preserve African American history in Carroll County, MS.
The 97 Festival
The third installment of Tim Kendall’s “Story from the Heart” explores the development of the 1997 Sunflower River Blues Festival. Featuring the return performance of Clarksdale native Ike Turner, who headlined the event at his own expense, the event proved a milestone in the history of blues tourism in the Mississippi Delta.
I Went Down to The Crossroads
Tim Kendall and Bill Barth bought ‘The Crossroads’ bar in Clarksdale under the impression that there was some kind of tourist industry in the Delta. In the second installment of this series, Kendall explains the nature of the Mississippi tourist industry–which did not include the entire Mississippi Delta, let alone Clarksdale.
Shannon Evans – Oakley Award Nomination
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.