The Riverside Hotel Community Archive

The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund for Blues, Music, and Justice (MZMF) entered into an agreement in 2024 with the Riverside Hotel African American Historic Preservation Center (RHAAHPC) to conduct historical research and further document the historical significance of perhaps the most important tourist attraction in Clarksdale—the Riverside Hotel, “where blues gave birth to rock and roll.”

To learn more about this collaborative research project, please visit the MZMF research blog HERE

MZMF designed this survey to identify new sources of information about the hospital, hotel, its founder, Mrs. Z. L. Ratliff Hill, and her son, Frank Ratliff, as well as provide donors and blues enthusiasts with an easy method to share information and media about the hotel. We are also looking to interview people about their experiences at the hotel, and we hope to connect the RHAAHPC to blues enthusiasts who stayed at the hotel.

If you have information, photographs, videos, or other media about the hotel, and you would like to share it with the RHAAHPC, please answer the questions in this short survey below. If you provide contact information, we will reach out to you as soon as possible.