Rose Hill

Mary “Monk” Gordon and Reverend Isaac Thomas were two of the most important leaders in the Rose Hill community, fifteen miles southeast of Vicksburg. Gordon told me that her grandmother was a slave who walked from Natchez to the Rose Hill community. She and many of Gordon’s other ancestors are buried on the hillside around Rose Hill Church.

Mary Gordon often sang church hymns while working in her garden or doing housework and was deeply attached to the history of Rose Hill Church.

Reverend Isaac Thomas lived in Vicksburg and preached at Rose Hill Church on the first Sunday of every month. He served four churches by preaching in one each Sunday of the month. During his childhood he preached funerals for animals that died, so it was only natural that as an adult he entered the ministry. He was the last in a line of preachers who served Rose Hill Church for over 150 years.

Parchman Penitentiary

Parchman Penitentiary is an 18,000-acre penal farm located in the heart of the Delta. For many years, Parchman was farmed with mules driven by white and black convicts. Inmates were segregated, and one of the largest black camps was Camp B, which was located near the community of Lambert.

During the summer of 1968 I visited Camp B and recorded and filmed black inmates chopping wood to the rhythm of work chants, a musical tradition that originated in West Africa. From five to fifteen men lifted their axes in unison and chopped wood to the beat of a work chant called by a leader who faced them. Verses in the chant described inmates who escaped from Parchman by swimming the Sunflower River to confuse the trailing bloodhounds, prisoners who returned their hoes to the “Captain” and refused to work, and a beautiful woman named Rosie who waited outside the camp for her man.

Clarksdale

For over a century, house parties have nurtured blues musicians and dancers in the Mississippi Delta. Each Friday and Saturday night, an audience gathers to hear a bluesman play his guitar or piano and sing. The guitar player may be accompanied by a harmonica player, a drummer, and a musician who rubs a broom handle across the floor to provide rhythm. As the evening progresses, audience members sing along with their own verses and tell stories as part of the performance.

Beale Street

It is said that the two capitals of Mississippi are New Orleans and Memphis. When blacks moved north to escape the Delta, Memphis was their first destination. And in Memphis, Beale Street was the celebrated hub of music and nightlife.

As musicians aspired to successful careers, they bought stylish clothes for their stage performances. Lansky Brothers clothing store on Beale Street provided suits for both B. B. King and Elvis Presley when they launched their careers.

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All images from the William R. Ferris Collection, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, unless otherwise noted.