Editing Clarksdale, Mississippi (section)

==Arts and culture==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2009}}

===Delta Blues Museum===
{{main | Delta Blues Museum}}
[[File:Delta Blues Museum.jpg|right|thumb|Delta Blues Museum]]
[[File:Juke Joint Festival, Clarksdale, Mississippi.jpg|thumb|right|Juke Joint Festival at Delta Cinema in Clarksdale]]
In late 1979, Carnegie Public Library Director Sid Graves began a nascent display series which later became the nucleus of the [[Delta Blues Museum]].<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/23/arts/muddy-waters-s-imprint-on-mississippi.html |title=Muddy Waters's Imprint on Mississippi |author=Robbert Palmer |date=April 23, 1988 |access-date=October 4, 2009 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Graves single-handedly nurtured the beginnings of the museum in the face of an indifferent community and an often recalcitrant Library Board, at times resorting to storing displays in the trunk of his car when denied space in the library. When the fledgling museum was accidentally discovered by [[Billy Gibbons]] of the rock band [[ZZ Top]] through contact with Howard Stovall Jr., the Delta Blues Museum became the subject of national attention as a pet project of the band, and the Museum began to enjoy national recognition.

In 1995, the museum, at that time Clarksdale's only attraction,{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} grew to include a large section of the newly renovated library building, but remained under the tight control of the Carnegie Library Board, who subsequently fired Sid Graves, at the time seriously ill. Graves died in [[Hattiesburg, Mississippi]], in January 2005. In an interim move from the renovated Library building, the Museum spent most of 1996 in a converted retail storefront on Delta Avenue under the direction of a politically connected Wisconsin native, the late Ron Gorsegner. In 1997–1998, Coahoma County finally provided funds to form a separate Museum Board of Directors composed mainly of socially prominent, local white blues fans; and to renovate the adjoining [[Illinois Central Railroad]] freight depot, providing a permanent home for the Delta Blues Museum.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

===Mississippi Blues Trail markers===
[[File:WROX Building ~ Clarksdale, MS.JPG|thumb|right|A Blues Trail marker at the [[WROX (Clarksdale)|WROX]] building in Clarksdale.<ref name="MBT">{{cite web| title = WROX – Clarksdale| publisher = Mississippi Blues Commission| url = http://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/wrox}}</ref> The site is also list on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Coahoma County, Mississippi|National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Mississippi – Coahoma County | publisher = American Dreams | url = http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/ms/coahoma/state.html}}</ref>]] Several [[Mississippi Blues Trail]] markers are located in Clarksdale. One is located on Stovall Road at a cabin believed to have been lived in by McKinley Morganfield, also known as [[Muddy Waters]]. Morganfield supposedly lived there from 1915 until 1943, while he worked on the large Stovall cotton plantation, before moving to Chicago after mistreatment at the hands of a Stovall overseer.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

Another Blues Trail marker is located at the Riverside Hotel, which provided lodging to blues entertainers passing through the delta.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.atlantamagazine.com/uploadedFiles/Atlanta/Travel/November07%20Travel.pdf |title=Great Southern Getaways – Mississippi |website=Atlantamagazine.com |access-date=May 31, 2008 |last=Cloues |first=Kacey |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080918201642/http%3A//www%2Eatlantamagazine%2Ecom/uploadedFiles/Atlanta/Travel/November07%2520Travel%2Epdf |archive-date=September 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues_trail/ | title=Mississippi Blues Commission – Blues Trail | website=Msbluestrail.org | access-date=May 28, 2008}}</ref> In 2009, a marker devoted to Clarksdale native [[Sam Cooke]] was unveiled in front of the New Roxy Theater.

=== Clarksdale Walk of Fame ===
Established in 2008, the [[Clarksdale Walk of Fame]] are plaques located in downtown which honor notable people from Clarksdale. Honorees include [[John Lee Hooker]], [[Ike Turner]], [[Muddy Waters]], and [[Sam Cooke]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPsG6vFFfUoC&q=Clarksdale+Walk+of+Fame+john+lee+hooker&pg=PA129|title=Explorer's Guide Memphis & the Delta Blues Trail: A Great Destination (Explorer's Great Destinations)|last1=Gage|first1=Justin|last2=Gage|first2=Melissa|publisher=The Countryman Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-58157-923-9|pages=129|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://memphismagazine.com/February-2011/Clarksdale-Moving-Past-the-Crossroads/|title=Clarksdale: Moving Past the Crossroads|date=March 3, 2011|website=Memphis magazine|language=en-us}}</ref>