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NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMI MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY REFUSE TO FOLD BLUES HERITAGE TOURISM AND THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA BRIAN DAVIS DEMPSEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE DECEMBER 2009 UMI Number: 3391704 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3391704 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. uest ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 REFUSE TO FOLD: BLUES HERITAGE TOURISM AND THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA APPROVED: Graduate Committee: Carroll Van West, Ph.D., Dissertation Director x74 / C. Brenden Martin, Ph.D., Dissertation Committee Kristine McCusker, Ph.D., Dissertation Committee Uh* Susan Myers-Shirk, Ph.D., Dissertation Committee CA. ^Au^J^yZl^L^K^ Amy Seward, Ph.D.,/£hair of the History Department (|A^M0.G£&^/ Michael D. Allen, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Graduate Studies ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Dr. Carroll Van West and the staff at the Center for Historic Preservation for their commitment to my project and for years of academic and professional support. This dissertation began with a timely conversation I had with Dr. West about changes taking place in my native Mississippi. Four and a half years later I can only hope that this project touches upon a few of the important issues and challenges facing Mississippi as it attempts to reconcile and reconstruct its complex historical identity. Finally, I thank my family and Ellen for your unending support and for seeing me through this and all projects I undertake. I am indebted to each one of you for your love, humor, and inspiration, and for always helping me 'keep my eye on the prize.' I dedicate this dissertation to all of you. iii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the development and use of blues history and culture within modern heritage tourism efforts in Mississippi. I argue that a constructed blues narrative now serves as a powerful agent within Mississippi's modern identity. Reaping the economic benefits of blues tourism, many Mississippi Delta towns actively promote their ties to musicians such as Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. This development reflects post-World War II trends in the South, whereby distinctive regional cultures serve as commodities within struggling economies. In the Delta, the historical inequalities between black and white, severe poverty, health disparities, and the limits of economic revitalization through heritage tourism and casino gambling all present challenges to a state eagerly attempting to revise a historical legacy associated with racial oppression, separation, and violence. A key topic of consideration remains the degree to which local African American communities are part of the management and construction of blues tourism narratives in the Delta. As an extension of Chapter Four, I collaborated with fellow PhD candidate, Angela Smith, to produce a documentary film titled, REFUSE TO FOLD: THE BLUE FRONT CAFE AND MISSISSIPPI BLUES HERITAGE TOURISM. This project analyzes a juke joint in Bentonia, Mississippi and situates it within a larger process of heritage tourism development throughout the state. By examining a living community and physical space in Mississippi, this film provides an aural and visual complement to the research and analysis presented in chapters 1-3. The modern fascination with blues culture in the South is often connected to historical mythologies that reify and confound iv the lived experiences of blues practitioners and the diverse communities they represent. Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes, owner of the Blue Front, therefore serves as the film's central voice, revealing a complex narrative about blues music expression, Mississippi race relations, and cultural commodification. v CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF FIGURES vii Introduction: REFUSE TO FOLD 1 Chapter 1. HERITAGE TOURISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY SOUTH 10 2. DELTA HISTORY ..43 3. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MODERN BLUES TOURISM LANDSCAPE IN MISSISSIPPI 68 4. NEW MEDIA AND THE MISSISSIPPI BLUES HERITAGE TRAIL 98 5. A NEW HERITAGE 120 BIBLIOGRAPHY 137 APPENDICES 150 APPENDIX A 151 APPENDIX B 183 APPENDIX C 194 vi FIGURES Introduction: 1. Brian Dempsey, Old Hickory from the Outside, 2007 8 2. Brian Dempsey, Old Hickory on the Inside, 2007 9 Chapters: 1.1 Brian Dempsey, Mississippi Blues Commission Blues Heritage Trail site for Robert Johnson. Little Zion M.B. Church. Greenwood, Mississippi, 2007 24 1.2 Brian Dempsey, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour at the first Blues Commission Trail Marker unveiling ceremony for Charley Patton, 2006 42 2.1 Library of Congress, Hopson Plantation, near Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi. Marion Post Wolcott. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, LC-USF33- 030948-M2, 1940 44 2.2 Brian Dempsey, Dockery Plantation Site, outside Cleveland, Mississippi, 2006 55 2.3 David Evans, Jack Owens on his front porch in Bentonia, Mississippi, ca. 1960. Photo courtesy of Professor David Evans, University of Memphis 66 3.1 Library of Congress, Mississippi Sharecropping Family, Marion Post Wolcott. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, LC- USF33-030572-M5 DLC, 1939 95 4.1 Brian Dempsey, View of the Blue Front Cafe, located between a former grocery store and a former cotton gin, Bentonia, Mississippi, 2006 99 4.2 Brian Dempsey, Exterior view of the Blue Front Cafe. Jimmy "Duck" Holmes plays guitar on the porch, 2006 110 4.3 Brian Dempsey, Interior view of the Blue Front Cafe, 2006 Ill 4.4 Angela Smith, This image displays the interview context inside the Blue Front Cafe. Pictured are Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Brandon Dempsey (sound engineer), and Brian Dempsey, 2008 114 vii 4.5 Brian Dempsey, Side one of the Mississippi Blues Commission Blues Trail Marker. Blue Front Cafe, 2008 115 4.6 Brian Dempsey, Reverse side of the Blue Front Cafe MBC Blues Trail Marker, 2008 116 5.1 National Park Service, National Park Service Arrowhead logo and National Heritage Area sign 121 viii 1 INTRODUCTION REFUSE TO FOLD: HERITAGE TOURISM AND THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA In October 2006,1 began working as a fieldworker for the Mississippi Blues Heritage Trail Project. Within a partnership between Middle Tennessee State University's Center for Historic Preservation (CHP) and the Mississippi Blues Commission, I agreed to contribute research related to historic highway marker placement throughout Mississippi. As a new Ph.D. student at MTSU's Center for Historic Preservation, I was also fortunate enough to begin my dissertation work through this experience as a fieldworker for the trail. Spending countless hours in the summer heat, I criss-crossed the state searching for small chunks of land that would anchor a new effort to document, celebrate, and profit from Mississippi's blues history. I was born in the Mississippi Delta and lived there until I was ten years old, so going back as a working historian has been rewarding and challenging. I remember as a kid the distinct racial barriers that existed in my town. There were, and still are, two sides of the tracks in this and other Delta towns: a white side and a black side. Race sits in the Delta like a humid cloud. Its presence is constant but with myriad shades of intensity. Black and white (though separated by a railroad line of demarcation) move among each other in daily routines. Each is familiar with and ignorant of one another. It is quite easy for a resident of this fascinating place to take for granted the economic, political, and social inequities that exist between the black and white populations. Seemingly, this is how it's always been on this flat, agricultural landscape. The land itself creates identities and memories. Making a giant half-oval through upper Mississippi from Memphis down to Vicksburg, the Delta drips with heat, 2 mosquitoes, cotton, rice, train tracks, and wide view-sheds that hover above brown gravel roads snaking the flatland. A cotton field that butted up against my neighborhood was also home to a small patch of woods we called 'Old Hickory.' It's been this way since my mother was a child in the same neighborhood. We were forbidden to go to Old Hickory as kids because that's where the teenagers hung out. The combination of a cool name and the fact that we were not supposed to go there imbued this place with a sense of magic. We'd sneak off through the cotton field and ease up to the edge of Old Hickory to see what lurked inside. You could hear it from a distance; sounds of three-wheelers, go-carts, and motorcycles, humming in the middle of the wood cover. Peering closer, we'd see trails in all directions with jumping pits and water hazards and older kids flying by on their machines. It seemed to teem with activity any time I looked at those woods from the road and even now, with distance and the knowledge that these are simply a few muddy trails running through a tiny patch of woods, this place retains a sense of mystery for me. Inexplicably Old Hickory stands in a giant cotton field, uncut and protective of the secrets we created for it as kids. When I'm doing fieldwork down there, I still go to look inside and snap some pictures.