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June-2012-Portfoliocompressed.Pdf The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta Sponsored By: The National Endowment for the Humanities Presented By: The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University Director: Dr. Luther Brown Coordinator for Student & Community Outreach: Lee Aylward Faculty: Mark Bonta, Henry Outlaw, Reggie Barnes, John Strait, Charles Wilson, Charles McLaurin, Scott Baretta Portfolio Created By: Minhazul Islam Robertson Scholar Duke University, Class of 2015 For More Information: Please visit the Delta Center website: www.blueshighway.org Or e-mail Dr. Luther Brown: [email protected] Delta Center for Culture & Learning Dr. Luther Brown (Director) [email protected], 662-846-4310 Welcome from the Director Dear Colleagues The Mississippi Delta is simultaneously a unique place and a place that has influenced the American story like no other. This paradox is summed up in two simple statements. Historian James Cobb has described the Delta as "The most Southern place on earth." At the same time, the National Park Service has said "Much of what is profoundly American- what people Dr. Luther Brown (Director) love about America- has come from Delta Center for Culture and Learning the delta, which is often called 'the Delta State University cradle of American culture.'" This is the Mississippi Delta: a place A place that has produced powerful political of paradox and contrast, a place leaders, both for and against segregation. A described by Will Campbell as being place in which apartheid has been replaced "of mean poverty and garish by empowerment. A place of unquestioned opulence." A place that has artistic creativity that has given the world produced great authors yet both the Blues and rock 'n' roll, and is also continues to suffer from illiteracy. A home to Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, place that has produced great Bobby Gentry, Sam Cooke, Mose Allison and wealth for a few but persistent B. B. King. This is the Mississippi Delta, a poverty for many. A place of microcosm of America, the most American privilege for some and disadvantage place on earth. for others. The Delta has played an enormous You will learn about Senator James O. Eastland, and much undervalued role in the powerful advocate for segregation, and Mrs. Fannie American story. It has given the Lou Hamer, sharecropper and equally powerful world much in terms of music, advocate for integration, who lived five miles from literature, journalism, political each other in totally different and separate worlds action, foodways, and even sports that were entirely co-dependent on one another. heroes. It is the ancestral home of You will learn the tragic story of fourteen year old many Americans who today live in Emmett Till, and how his lynching sparked the civil metropolitan areas like Detroit or rights movement. You will learn the stories of Chicago or Oakland. It has played Mound Bayou, founded by former slaves as an all- an important role in changing black enclave, and called by President Teddy America's attitude towards human Roosevelt "The Jewel of the Delta." You will learn and civil rights. At the same time, how the Mississippi River created the Delta and many Americans do not really how the great flood of 1927 destroyed it. You will know where the Mississippi Delta learn about how waves of Russian Jews, French and is, and places far from the Delta Germans, Lebanese, Italians and Chinese now claim its rightful title to being immigrated to the Delta. You will learn about the the "birthplace of the Blues." clearing of the wilderness, the arrival of railroads, cotton, plantations, sharecropping, small towns, the The National Endowment for the Blues and Gospel, and the Great Migration to the Humanities has made it possible North, East and West. for you to explore the Mississippi Delta. You will learn the stories Most importantly, you will learn about sense of that have given this place such a place as you study the place itself as a text. We will unique flavor, a mystique unlike learn history where it happened as we move across any other place in America. You the Delta, stopping at sites that tell stories. We will will learn about Charley Patton, read what has been called "the invisible landscape," the Father of the Delta Blues, and the hidden landscape of stories from the past, as Robert Johnson, who may or may we learn about events that transpired in particular not have sold his soul to the devil places and how they changed America. in return for guitar virtuosity. While doing these things, you will also have the opportunity to taste Delta foods, from fried catfish and okra and barbecue to fried dill pickles and maybe even Kool-Aid pickles if you are bold enough. And of course you will By the end of the workshop, you will understand listen to the music of the Delta, how the Mississippi Delta can be both "The most the Blues of Muddy Waters, Southern place on earth," and "the cradle of Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Charley American culture." Patton, and Willie Brown, and also the music of Ike Turner, Eric If you are like most people, you will return home Clapton and Led Zeppelin, among with stories that you will tell your classes for the others. rest of your life. And you will gain new respect for the power and the poetics of place. You will also learn from the Delta's landscape, the vast sweep of flat, Let me end with some information about the Delta fertile ground that continues center and workshops. We were funded through today to produce an agricultural the NEH Landmarks program in 2009 and 2010, bounty, formerly based on cotton, and you will find portfolios for all of these and now based on corn, soybeans workshops at links below this message. You can and rice. also see the outline of our workshop on the music and musicians of Mississippi, and the syllabus for a You will also have the opportunity class we offer Delta teachers. The Music workshop to visit some of our nation's great was funded by NEH through the Mississippi museums, including the National Humanities Council. We have also presented two Civil Rights Museum, the Stax versions of what we call "The Three R's of the Museum of American Soul Music, Mississippi Delta: Roads, Rivers and Railways," with and the brand new B.B. King support from the National Geographic Society and Museum and Delta Interpretive the Mississippi Geography Alliance, and we often Center. present short workshops for local teachers on various subjects. Finally, you will work with your colleagues to discover how other I hope you participate in this summer's programs places, including your own, can be and look forward to your application. The links read as texts, and how you can below will lead you to further information about return to your own place to teach the workshops. others how to read their place as text. Sincerely, Dr. Luther Brown The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta Table of Contents PROGRAM SUMMARY Page 5 - 60 DIRECTORY Page 61 - 66 EVALUATIONS Page 67-70 LESSON PLANS Page 71 1 Page Delta Center for Culture & Learning Dr. Luther Brown (Director) [email protected], 662-846-4310 The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta The Daily Itinerary Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Begin End June 24 June 25, June 26 June 27 June 28 June 29 June 30 7:30 8:00 Dockery, The Bus ride to Crossroads, Memphis 8:00 8:30 Registration Bus to and Fannie with 8:30 9:00 Greenville Lou Hamer's Tour of discussion Gravesite, Mound onboard Introduction Bayou 9:00 9:30 with Dr. and stop to the Discussion of Edgar Smith at the workshop the Delta Guest Emmett Clarksdale and Chinese Bus ride to Scholar: The 9:30 10:00 Till and To Greyhound overview of Indianola Delta in Kill a Station the week Diaspora Mockingbi and role of Greenville's rd with 10:00 10:30 Staff B.B. King Cotton Black Henry Museum, Museum Graveyard Outlaw "Where the 10:30 11:00 Southern Charles LaLee's 11:00 11:30 crosses the McLaurin Stax Kin: the Arrival and Discussion Dog, " Museum 12:00 Legacy of check in of the Delta Charley of Discussion 11:30 (Noon Cotton Discussion Jews Patton's American ) gravesite. Soul Music Flood of 1927 12:00 12:30 Lunch Museum Lunch (Four Way Lunch 12:30 1:00 Lunch Bus Grill) Bus 1:00 1:30 bus to Curriculum/ Lunch Little Zion Lesson Discussion 1:30 2:00 Church plans due led by Comparing 2:00 2:30 Reggie The Delta to Barns, Lunch National Panel your Place- former Civil Rights 2:30 3:00 discussion a facilitated Superintend- Guest Museum of Till case discussion. ent, West Scholar: the 3:00 3:30 Tallahatchie Guest Scholar: origin and MAKE County Religious and evolution of YOUR OWN 3:30 4:00 Bus to Schools Cultural the blues MOJO and important Reception History of the Peabody 4:00 4:30 Bus wrap up Delta: Charles sites in the Hotel 2 at Martin Till story 4:30 5:00 and Sue Levee break Reagan Bus Ride Please DO Page Delta Center for Culture & Learning Dr. Luther Brown (Director) [email protected], 662-846-4310 The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, Culture, and History in the Mississippi Delta King site at Wilson Emmett home, with NOT plan Railroad Mounds Till discussion departures 5:00 5:30 Museum, Landing and Intrepid earlier than Cleveland Great River Center 4pm.
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