May 24, 2024

Clarksdale, MS is about fifteen miles away from Tutwiler. It is the location of the Delta Blues Museum and a bunch of blues clubs. One of the locals once told me that what Clarksdale needs is a place to eat and drink WITHOUT live music. Every year we wind up at Ground Zero Blues Club.

https://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/

Thursday is often Open Stage night, so predictably the level of talent varies. The first couple of performers we saw were not ready for prime time, but then some of the local regulars took the stage.

Stan Street has been part of the Clarksdale scene for who knows how many years. He operates Hambone Art Gallery and performance space a couple blocks away.

https://stanstreet.com/

He brought up a guitarist from up by Sheboygan, Wisconsin dare, who made his own guitar and knew how to play it.

And this guy showed up on the stage as well.

I tried to embed this, but the program will not let me, probably because I signed up for the cheap WordPress plan. Oh, well. If you want to see what we saw, here it is.

https://www.facebook.com/johnthegoatherder/videos/646513681002989

Morgan Freeman lives in Clarksdale and is a part-owner of the club.

There are flags from all over the world hanging from the ceiling. I shot pictures of some of them, but apparently deleted them, so you will just have to take my word for it. The one that I did not delete is the recently adopted flag of the state of Mississippi.

After years of controversy and a great deal of public pressure, Mississippi finally decided to get rid of its former flag that had the Confederate battle flag in the canton. The flag was designed in 1896 and the designer claimed that the thirteen stars stood for the original thirteen states, but nobody believed that. I remember being taken aback during my early trips down here seeing it flying above public buildings. There was a referendum in 2001 that would have removed the Confederate battle flag from the canton and replace it with a circle of stars on a blue field. It failed with about two thirds of the vote being in favor of keeping the old flag.

By the turn of the century, the Confederate battle flag was being seen more and more as a symbol of racism, and public pressure mounted to change the flag. Neighboring Georgia dropped the Confederate symbol from its flag and after the racially motivated massacre at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, pressure began to mount to change the flag.

In 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota at the hands of white police officers, the controversy flared up again. Demonstrations took place outside the state capitol. But perhaps more significantly, the Southeast Conference and later the NCAA determined that no post-season athletic events would be held in Mississippi until the flag was changed. In June of that year, the legislature passed a law removing the old flag and establishing a referendum to adopt an new on in November. In that short time, hundreds of designs were submitted, the list was narrowed to 147, then five, then two before the current flag was submitted to the referendum. It passed with about 75% of the vote.

Being someone who likes flags, I am impressed with what they came up with. I think it is one of the more attractive state flags and better than many of the proposed options over the years. And they did it in about six months. So change is possible, if often difficult and seemingly unlikely.