Clarksdale, Mississippi

Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County.

Clarksdale was named in honor of founder and resident John Clark, brother-in-law of politician James Lusk Alcorn, whose plantation home is nearby.

History
In the early 20th century, Clarksdale was known as the "Golden Buckle in the Cotton Belt" and was home to a multi-cultural mixture of Lebanese, Italian, Chinese and Jewish immigrant merchants along with African-Americans farm laborers and white plantation owners.

Clarksdale figured prominently in the regional agricultural landscape and became pre-eminent when the International Harvester Company perfected the development of the single row mechanical cotton picking machine at the nearby Hopson Plantation in 1946. This technological advancement quickly revolutionized American agriculture and had far-reaching economic and social implications for the cotton industry worldwide, particularly in the Mississippi Delta.

Whereas previously the area's sprawling plantations were worked largely by an exploited African-American workforce, the rapid mechanization of cotton production made these workers readily expendable. This change, concurrent with the return of many African American GIs from World War II, and an accelerated climate of racist hatred as evidenced by the violence against such figures as musician Ike Turner and NAACP representative Dr. Aaron Henry, triggered what came to be known as The Great Migration to the north, the largest movement of Americans in U.S. history. The Illinois Central Railroad operated a large depot in Clarksdale, which quickly became the primary departure point for many African-Americans in the area. This important rail hub provided a Chicago-bound route for many seeking greater economic opportunities in the north.

Geography
Clarksdale is located at 34.19778°N, -90.57194°W (34.197888, -90.571941), on the banks of the Sunflower River  in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.9 sqmi, of which 13.8 sqmi is land and 0.07% is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,645 people, 7,233 households, and 5,070 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,491.8 people per square mile (575.9/km²). There were 7,757 housing units at an average density of 560.5 per square mile (216.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 68.52% African American, 29.95% White, 0.58% Asian, 0.11% Native American, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.60% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.65% of the population.

There were 7,233 households out of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.7% were married couples living together, 30.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.9% were non-families. 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.38.

In the city, the population was spread out with 32.9% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 81.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $22,188, and the median income for a family was $26,592. Males had a median income of $26,881 versus $19,918 for females. The per capita income for the city was $12,611. About 29.7% of families and 36.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 46.1% of those under age 18 and 31.4% of those age 65 or over.

Community colleges
Coahoma Community College is north of Clarksdale.

Public schools
The city of Clarksdale is served by the Clarksdale Municipal School District. The district has nine schools with a total enrollment of 3,600 students.

Coahoma Agricultural High School, a non-district public high school in unincorporated Coahoma County, is located on the campus of Coahoma Community College, approximately 4.5 mi north of Clarksdale.

Private schools
The city is home to four private schools
 * Lee Academy
 * Presbyterian Day School
 * St. Elizabeth's Elementary School
 * St. George's Episcopal Day School (Closed in May 2011)

Music history
Clarksdale has been historically significant in the history of the blues. The Mississippi Blues Trail, now being implemented, is dedicating markers for historic sites such as Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith died following an auto accident on Highway 61. The Riverside Hotel is just one of many historical blues sites in Clarksdale. Over the past fifteen years, members of Clarksdale's white community have finally come to see its unique African American blues heritage as a viable tourism attraction worth controlling. Early supporters of the effort to preserve Clarksdale's musical legacy included the award-winning photographer and journalist Panny Mayfield, Living Blues magazine founder Jim O'Neal, and attorney Walter Thompson, father of sports journalist Wright Thompson. In 1995, Mt. Zion Memorial Fund founder Skip Henderson, a vintage guitar dealer from New Brunswick, New Jersey and friend of Delta Blues Museum founder Sid Graves, purchased the Illinois Central Railroad passenger depot to save it from planned demolition. With the help of local businessman Jon Levingston and the Delta Council, Henderson received a $1.279 million dollar grant from the federal government to restore the passenger depot. These redevelopment funds were then transferred on the advice of Clarksdale's City attorney, Hunter Twiford, to Coahoma County, in order to establish a tourism locale termed "Blues Alley", after a phrase coined by then Mayor, Henry Espy. The popularity of the Delta Blues Museum and the growth of the Sunflower River Blues Festival and Juke Joint Festivals has provided an economic boost to the city.

Delta Blues Museum


In late 1979 Carnegie Public Library Director Sid Graves began a nascent display series which later became the nucleus of the Delta Blues Museum. 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, 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 passed away 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 former Wisconsin native, the late Ron Gorsegner. In 1997-1998 Coahoma County would finally provide 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.

Mississippi Blues Trail marker
Clarksdale has received a historic marker as a site on the Mississippi Blues Trail by the Mississippi Blues Commission in recognition of its importance in the development of the blues in Mississippi. The marker is on Stovall Road at the alleged cabin site of famed bluesman McKinley Morganfield a/k/a Muddy Waters a fact that has never been conclusively verified. 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 as documented by author Peter Guralnick in his book "Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues, Country, and Rock 'n' Roll". A second Mississippi Blues Trail historic marker is placed at the Riverside Hotel that provided lodging for blues entertainers passing through the delta. In August 2009 a marker devoted to Clarksdale native Sam Cooke was unveiled, just in front of the New Roxy Theatre.

Notable residents

 * James L. Alcorn
 * Earl Barron
 * Eddie "Bongo" Brown
 * Willie Brown
 * Earl L. Brewer
 * Charlie Conerly
 * Sam Cooke
 * Harper Davis
 * Nate Dogg
 * Blac Elvis
 * Mario Haggan
 * Aaron Henry
 * Earl Hooker
 * John Lee Hooker
 * Son House
 * Big Jack Johnson
 * Robert Johnson
 * Trumaine McBride
 * Terrence Metcalf
 * Johnny B. Moore
 * Jim O'Neal
 * Charles L. Sullivan
 * Super Chikan
 * Wright Thompson
 * Ike Turner
 * Muddy Waters
 * Tennessee Williams
 * James (Jimbo) Mathus
 * Larry A. Thompson
 * Lerone Bennett, Jr.