Black History Bootcamp. S6. Day 19.
Day 19
“The first time I met the blues
I was walkin' down through the woods.”
-Buddy Guy
The Address: 229 Highway 8, Cleveland, Mississippi.
The Story: It’s called Dockery Farms.
“Farms” is a rebrand.
It was a back-breaking plantation in a small town in Mississippi. It’s walking distance from where Fannie Lou Hamer picked cotton. It's a stone’s throw from “the crossroads,” where a young Robert Johnson was rumored to have sold his soul for an unearthly cool.
There, as the sun kissed the dusty sky goodbye, guitars played, feet stomped, and hips swayed. The long days of work were made magic by the masters of a new American art form called the Blues.
Pull up a stump...
Not a ‘nere ‘nother word.
Just press play.
Of all of the blues songs I love (I am from Mississippi, remember), this is my very favorite: https://youtu.be/irS2SlVOHY0
Feel it in your bones.
Just like Hip Hop, the Blues is how, in Vanessa’s words, “truth traveled." Just one generation after Dockery Farms, hundreds of blues men and women amplified the stories of our people and became the soundtrack of struggle. That real pain was carried in the Great Migration to the blighted streets of the industrial north.
Today, let’s shine a light on the founders of the Blues. Many of them met on this very plantation: Charley Patton, Howlin’ Wolf, and even “Pops” Staples of The Staple Singers worked there.
But this is Black history, and it didn’t just start on this farm. The truth is that the Blues was born in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Blues is their story and rhythm as they were brought to Mississippi. The Blues was therapy for their children on Beale Street in Memphis, and it brought laughter and reprieve to the hike joints of Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. The Blues brought truth to the world.
This episode will be electrifying as we walk and talk about the function of Blues music for Black people.
Meet us in the Streets: Grab your earbuds, put on your sneakers, and join co-founders Morgan and Vanessa for Black History Bootcamp, a walking podcast powered by GirlTrek. We can’t wait to talk…
Catch up on Spotify podcasts.
Episodes are available after 48 hours.
The Neighborhood Call to Action
Keep Walking!
Support Black Neighborhoods:
Support: Give to anti-poverty and anti-hate efforts in the South by following, subscribing, and donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org/about
Road Trip to Remember: There are important sites of significance in the American South. Do a remembrance road trip with your family. You can start in Memphis, drive down through the Mississippi Delta on “The Blues Trail,” then head over to Birmingham, Alabama, then down to Selma to walk across the historic bridge, and end in Montgomery at the powerful Legacy Museum.
Organize: Start a walking team in Mississippi. Reach out to Monica at south@girltrek.org for a helping hand.
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