Travel Guide Clarksdale

Clarksdale, a seat in Coahoma County, was founded by John Clark in 1848. It is a city of approximately 18 000 inhabitants, crossing the River Sunflower, and cut in two by the railway line. At the beginning of the th century, Clarksdale was nicknamed the "golden buckle of the cotton belt". An important transit centre for goods and located near the fields, it housed a melting pot of Chinese, Lebanese, Jewish immigrants, mainly African-American workers and rich planters.In 1946, the invention of the first machine to pick cotton, not far from the Hopson plantation, transfigura the sector. At the same time as it ensured higher productivity and higher incomes, it brought many agricultural workers to unemployment. They, deprived of economic prospects and faced with growing racial tensions, would fly massively to northern cities.Clarksdale is one of the top places of the blues and has seen many artists such as John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) who gave his name to a street, or Bessie Smith (1984-1937) who died here after a car accident. It was at the exit of the city at the intersection between Highways 61 and 49 (North State Street and Desoto Avenue) that Robert Johnson (1911-1938) sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his talent to the guitar. It is difficult today to imagine the landscape of the time, since the crossing, called Devil's Crossroads, is surrounded by a commercial area. Three guitars overcoming the Indication indication, however, mark the place.Today, a very special climate emerges from the partially deserted city, largely on the heritage of the blues. The Delta Blues Museum is one of its main points of interest.Each year, Clarksdale hosts the Jukeboxes Joint Festival (April) and the Sinflower River Blues & Gospel Festival (August).