Day 13 Oxford, Clarksdale, Merigold, Cleveland MS

Wow! This was quite the day -- a day that has left me wondering what to post and how to sum it all up. Spent the morning on a run through Ole Miss, a beautiful campus with a lot of conflicting history. Took pictures at the James Meredith Monument, which is centrally located on the campus and a really great monument. Next stop was the so called capitol of the Delta Blues, Clarksdale, MS. Went to the Blues museum, bought an incredible guitar that sings at a used music store in town, hung out with Cat Head (local blues player), bought some of his artwork, walked around the town. It was early so I inquired about another cool town in the delta and headed to Merigold, MS on the hunt for a hidden gem called "Po Monkey". I went to Merigold (a charming city) and was given some crazy directions that I followed down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere and stumbled upon a blues club. It was crazy and the guy "Monkey" who was born and still lives in the back of the club runs the show. I have included a picture so you can see this place. Spent the evening in Cleveland walking around the town, had dinner (shrimp and grits again) at the Market, which was fantastic, and then ended my evening at a local bar called the Airport. This is where the true story of my evening occurred. Sat down next to the owner of the bar and another man. We started talking about my film, and he was a wealth of knowledge about the area. He actually invited me to meet him at his bar so he and all the local historians of the area could cook me breakfast (on his birthday) tomorrow. He was a nice man, and then it hit. We started talking about Emmitt Till, and they then began a conversation about how he wasn't murdered in Money, MS. He was killed seven miles down the road, and they were friends with the guys that did it. They were talking about how they ran Fannie Lou Hamer out of town. They also talked about the harassing they did of the Northerners that came down to register blacks to vote. It was truly the authentic stereotypical thing you would expect to hear. The interesting part was they couldn't believe that Mississippi got such a bad rap for racism because other states were much worse. They were, however, happy that the "blacks" had not taken over Cleveland and that the school systems were still segregated. Needless to say, hearing this after the discussion I had last night really left me with a lot to ponder about humanity. An interesting dilemma of a person who is kind to you but not so kind to others? I will leave this at that and tell you about breakfast in the morning.

Tomorrow: All over the Delta and spending the night in Little Rock, AR