ANHA Business Meeting & Lunch
Ewing Hall / Delta state university

During this period, we will gather to complete necessary ANHA business needs. This meeting will be held in Ewing Hall at the Jacob Conference Center next to the offices of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, the MDNHA’s management entity. Coffee, water and treats will be served. While there, be sure to check out the lifecast collection of blues musicians created by artist Sharon McConnell-Dickerson.

After completing business necessities we’ll engage in a discussion of the Mississippi Delta to prepare you for the experiences you’ll encounter throughout the week.

Following lunch together we’ll head out on our first Delta excursions.

Winterville Mounds
2415 MS-1, Greenville, MS 38701 

Winterville Mounds is a 42-acre site near Greenville, Mississippi, featuring twelve prehistoric Native American mounds, two large plazas, and a museum. Winterville Mounds, named for a nearby community, is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by a Native American civilization that thrived from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. The mounds, part of the Winterville society’s religious system, were the site of sacred structures and ceremonies. 

See the river
Mississippi Levee near Scott, MS

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. 

Nearly 600,000 people affected by the flood lived in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, most in the Mississippi Delta. More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and were forced to live for lengthy periods in substandard camps. As a result of this disruption, many joined the Great Migration from the south to northern and midwestern industrial cities rather than return to rural agricultural labor. On this site visit, we will see the location where the levee broke in the Delta and began the massive flood that changed America.

Dockery Visit
Dockery Farms | Hwy 8 West

“...You might say it all started right here.” - B.B.King

Dockery Farms was established in 1895 to produce cotton, America’s biggest export at the time. African American sharecropping culture and the plantation economy at Dockery, where blues pioneer Charley Patton performed the music we know as the blues. The blues influenced the development of popular music throughout the country and the world.

GRAMMY Museum Mississippi
800 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS 38732

The 28,000 sq.ft. GRAMMY Museum Mississippi is the first GRAMMY museum outside of Los Angeles. It is  dedicated to exploring the past, present and  future of music, and the cultural context from which it emerges, while casting a focused spotlight on the deep musical roots of Mississippi. The Museum features a dynamic combination of public events, educational programming, engaging multimedia presentations, and interactive permanent and traveling exhibits. All ANHA participants will have access to the museum throughout the week.

Dinner at Jacob Center
Ewing Hall, Delta State University

Our dinner Tuesday will be a custom made feast of Delta Italian recipes. Keith Johnson, the Prince of the Delta Blues and great nephew of Muddy Waters, will perform.

Casual dress.

Come and go as needed.