Delta Jewel tour
Mound Bayou, Mississippi

Located along US Highway 61 in the central Mississippi Delta, Mound Bayou was at one time the nation’s largest and most self-sufficient African American town. Founded in 1887 by cousins Isaiah T. Montgomery, Joshua P. T. Montgomery, and Benjamin T. Green, all of whom were once enslaved at the Davis Bend Plantation in Warren County. Mound Bayou is home to various key African American heritage landmarks including the Taborian Hospital, one of only two hospitals for African Americans in Mississippi during the early 20th century.

Walking Tour of Clarksdale w/ blues lunch

(download the VoiceMap smartphone app and search for Clarksdale)

About twenty years ago, Clarksdale began to reinvent itself around its deep historical connection to the blues. Today, the town has built a substantial tourist economy from that connection and has become a destination point for travelers from around the world. In addition, an increasing number of artists, musicians, creatives, and social entrepreneurs are moving to the area and claiming it as home. 

Emmett Till Interpretive Center 
120 N Court St, Sumner, MS 38957

Established in 2006, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, made up of a mutli-racial group of citizens, realized that in order to properly remember and honor Emmett Till they needed to first break the silence and acknowledge institutional injustices  surrounding the Till murder trial. In 2007, the ETMC offered a formal apology and delivered the apology to the Till Family in a public ceremony in front of the Sumner Courthouse. Now the EMTC exists to tell the story of the Emmett Till tragedy and point a way towards racial healing.  

Emmett Till Intrepid Center
235 Thomas St, Glendora, MS 38928

The Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center is a community-driven museum with exhibits about Till’s life and death and the Civil Rights Movement in Glendora. The center is housed in the gin from which Till’s killers took the fan and wire used to weigh down Till’s body before throwing it into the Tallahatchie River.

Bryant store
Money Rd, Money, MS 38930

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till came to this site to buy candy in August 1955. White shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant accused the black youth of flirting with her, and shortly thereafter, Till was abducted by Bryant’s husband and his half brother. Till’s tortured body was later found in the Tallahatchie River. The two men were tried and acquitted but later sold their murder confession to Look magazine. Till’s death received international attention and is widely credited with sparking the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Robert Johnson Gravesite
Little Zion Missionary baptist church
money Road
just outside Greenwood, MS

While there are three different sites in the Delta with Robert Johnson markers, the location at Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Money Road, just a few miles from the Bryant Store, is arguably the most visited by those seeking to pay tribute to the legendary bluesman. 

Photo Exhibition of the Flood of 2019
Museum of the mississippi delta
1608 US-82, Greenwood, MS 38930

Mississippi Today staff photojournalist Eric Shelton spent much of the spring of 2019 documenting the historic damage created by the flodding of the Mississippi River. This devasting natural disaster broke records set by the flood of 1927, and caused a complete shutdown of agricultural endeavors for the season. Eric’s photographs tell a powerful story of those most affected by the destruction.

Dinner at Mississippi Valley State University
R.W. Harrison HPER Complex
Itta Bena, MS

We complete our day with a dinner at MVSU with a menu of typical Delta flair. The theme of the evening is “This is Our Home” and we’ll enjoy a night of southern music and story-telling while welcoming friends, supporters, and partners of the MDNHA to join us. Mississippi Valley State University, located in Itta Bena and opened in 1950, is one of six historically black colleges and universities in Mississippi.