Civil Rights and Blues History on Vacation

From Bob Reutenuer

I toured the richness of the Mississippi Delta's civil rights and
blues music history with twenty other community college history
faculty from around the land in July. Guided by some mighty heroic
freedom struggle veterans we covered a lot of ground in five days. We
went from the birthplace of the blues in Clarksdale, to the site of
Dr. Kings last speech to striking Memphis sanitation workers and then
the Lorraine Motel. The motel is now a wonderful National Civil Rights
Museum. In between we visited landmarks of the voter registration
drives in delta towns of Greenwood and Ruleville (home of Fanny Lou
Hamer), the martyrdom of three civil rights workers-- Schwerner,
Goodman, and Cheney- in Neshoba county, the "crossroads" of highway 61
and 49 where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, the storefront
of Emmett Till's unfortunate glance at a white women, the home of
Medgar Evers where he was shot dead in the back, Remember Dylan's
"Only a pawn in their game" and Beale Street Memphis for some fine
bourbon, even better cold cold beer and hot blues rollin out in the
street from everywhere. Enjoy my photos.

Bob Reutenauer