But in the Delta, the past lingered, heavy as the summer air. But in the Delta, the past lingered, heavy as the summer air. It was a region shaped by cotton and race, by migration and mechanization, by struggle and survival. Its people carried its story with them, whether they stayed in the fields or sought new lives in distant cities.
Image: Black American cotton plantation workers, hired as day laborers, walking next to cotton field, Clarksdale, August 1940.. Wolcott, Marion Post.
18/25
The blues—born in the fields and raised in the juke joints—became the Delta’s most enduring export, capturing in mournful chords and defiant lyrics the story of survival in the face of relentless hardship. The Delta remained, not as it once was, but as a memory—a place where history and culture intersected, forever shaping the course of a people and a nation.
Image: Ledgend: Arthur Williams, Willie Mae’s Cafe. Helena, Ark. 1999.
Margo Cooper.
19/25
The blues—born in the fields and raised in the juke joints—became the Delta’s most enduring export, capturing in mournful chords and defiant lyrics the story of survival in the face of relentless hardship. The Delta remained, not as it once was, but as a memory—a place where history and culture intersected, forever shaping the course of a people and a nation.