Clarksdale, Mississippi

Clarksdale and many other cities in the Delta were slow to form because the Mississippi River did not bend easily to the will of man. It flooded often, depositing layer upon layer of soil throughout the Delta, increasing the land’s fruitfulness but frustrating navigation along the river. Twenty years after the War Between the States ended, the Mississippi’s waters were at last tamed by levees – long mounds of dirt piled high upon the riverbanks. Once the river was contained, development increased as people came to expect that the levees would impose some genteel Southern manners upon the unruly river.

In 1839, long before the war, John Clark traveled into the area and eventually opened a small store along the navigable waters of the Sunflower River. The river, one of the main tributaries of the Yazoo River, skirts the west side of Clarksdale, runs south, and meets up with the Yazoo River near Yazoo City, northeast of Vicksburg. Clark founded the city itself in 1848, but not until 1868 were the town streets laid out. The rail line made its way through Clarksdale in 1879, the city was incorporated in 1882, and finally, in 1913, the streets were paved.

Clarksdale, the county seat, is located in Coahoma County, MS. Coahoma is a Choctaw word meaning “red panther” which were plentiful in the area at one time. Clarksdale was also the intersection site of two important Indian routes.

Married in 1854, John Clark was the brother-in-law of James Lusk Alcorn, a noted Mississippian who was at various times a Confederate general, a U.S. Senator and the Governor of Mississippi. Alcorn, a moderate Republican, was known as the sage of Coahoma County and during Reconstruction had been Clarksdale’s leading citizen.

Some notable residents, past and present, of Clarksdale include Sam Cooke, David Honeyboy Edwards, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Robert Lockwood Jr., Charlie Conerly, Gov. Earl Brewer, James L. Alcorn, Son House, Big Jack Johnson, Jim O’Neal, Muddy Waters, James Super Chikan Johnson, and Dr. Aaron Henry.