Blues Marker Unveiled in Baptist Town
Dr. Moses, Dr. Marvin Haire, Rev. Frank Willis, Mr. Harvey Cook, Ms. Paige Hunt, and Mr. Sylvester Hoover admire the newly dedicated Mississippi Blues Trail marker in Greenwood's Baptist Town neighborhood. Photo by Lise Foy. Another Greenwood location has been added to the Mississippi Blues Trail. Baptist Town, one of Greenwood's oldest African American neighborhoods, joins the likes of Robert Johnson's grave, the birthplace of Hubert Sumlin, the old WGRM studio, and the Elk's Lodge as a local point of interest and influence in the history of blues music and culture. The Baptist Town neighborhood was established in the 1800s in tandem with the growth of the local cotton industry. The neighborhood is best known in blues lore through blues singer David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who identified it as the final residence of the legendary "king of the Delta blues singers," Robert Johnson. Johnson, who died just outside Greenwood in 1938, and Edwards stayed in houses on...
