Robert Nighthawk

Robert Lee McCollum recorded as Robert Lee McCoy and then as Robert Nighthawk, and a restless life took him through many towns. He called Friars Point home at various times, and in 1940 he recorded "Friars Point Blues." His son was the blues musician Sam Carr. In 1963 Nighthawk was found busking in Chicago, and he kept playing Maxwell Street until the next year. He entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, and Friars Point honored him with a Blues Trail marker in 2007.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Freedom Park — 10 mi
  An outdoor Delta Cultural Center site on the ground of a Civil War contraband camp, where thousands of people who had escaped slavery sheltered and men enlisted.
• Delta Cultural Center — 11 mi
  A state museum in downtown Helena where King Biscuit Time, the longest-running daily blues radio show, is broadcast live from the Visitors Center.
• Elaine Massacre Memorial — 11 mi
  A memorial dedicated in 2019 in Helena for the Black people killed by white mobs and troops in the 1919 Elaine Massacre, the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history.
• Delta Blues Museum — 12 mi
  The state's oldest music museum, in a restored 1918 freight depot in Clarksdale, with Muddy Waters's rebuilt cabin and instruments from Delta players.

More markers nearby

• Conway Twitty — steps away
• Muddy Waters's Cabin — 7.5 mi
• Helena, Arkansas — 9.4 mi
• Yazoo Pass Expedition — 9.5 mi