US 61, the Blues Highway: Vicksburg to Clarksdale

The Route at a Glance

US 61 was designated in 1926 and is called the Blues Highway. During the Great Migration it was the main road Mississippians took north to Memphis, St. Louis and St. Paul, part of a movement in which more than five million African Americans left the South between 1915 and 1970. This drive takes 146 miles of it, a little over three hours without stops, from Vicksburg north through the Delta to Clarksdale. Jackson & Vicksburg and The Mississippi Delta cover the country. The Delta was Choctaw and Chickasaw land until the treaties of 1830 and 1832, and it became cotton country, planted by enslaved people and later worked by sharecroppers. The blues came out of that.

Vicksburg begins it, and the Mississippi Blues Trail has five markers there, one of them for Highway 61 at the corner of Washington and Jackson Streets. The Old Court House Museum went up between 1858 and 1860, built with the labor of 100 skilled enslaved artisans. In 1860 about two-thirds of Warren County was enslaved. The museum belongs to a private historical society and its collection leans toward the Confederacy, so read it against the national park. Vicksburg National Military Park has a 16-mile tour road through the trenches of the 47-day siege that ended when General John Pemberton surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863. The siege also ended slavery in Vicksburg: as many as 20,000 enslaved people made their way to the city seeking freedom, and by November 1865 more than 2,200 Black students were enrolled in classes. The park holds the aftermath too. In December 1874 armed white men demanded the resignation of Peter Crosby, Warren County's first Black sheriff, and by one count about 23 Black residents were killed across the county. The USS Cairo, a Union ironclad, sank in the Yazoo River on December 12, 1862, the first ship sunk by an electrically detonated mine. It lay in the mud for about a century and is displayed inside the park. Four Black sailors ranked Seaman served in its crew.

North of Vicksburg the road crosses the Delta, a floodplain that spreads about 200 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg. Dockery Farms lies off the route on MS 8, about six miles east of US 61. Will Dockery began the plantation in 1895, and Charley Patton's family came there around 1900. In 1929 H. C. Speir, a Jackson furniture dealer who scouted talent for record companies, found Patton there and arranged his first recordings. Dockery is a working farm and private land, so check before you turn in. Mound Bayou, just off the highway, was founded in July 1887 by Isaiah T. Montgomery, Joshua P. T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green, all of whom had been enslaved at Davis Bend, as a town where Black families would own the land. Its Taborian Hospital opened in 1942, and its chief surgeon, Dr. T. R. M. Howard, housed Black reporters and witnesses in his home during the Emmett Till trial. Fannie Lou Hamer died at the hospital in 1977.

The drive ends at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, in a restored freight depot of 1918. It is the state's oldest music museum, and its largest object is Muddy Waters's cabin, rebuilt from the original cypress boards of the house he lived in on the Stovall plantation. Clarksdale sits where US 61 met US 49, and the old junction is marked as the crossroads where, according to legend, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil for mastery of the blues. It is a legend, not a documented event. US 61 goes on through Tunica County to Tennessee.

The Drive, Stop by Stop

6 stops along the route, in driving order from Old Court House Museum, Vicksburg, Mississippi to Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale, Mississippi. One of them sits off the road itself — the distance is noted on each.

1. 1

   Old Court House Museum

   Vicksburg

   On the hilltop on Cherry Street in downtown Vicksburg. Admission is charged; the historical society sets prices, so check oldcourthouse.org. The collection is a private society's and leans toward the Confederacy.

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2. 2

   Vicksburg National Military Park

   Vicksburg

   On Clay Street (US 80), on the way out of town. An entrance pass is required, and the park does not take cash (NPS).

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3. 3

   USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum

   Vicksburg

   Inside the national park, on the tour road. Covered by the park entrance pass (NPS).

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4. 4

   Dockery Farms

   Cleveland

   5.7 miles off the route

   Off the route on MS 8, about six miles east of US 61. A private working farm; tours and events are scheduled, so ask first.

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5. 5

   Mound Bayou

   Cleveland

   Just off US 61 north of Cleveland. The museum is at 200 Roosevelt Street. Call ahead; its hours and any fee are not published reliably.

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6. 6

   Delta Blues Museum

   Clarksdale

   The end, in a restored 1918 freight depot in downtown Clarksdale. Ticketed; check the museum's site for current prices and hours.

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That's the drive. Take your time, pull over often, and let US 61, the Blues Highway: Vicksburg to Clarksdale do what it does best.