Twelve essays about Delta heritage by Luther Brown

All but the first of these essays were written about the Mississippi Delta in 2007 and 2008, "The Year of Delta Heritage" at Delta State University.  Each month of that year had a different heritage theme.  The essays were published monthly in The Delta Business Journal.  The first essay is the introduction to a lengthy manuscript by Luther Brown about the Mississippi Delta. All essays are (c) Luther Brown.

Delta Heritage- a brief overview
The Delta's Musical Heritage
Food Heritage of the Delta
The Mississippi Delta's Religious Heritage
Delta Heroes
Political Leadership and Civil Rights in the Delta
Visual Arts in the Mississippi Delta
The River
Agriculture in the Delta
Literature and Film Heritage of the Delta
Natural Heritage of the Mississippi Delta
 The Delta in Diaspora

And here are some great video and text links for further learning:

Po’ Monkey’s on ABC Good Morning America:  http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4598823

Po’ Monkey’s on an Australian Blog: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/04/15/po-monkeys-lounge-merigold-mississippi/

Po’ Monkey’s in Southern Spaces Magazine:  http://www.southernspaces.org/2006/inside-poor-monkeys

The Great Flood of 1927- an hour long film that has archival footage:  http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?collection=257 This will load a player.  Scroll down the menu on the right to the Great Flood video for the show.

Alan Lomax’s Land Where the Blues Began:  http://www.folkstreams.net/film,109  58 minutes of great footage for free!  Check out the gandy dancers and especially Lonnie Pritchford playing the diddley bow.  

Here are several short films that tell the story of the Blues nicely:

 

Here are four articles from The Economist about Mississippi:

    State promotion Mississippi turning. Can people be made to change their minds about the Magnolia State?
    http://www.economist.com/node/8496979
    Deep roots
    http://www.economist.com/node/12414964
    The rebirth of the blues. The music of poor blacks enriches America’s deep south
    http://www.economist.com/node/148587
    Goodbye to the blues. The American South, once notorious for violence, poverty and racism, is now pleasant and prosperous, says Robert Guest. But it still has some catching up to do
    http://www.economist.com/node/8729871

The Delta in Southern Spaces Magazine: http://southernspaces.org/2004/mississippi-delta

The Delta as a Bioregion: http://southernspaces.org/2010/bioregional-approach-southern-history-yazoo-mississippi-delta

And the Southern Foodways Alliance has some great oral histories that include the Delta at http://southernfoodways.org/documentary/maps/index.html