Howard Stovall <hstovall@memphisonline.com> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 96
This letter was sent twice. First, as a member of the Sunflower River Blues Association of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and later when he became head of The Blues Foundation.
As a representative of the Sunflower River Blues Association of Clarksdale, Mississippi, as well as the owner and operator of the plantation on which Muddy Waters grew up, I feel compelled to express my support for a Maxwell Street Historic District to preserve the historic elements of this most important cultural area.
I certainly understand the need to move UIC into the 21st century as an institute of learning that continues to exceed the expectations of its student body. However, in our drive for the future, let us not neglect the past and the history of that geographic location into which you are expanding.
While many see Maxwell Street simply as the open air market for which it is primarily renowned, musicians, historians, and cultural anthropologists see it as the place where the music of the Mississippi Delta found an electric voice in the guise of the many African Americans who migrated into that area in the 1940s and '50s. This voice became the electrified south side Chicago blues sound, epitomized by artists such as Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters, all of whom played on Maxwell Street.
The cadences and tonalities of this music later evolved into rock and roll. In short, the musical development that was centered around the Maxwell Street area forms the cornerstone of one of the most important musical and cultural developments in American society in our generation.
Please help save the physical cornerstones that embody this birthplace of an era. Much as my family has preserved the childhood home of Muddy Waters as a cultural icon, so too should you preserve these visual reminders of an era during which black America found its voice, and the world sang along.
Regards,
Howard Stovall
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