Administration of Robert Johnson Memorial and the gravesites of Charley Patton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Joe Williams, Mississippi Joe Callicott, James "Son" Thomas
(Note: You can read about Mr. Henderson in the New York Times article, "Homage at Last for Early Blues Musicians," by Emily Yellin, September 9, 1997, p. B1 & B5)
Skip Henderson<P.O. Box 1321, Greenville, Mississippi 38702-1321; Email: skip@tecinfo.com> Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997
Dear Chancellor Broski,
As anyone who has ever studied electricity knows so well, you must have a complete circuit to create light. We here in the Mississippi Delta are at one point in the circuit of America's musical heritage, our nation's voice and soul. You can trace the other points on the circuit, through the decades of this century, to Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, and by the way of the largest human migration of human beings that this continent has ever seen, finally - to Chicago.
Maxwell Street represents the urban epicenter of this cultural continuum, the birthplace of the modern blues idiom, the unparalleled contribution to America's musical patrimony, 'The Chicago Blues'.
We contend that to destroy Maxwell Street is the cultural equivalent of razing the theaters of Broadway, tearing down the San Francisco Opera House, or the leveling of the French Quarter in New Orleans. It will break the circuit of cultural electricity in this county. And a priceless light will go out.
I offer this sincere entreaty to those of you privileged to hold this element of the public trust in your hands. Do not break the circuit! Those of us working to keep our points on America's cultural map alive and preserved for generations in the future, support the Maxwell Street Preservation Coalition. We hope that you will see the light in their efforts.
Let Maxwell Street shine!
Thank you,
Skip Henderson
Founder and Director, The Mount Zion Memorial Fund, Inc.
Contributions to the Mount Zion fund can be made to: Union Planters Bank, P.O. Box 1059, Clarksdale, MS 38614
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