March 26- As promised, we went into the Delta in search of the blues. The Delta Blues Museum was closed for renovations, and we couldn't find the temporary exhibits. We found the Riverside Motel though, and it was sad. All the great black musicians had stayed there, Bessie Smith died there and JFK Jr slept there. It was converted from a hospital for black people, when hospitals were segregated, and then into a hotel for black people as hotels were also segregated. What it was when it was a hospital was shameful and inhuman. It was not a whole lot better as a hotel. We had lunch at a drive-in burger joint a few blocks from the Motel and no one there had ever visited the Museum, or the Motel. I told them what was there and they seemed interested. Clarksdale is a strange place. We stopped at the Crossroads, the intersection of 49 and 61, where legend holds that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so that he could sing the blues. We stopped there, but I didn't sell my soul to anyone.

March 96 Trip