Historical Marker

Freedom Village

Marker provided by: Mississippi Blues Commission.

The first Mississippi Delta Blues Festival was held on October 21, 1978, here at Freedom Village, a rural community founded as a refuge for displaced agricultural workers. In 1987 the festival, organized by Greenville-based M.A.C.E. (Mississippi Action for Community Education), moved to a location closer to Greenville.

When the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival was founded in 1978, the concept of a blues festival was still a relative novelty, but by 2000 there were hundreds of such annual events held around the world. Although various folk and jazz events had included blues on their schedules as early as the 1930s, festivals focusing exclusively on blues (or blues and gospel) only took off with the blues revival of the 1960s; the first to gain national recognition was the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. The San Francisco Blues Festival and the John Henry Blues and Gospel Jubilee in West Virginia, the only continuous blues gatherings with greater life spans than the Delta Blues Festival at the time this marker was dedicated in 2008, both began in 1973.

The Mississippi Delta Blues Festival is unique in that its origins were in the Civil Rights movement. After two elderly African Americans were found frozen to death in their shack, activists formed the Poor People’s Conference and occupied an abandoned building on the Greenville Air Force Base to draw attention to local social conditions. They sought to create a self-sustaining community, and in 1966 a group of African American families moved to a 400-acre site here. Initially called “Freedom City,” the site was incorporated as “Freedom Village” in 1970.

The festival was offshoot of the Delta Arts Project initiated by M.A.C.E. (Mississippi Action for Community Education), which was founded in 1967. The brainchild of members Charles Bannerman and Kay Morgan, the festival was intended, in Bannerman’s words, to “honor an art form that was born in the Mississippi Delta cotton fields and was birthed by workers and a way of life whose hardships we must never forget.”

The initial event was staged on a flatbed trailer for a crowd of about 3,500, and featured mostly traditional artists including Big Joe Williams, Furry Lewis, James “Son” Thomas, Sam Chatmon, R.L. Burnside, Eugene Powell, Jack Owens, Bud Spires, and Joe Willie Wilkins. Emcees were musician Bobby Ray Watson and folklorists Worth Long and Alan Lomax. Under the direction of Malcolm Walls and others, the festival soon drew tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. It expanded to include electric blues pioneers Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters, blues rockers Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and soul-blues stars such as Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Bobby Rush, and Lynn White. The festival also provided a platform for many Greenville area artists, including those pictured here

The Mississippi Blues Trail markers tell stories through words and images of bluesmen and women and how the places where they lived and the times in which they existed–and continue to exist–influenced their music. The sites run the gamut from city streets to cotton fields, train depots to cemeteries, and clubs to churches. We have a lot to share, and it’s just down the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The Mississippi Blues Trail is an ongoing project of the Mississippi Blues Commission. Funding for this project has been made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, AT&T, and the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University plus additional support from the Mississippi Development Authority Tourism Division.

For more information visit msbluestrail.org.

Blues Trail
Audiobooks about the history of Mississippi.
During the Civil War, Mississippi was a major battleground and saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire conflict.
Mississippi random facts
Washington County, located in the western part of Mississippi, has a rich history dating back to its establishment in 1827. The area was originally occupied by the Native American Choctaw tribe, who were forced to cede their land through several treaties with the United States government in the early 19th century.

In the 1820s, significant numbers of white settlers began to arrive in the region, establishing plantations and cultivating cotton as the primary cash crop. The county's fertile soil and proximity to the Mississippi River made it ideal for large-scale agriculture, leading to the rise of a plantation-based economy that relied heavily on enslaved African American labor.

During the Civil War, Washington County played a significant role as a strategic location along the Mississippi River. The city of Greenville, the county seat, served as a Confederate supply depot and became a target for Union forces. The Battle of Greenville in 1864 resulted in the Union's control over the city, leading to the end of slavery and the decline of the plantation system.

In the years following the Civil War, Washington County experienced economic and social changes. Reconstruction brought increased political participation for African Americans, and many former slaves became landowners and entrepreneurs. However, the county also faced challenges including racial tensions, economic instability, and the impact of natural disasters such as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

Today, Washington County continues to be an important agricultural region, with cotton, soybeans, and rice being major crops. The county also has a diverse cultural heritage, with a rich African American history and contributions to the blues music scene. While the challenges of the past still have an impact, Washington County remains a vital part of Mississippi's history and economy.

This timeline provides a condensed summary of the historical journey of Washington County, Mississippi.

  • 1800: Washington County, Mississippi, was established.
  • 1827: Greenville, the county seat, was incorporated.
  • 1837: The Mississippi River flood devastated the county, causing significant damage.
  • 1844: The first county courthouse was built in Greenville.
  • 1871: Major flooding occurred along the Mississippi River, causing a significant loss of property and life.
  • 1892: The Mississippi Levee District was established to protect the county from flooding.
  • 1927: Another devastating flood occurred along the Mississippi River, causing widespread damage.
  • 1942: The United States Army Airfield, now known as the Mid-Delta Regional Airport, was constructed near Leland.
  • 1940s-1950s: The county experienced a decline in agricultural production due to mechanization and a decrease in labor demand.
  • 1960s: The Civil Rights Movement had a significant impact on Washington County, with several key events occurring in Greenville.
  • 1998: The Washington County Convention Center was opened in Greenville.
  • 2005: Hurricane Katrina caused some damage in Washington County, although it was not as severely affected as other coastal areas.