Diaspora contributes to important religious innovations of 20th century; ex. former considerations of legitimate religious practices challenged

Ex. Sanctified churches (Holiness, Apostolic, Pentecostal, etc.); Nation of Islam, charismatic preaching, music (integration of blues sounds with sacred texts )

Diaspora creates needs/desires not met by pre-existing religious organizations, YET provides resources (ex. wealth & talent) that facilitated the creation of new ones

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “Original Soul Sister & Godmother of Rock’ N’ Roll”

Impact of Diaspora on American Politics via religion?

Rev. J. Frank Norris, Detroit’s Temple Baptist; bastion of right-wing fundamentalism

Development of political capacity; ex. Evolution of liberal bi-racial coalitions & ties with organized labor & civil rights organizations

Anti-busing rally; Detroit

(Cleveland, NAACP)

Church as gateway institution framing social, cultural & political life!

- ex. “praise & protest” (social gospel) vs. “white-flight” gospel

“The eagle flies on Friday, Saturday I go out to play. Sunday I go to church, Gonna kneel down and pray”Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is

Just as Bad) - T-Bone Walker; 1948

Georgia Tom Dorsey; Father of Modern Gospel(Bronzeville Resident!)

Duality of Gospel & Blues expressed- Is there REALLY a difference?

Pilgrim Baptist Church (3300 S Indiana Ave.)

Institutional Function? - Also hosted funeral service of Jack Johnson (1946); prominent in the Civil Rights Movement (ex. regularly hosted MLK, Jr.)

THE Birthplace of Modern Gospel

Was the “spark” behind the Civil Rights Movement a Mississippi story because it was a Chicago story?

The Chicago Defender

The Diaspora changed the rules of race & relationships to social power! - Diaspora as THE major pre-condition for the MOVEMENT

Ex. Popularization of Jazz & blues from “regional” tradition to “national” (and global) musical crazes

Prior to Jazz being widely accepted in The Big Apple!

So What? Major impact of migration - evolution of institutional apparatus responsible for expression & consumption of “southern” - white & black – culture

Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five (Chicago 1926): The Delta is no

longer simply located between the lobby of the Peabody Hotel & Catfish Row!

Impact of Diaspora on Musical Expression?

Ex. Evolution & dissemination of Jazz, Gospel, Blues, Hillbilly, Country, Rock ’a’ Billy, Soul, R & B and Rock ‘n” Roll

* diaspora critical to musical development; music in turn, plays role in shaping social/cultural identities & relations among migrants!!!!! *

Mahalia Jackson

Georgia Tom Dorsey; Father of Modern Gospel

Impact of Delta Diaspora on Evolution of Blues-influenced Music?

Musical Narration of the Diaspora

Transition from “rural” blues to “urban” blues (or Chicago Blues) - emphasis on rhythm guitar

“Blues had a baby, and they called it Rock’ n’ Roll!” (Muddy Waters)

Did the “seeds” of blues culture have to migrate in order to bloom ….. and/or vice versa? (Delta as “birthplace” hypothesis?)

Muddy & Push Factors?

-1st Step in Agricultural Mechanization? - tractor driver

- Collective & Individual Yearning for Escape (Seeking to flee from Egypt!) * I Be’s Troubled/Can’t be Satisfied *

“Well, if I feel tomorrow, like I feel today, I’m gonna pack my suitcase and make my getaway…. And I never been satisfied, And I just can’t keep from crying”

“Goin’ back down south, child” ?

The “emancipator” or “terminator”? A “cause” or an “effect” of migration? (2nd Great Emancipation; Holley 2000)

The Hopson Plantation (1944)

A Taste and Sound from Down Home?

-Multiple Elements of transplanted African cultural influences (i.e. Delta Culture!)

* I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man *

“I gotta black cat bone; I gotta Mojo too; I got the John Conqueroo(t); I’m gonna mess with you” ……. “I’m gonna make pretty womens jump and shout”

* Louisiana Blues *

“I’m goin’ down to New Orleans, Get me a Mojo hand…..”

Was Robert Johnson an African griot looking for advice from Elegba, Legba, Eshu or Exu?

Muddy as an Urban griot expressing African-influenced Southern folklore!

Return migration via music?

My Home is in the Delta (1963)

“My home is in the Delta, right on that farmers road, I’m leaving Chicago, baby I sure do hate to go”

Down Home Blues

“You know I’m going down south, child, this weather gets too cold.”

Train Fare Home Blues

“Blues and trouble just keep on worrying me. They bother me so bad, I just can’t stay here, no peace. If could get lucky and win my trainfare home; I believe I’ll go back down in Clarksdale, little girl that’s where I belong”

“Its Home” (Trina of Cleveland, MS & Phyllis of Merigold, MS) FAMILY REUNIONS???

Expressions of Topofilia, or nostalgic loss of place; South (The Delta) as Home!

Quest for BLACK empowerment?

- Expression of BLACK identity in post-migration (pre-migration?) era: blues as an expression of liberation & social change; Muddy as an agent of socialization!

* Mannish Boy * (1955)

“ I’m a MAN; Spell M-A chile; That’ll well within’ man; No, B.O. child Y; That mean Mannish Boy; I’M A MAN, I’m a full grown MAN…..natural born lover’s MAN…I’m a rollin’ stone … I’m the greatest MAN alive

* Rollin’ Stone * (Geographic mobility as psychological freedom!)

“Yes, I feel, feel that a low down time ain’t long; I’m gonna catch the first thing smokin’ ; back, back down the road I’m goin’”

Cause & Effect of Diaspora: Evolution of “The Movement”

1955

1966

Muddy Waters as a THE triumphant voice of a people DEMANDING respect and change!

Did the Diaspora usher in a new sense of African-American Manhood??

Delta processes/events as both a cause & effect of the newly evolved sense of “blackness” associated with calls for nationalism among various peoples of color echoing across the post-colonial world of the 1960s!!!

Black Power Park; Greenwood, MS

The role of the Delta in global wide struggle against colonialism?

Tommy Smith (center) & John Carlos (right); 1968 Mexico City

Angela Davis (1971)

Cultural/psychological repatriation back to Africa?

Socio-cultural/political impact of Post-Diaspora “Black” Identity? Call for BLACK POWER!

Music & culture from the Delta plays a role in redefining the meanings of “freedom” and “democracy”

Musical manifestation of Black Power?

Soul Music!The musical progeny

of the Delta’s own Muddy Waters!

From Greenwood, MS to the Soul Train Line!

Soul Food: The Delta’s Culinary Impact of Black Power

3) What role did Delta migrants, such as Muddy Waters, have in transforming a call for freedom into a STATEMENT of & DECLARATION for liberation & recognition for humanity known world-wide?

Am I Not A Man And A Brother? (abolitionist catchphrase on a 1787 medallion for British anti-slavery campaign)

VS. I AM A MAN! (1955 blues song) Sign by a Libyan demonstrator

during Arab Spring (2011)

In Arabic: “Ana Rajul.” (I AM A MAN!)Ferguson, Missouri; 2014

“Muddy Waters’ music changed my life, and whether you know it or not, and like it or not, it probably changed yours, too.”

Politics of Soul Culture (WattStax 1972)

- Eric Clapton Can we not say the same about the Delta as a whole?

• Cultural Diffusion– music, language, food (ex. “Soul” food), religion, etc.– Regional convergence

• “Americanization of Dixie” & “Southernization of America” (John Egerton, 1974)

– “Delta” influences AMERICAN cultural DNA!

• An evolving Urban Geography– Racial transition; “ghetto” formation, suburbanization– Deltans played a role in building & shaping Urban America

• Political Enfranchisement: Migrants changed political landscape– an “urban” political voice– Broader leverage, infrastructure & circuitry for social

change

• Social relations re-defined; AMERICA re-defined!– labor unions, school & residential integration etc. – “Race” becomes a NATIONAL issue (as opposed to a

regional one)

• Transformation or extinction of “Plantation South?” The Delta itself was transformed!!!!

Impacts of Diaspora?

How else has the Delta changed America?

Has else has the Diaspora changed the Delta?