B.B. King Museum, Indianola, Mississippi

Another of the highlights of our recent trip through the Mississippi Delta was a visit to the B. B King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi. As we traveled from Greenwood to Indianola on Highway 82, we made a quick detour to drive through the small delta town of Itta Bena, the birthplace of the blues musician, singer and songwriter, Riley B. King, later known simply as "B.B."



The home of Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena sits in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, surrounded by flat, almost treeless land. Once inside the town itself, there are many beautiful old trees that line its streets. Besides farming, the major industry in this part of the world is farm-raised catfish. Heartland Catfish, Inc., one of several large catfish processing companies in the Delta, is located in Itta Bena. And the town has a number of small restaurants that specialize in serving up fried catfish, Southern style. Still too early for lunch, we drove on to Indianola, with Greenville, Mississippi, as our final destination for the night.

We arrived in Indianola around noon, so we stopped for lunch at the Gin Mill Restaurant, located at 109 Pershing Avenue, just around the corner from the B. B. King Museum. There we had a delicious pulled pork sandwich, with all the trimmings, washed down with a large glass of sweet iced tea.



The building itself, once the Fletcher-Barnett cotton gin, now houses the Gin Mill Mall, which includes the restaurant and a gallery of Mississippi art, known as Gin Mill Galleries. More about the history of the building can be read on the gallery's website.

Since we had been told that a tour of the B. B. King Museum could take as much as three hours, we had set aside the remainder of the afternoon for the museum visit. But before going into the building, we drove around the block and snapped this picture of Club Ebony, a well-known Mississippi Delta blues club that has hosted countless blues musicians over the years.



As you can see in the photograph here, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been erected in front of this well-known Mississippi Delta juke joint. According to the marker, performers at Club Ebony have included Count Basie, Ray Charles, Little Milton, James Brown, Ike Turner, Willie Clayton, Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf, and Itta Bena's own B. B. King. Following B. B. King's performance on the evening of the B. B. King Homecoming in June of each year, Club Ebony is the site of a limited seating "after party."



As we left, I couldn't miss an opportunity to snap this photo of a stretch limousine parked just across the street from Club Ebony.



This is a view of a portion of the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, located at 400 Second Street, Indianola, Mississippi. Based on information I have read, the center just opened last year and was built at a cost of several million dollars. As we entered the museum, several staff members welcomed us with smiles and pleasant "hellos" and were ready to explain the tour process.

We were advised the museum is conducive to self-guided tours, so we chose that option. Although adult admission to the museum is only ten dollars, as senior citizens, our rate was reduced to only $5.00 each - very reasonable, we thought, for such a new and unique attraction. We were told that a guided tour by a docent is also available for an additional fee.

The exterior of the museum is contemporary in design, and that contemporary flair continues throughout the interior. Made up of separate, well-lit viewing areas that are centered around specific subjects and events, the layout of the interior is tasteful and well-lighted. Memorabilia that tell a story are on display in large glass cases, and audio and video recordings are used in each area to relate the story behind a particular subject or event.

A replica of B. B. King's home recording studio can be viewed through a glass wall in one area, while other areas display clothing, records, musical instruments, and in one area, an almost life-size semi-replica of B. B. King's bus. No photographs were allowed inside the museum, since most of the displays contain all sorts of copyrighted materials.

Although we peeked inside the Delta Interpretive Center, which adjoins the museum, the center was not open for tour on the day of our visit. Based on information available on the museum's website, the center is used for both music education and dance instruction, and is a worthwhile addition to the town of Indianola.

A trip through the Mississippi Delta would not be complete without a visit to the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. A museum store is available just inside the museum's entrance. In the store, visitors may purchase books, CDs, and other items to take home as reminders of this wonderful museum in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

As we drove out of town on Highway 82, headed for Greenville, we made a decision to return to Indianola next June for the annual B. B. King Homecoming festival and concert. And maybe, just maybe, we will be able to get one of those limited seats for B. B.'s "after party" at Club Ebony.

Source: Digital Photograph Collection (2009), privately owned by Janice Tracy

"The Baddest White Man in Mississippi"

David "HoneyBoy" Edwards, well-known Delta blues musician from Shaw, Mississippi, mentions Tillman Branch in his 1997 autobiography "The World Don't Owe Me Nothing." One of the references to the man simply known as "Tillman" states that he owned a "whiskey store on Highway 61." This store was actually located on Highway 51 in Goodman, Mississippi, and during the 1950's and until Tillman's death in 1963, the Goodman, Mississippi business was known as "The Long Branch."

Tillman Branch's family had deep roots in Attala County, Mississippi. His ancestors were respected pioneers, descended from old, well-known colonial families of Virginia, but Tillman's business operations were quite different from those who came before him. His businesses existed in the form of "juke joints" located near Tchula in Holmes County and other outlying areas around Attala County. Tchula's location in the place where the "Hills" meet the "Delta" made it the perfect place for these clubs that became peformance venues for blues musicians, such as Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, and HoneyBoy Edwards, who later became very well-known in their field. Some blues afficianados, such as Junior Dougherty who writes at www.deltablues.net, even believe that Tillman Branch played a crucial, even vital, role in the development of the music form that later became known as the "Mississippi Delta Blues."

Tillman's operation of "juke joints" or "night clubs" was the outgrowth of his alleged reputation as a fairly successful "bootlegger" during the days when local law enforcement seemed to be tolerant of that illegal activity. According to the book written by HoneyBoy Edwards, Tillman also had a reputation for being a womanizer and a "bad man.." and "...all the white folks was scared of him." Rumored reports of Tillman's relationships with women during those years indicate that he routinely ignored local society's racial boundaries that existed at that time and in that place, much to the chagrin of his legal wife and others who knew him.

Although label-bearing hard liquor was not legal in most counties in Mississippi until the late 1960's, it was still easy to find it for sale throughout the state if one knew where to look. And moonshine or "white lightning" was even more available, particularly behind the closed doors of the juke joints. Not only were Tillman's clubs frequented by many blacks who came to drink and to listen to the blues music that reflected events in their own lives, but they were also frequented by white locals who were seeking a lively Saturday night far away from the ever-vigilant eyes of their God-fearing neighbors. It goes without saying that Tillman's businesses existed outside mainstream society of either Attala County, Holmes County, or for that matter, anywhere in the State of Mississippi at that time.

But times were changing, although not favorably for Tillman and "juke joints" in general. And one of those changes involved cracking down on "liquor racketeers," according to an article that appeared in Time magazine. The voice of Hazel Brannon Smith, longtime editor of the Lexington Advertiser and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, became instrumental in forcing law enforcement to take a second look at illegal activities previously "overlooked" by local authorities. According to the article, sixty-four indictments were handed down in 1946 alone.

I have found no written proof that Tillman was among those indicted on charges of illegal activities involving liquor, but the end to an era of uncontrolled proliferation of juke joints and the illegal activities that went on inside their doors was coming to an end. Another period in Mississippi, however, was beginning, the era of desegretation, with events, changes, and even human casualties that would alter the course of history in the state and in the country. Tillman Branch, the man called by some as "The Baddest White Man in Mississippi" would become one of those casualties, perhaps even a casualty of his own making, when he was died in 1963 from a gunshot allegedly fired by a black man who reportedly disagreed with his actions toward a woman they both knew.