CLARKSDALE, Miss.–A new museum that will be opening in September in Clarksdale to celebrate the building’s Blues and Civil Rights heritage is asking for two things: old vinyl records of the artists associated with the Riverside Hotel, and people who may want to volunteer as hosts and tour guides.
The Riverside Hotel Interpretive Center will hold a grand opening in September and a news release from the organizers say they are putting the final touches in place.
The renovation and the museum itself has been funded largely by a grant from the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, along with private cash and volunteer time donations. That’s partly what the museum is seeking, more volunteers.
The building was Clarksdale’s Afro American Hospital from 1916 to 1942, was the place of the passing of Bessie Smith, an influential blues artist from Chattanooga who wrecked on Hwy. 61, and reopened in 1944 as the Riverside Hotel.
The building is being transformed into a museum because of its contribution to Rock n Roll History, the many artists who visited or stayed at the Hotel, its place within the Green Book and other Black Traveler Guides and its place upon the historic National Parks Service African American Civil Rights Network.
