A building devoted to African-American history and culture will be an added tourist attraction, as well as a cultural addition to Clarksdale, says a leader of a group promoting the idea.
Dr. Mary Frances Dear-Moton, CEO/president of the non-profit Family and Youth Opportunities Division, believes Clarksdale has a hidden treasure with the Myrtle Hall Library for Negroes.
“Our African-American youth need to have a knowledge of their past and culture to be able to relate to the future of Clarksdale as well as the state of Mississippi,” Dear-Moton said in a news release.
“This museum will help facilitate that.”
The library, which is located on State Street just to the east of the Crossroads, was recently Mississippi’s latest addition to the National Register of Historic Places.
“Clarksdale is known for the blues,” Dear-Moton said. “Tourists from all over the world, near and far, come to experience what Clarksdale offers relating to the blues.
“We want them to continue with that, but see Clarksdale in a broader context; see it as more than the blues.”
Dear-Moton approached the Clarksdale mayor and board of commissioners during its May 14th meeting, seeking $10,000 to help fund a matching grant to cover the first phase of renovation costs at the building.
She said the county government had pledged $5,000 with another $5,000 to come. And she said additional grants are being sought.
They are hoping to start work July 1 on renovation work to the building’s roof and indoor structure.
The board didn’t take any action, but Mayor Chuck Espy did say the city would work to include it in the upcoming fiscal year budget, which they are currently finalizing.
In 1929, a group of Clarksdale African-Americans formed a fund-raising committee, raised $1,000 and lobbied the city for a library. Clarksdale city officials set aside $2,000 to add to the funds and build the one-story building.
Community leader A.L. Nichols, postman W.M. Yarbrough and dentist Dr. P.W. Hill were appointed to find a location for the library and they settled on a lot on the grounds of the Myrtle Hall Colored School, which was one of two African-American schools in the city.
The library, later renamed Myrtle Hall Library Branch, served as the only public library for African-Americans in the Mississippi Delta at the time. It would also later serve as the first home of the Delta Blues Museum.
The Family and Youth Opportunities Division purchased the Myrtle Hall Library in 2015. Amanda Dear Jones, vice CEO/president, will spearhead the project. Other members of the advisory committee include Gwendolyn Bass, JoAnn Blue, Richard Bold, Samuel McCray, Cleveland Moton, Hattie Shivers and Roosevelt Wallace.
