What The Hell America!

Most may recall hearing their grandparents playing the blues at fish fries, family gatherings, or during weekend cleaning days.

Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Yasmine Malone, 26, encountered the art form as an elementary student visiting the Delta Blues Museum. The museum is Mississippi’s oldest, and the world’s first, space dedicated to the blues, according to its website. During that trip, she learned about different musical instruments. She also learned of Clarksdale’s significance in blues history: It’s the birthplace of the genre. 

She felt a sense of pride.

However, Malone said that same sentiment hasn’t resonated with younger generations. 

Today in the Mississippi Delta, residents say locals often leave to find entertainment. Younger folks seek out venues that play other genres — Southern soul, hip-hop or R&B — because some equate traditional blues to the era of sharecropping, according to musicians and residents. News reports and residents suggest that this is one of the many factors that has contributed to the closures of juke joints — once vital cultural Black hubs — across the rural South.

Malone, a community organizer and local journalist, emphasized the need for increased arts education for youth and the broader community. She said she believes these lessons could enhance the popularity of blues music among descendants. The industry, particularly blues tourism, is largely controlled by white people who residents say focus on Jim Crow-era blues.

“Right now, people want joy, happiness, prosperity, as opposed to blues struggle and poverty, and [white people are] the only people that have anything to gain from perpetuating that,” Malone said. “That’s why I think white people own the industry the way they do because they can separate themselves from the experience that they see.” 

Read More: ‘Sinners’ Is Set in Clarksdale, Where There’s No Theater. Locals Are Asking for a Screening.

Now with the debut of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, these conversations — of disconnect and who owns the blues — have become more prevalent among Mississippi residents as well as people nationwide. As “culture vultures” try to rewrite history and exclude Black people, some Mississippians mentioned it is important to correct the record.

It is incumbent on Black people to see their value for the change to happen. Everyone must realize “what you have to offer the world,” said Chandra Williams, executive director of Crossroads Cultural Art Center in Clarksdale.

“I would hope that the community can see the potential of the economic value in it, and just step into embracing that and not even worry about those who want to gatekeep because honestly, no one can gatekeep on this, but us,” Williams said. But if we don’t know that, then we allow other people’s versions of it to become seen as the truth.” 

As Sinners explores Mississippi Delta history on screen, Capital B takes a moment to share resources that reveal the complex narrative of authentic Black Southern culture. This curated list of 21 works will guide you through its rich and layered beauty. These books, films, and museums delve into the intersections of culture, resistance, and identity within Black life in the South. 

Southern history is American history.

Read the South’s history through books and literature

Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry (2025)

In her latest masterpiece, acclaimed writer Imani Perry examines the connection between the color blue and Blackness, starting from its early origins to how it shows up in today’s culture. She uses her own life experiences, as well as art and history, to illustrate her points. 

Our South: Black Food Through My Lens by Ashleigh Shanti (2024)

If it’s one thing the South is known for, it’s the food. 

In her first cookbook, award-winning chef Ashleigh Shanti celebrates Black Southern cooking. Through her recipes, the North Carolina native and restaurateur takes readers through the cultural landscapes that shaped her culinary cuisine. It’s a love letter to five regions — the Backcountry, Lowcountry, Midlands, Lowlands, and Homeland.

The Struggles of Struggles by Vera Pigee (1975; Republished in 2023)

Vera Pigee, a late civil rights activist and beautician, shared her experiences as a prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She played a critical role in the Coahoma County chapter of the NAACP, and transformed her beauty shop into a space to organize and teach literacy and host citizenship classes. As women have often been written out of the history books, Pigee made a conscious effort to document her story through this novel. 

I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place & The Backbeat of Black Life by B. Brian Foster (2020)

At its core, this is a book about the art of listening. Mississippi native Brian Foster visited Clarksdale, a majority-Black town known as the birthplace of the blues, “to study the South.” The narratives shared by residents culminated in this book, which delves into the love-hate relationship that locals have with the blues and the commercialization of its culture.

Heavy by Kiese Laymon (2018)

Kiese Laymon, another ultra-talented writer from Mississippi, explores themes of race, weight, family, trauma, and self-identity in his memoir. He uses his personal experiences to critique American culture and its treatment of Black bodies. 

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017)

Mississippi’s Jesmyn Ward confronts America’s racial history while exploring the fragile, enduring ties of kinship in this book. This work, which is based in a fictional Mississippi town, presents a sweeping exploration of the South’s haunted past and turbulent present.

This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb Jr. (2014)

Many view the Civil Rights Movement, and its leader Martin Luther King Jr., as nonviolent. In this book, Cobb provides an interesting take, particularly between the nonviolent struggle and the history of Black people “taking up arms to defend themselves against white supremacist violence.” 

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (2010)

Praised by former President Barack Obama, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson explored the deeply human story of the Great Migration through the voices of real people.

Watch the South’s history through film, television, and documentaries

Clean Slate (2025)

Laverne Cox and George Wallace play a father-daughter duo in this Amazon Prime comedy. The show centers on Cox returning home to the South as a Black transwoman and rebuilding a relationship with her father.

Silver Dollar Road (2023)

The documentary film follows the Reels family’s ongoing struggle to retain their ancestral land, a 65-acre property known as Silver Dollar Road in North Carolina. Their legal battles date back to the 1970s, when the family patriarch passed away without leaving a will.

Rap Sh!t (2022)

This Issa Rae show followed the journey of two best friends who reunited and started a rap group. The series, which is now canceled, centered on Miami and influences on friendship and womanhood. 

Fannie (2022)

This 10-minute short film tells the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, played by the Mississisppi’s own Aunjanue Ellis, sharing her riveting testimony on the conditions of Black Mississippians during the Democratic National Convention in 1964. Her speech “was so powerful that President Lyndon Johnson called a press conference to push her off the air.”

Till (2022)

The film focused on Mamie Till’s fight to get justice for her son Emmett Till, a 14-year-old who was brutally lynched in Mississippi. He was accused of allegedly making flirtatious comments to Carolyn Bryant, an older white woman who admitted she lied. 

High on the Hog (2021)

The docuseries delves into the impact of African American foodways — from Africa to the American South — on American cuisine.

Lovecraft Country (2020)

The drama-horror series, which featured Wunmi Mosaku from Sinners, follows a Black man as he journeys across the South in search of his father.

Explore Southern history through museums 

Gee’s Bend (Boykin and Alberta, Alabama)

Visit the Heritage Trail to dive deeper into the history of Gee’s Bend, and its influence on art and this nation’s history. One prominent art form central to Gee Bend’s culture is quilting, which has been shown in museums and galleries across the U.S.

Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Sites  (Montgomery, Alabama)

The Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park — known as the legacy sites — vividly displays a powerful and heart-wrenching story of America’s brutal history from enslavement to mass incarceration.

Trap Music Museum (Atlanta) 

Opened in 2019 by rap royalty Tip “T.I.” Harris, this is the first museum that honors and celebrates the evolution of Southern hip-hop into trap music.

Delta Blues Museum (Clarksdale, Mississippi)

The museum documents the historical legacy of the blues while preserving artifacts and memorabilia.

Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, Mississippi)

The museum, which represents one-half of the “Two Mississippi Museums,” takes audiences from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement while highlighting those who were on the front lines of the freedom struggle. 

International African American Museum (Charleston, South Carolina) 

The museum “tells the unvarnished stories of the African American experience across generations,” according to the website. The museum also offers public programming to help patrons research and connect with their family history and genealogy. 

National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, Tennessee) 

The museum is built around the Lorraine Hotel, the place where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Through exhibits and events, the museum delves into the history that connects past struggles, from lynchings and Jim Crow, to its effect on today.

National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington) 

As its mission states: The Smithsonian museum connects “stories, scholarship, art, and artifacts from the past and present to illuminate the contributions, struggles, and triumphs that have shaped our nation. We forge new and compelling avenues for audiences to experience the arc of living history.”