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Riverside Hotel Awarded $495,000 from the National Park Service Civil Rights Grant
Press Release: May 19, 2022
Clarksdale, MS – The Riverside Hotel has secured a significant award from the National Park Service through their African American Civil Rights Grant, for the restoration and preservation of the hotel. For at least three generations, the Riverside Hotel has been one of the only black family-owned hotels in Mississippi and remains standing proudly as a significant part of African American Civil Rights history. The Riverside Hotel has a unique connection in history that spans three eras of Civil Rights in America from 1915 to 1964.
The Riverside Hotel will receive $499,500 in grant proceeds which will help fund critical repairs and upgrades to the infrastructure, which otherwise might never have been possible. Saving, restoring and preserving are key to ensuring that the Riverside Hotel continues to have stories to tell about its place in African American - Civil Rights, Culture and Blues History.
“The African American Civil Rights grants are critical to helping preserve and interpret a more comprehensive narrative of the people, places, and events associated with African American Civil Rights movement…” said NPS Director Chuck Sams. The African American Civil Rights grants fund a variety of projects from rehabilitation to oral history documentation, in coordination with state, Tribal, local government, and non-profit partners.
“This project is supported through an African American Civil Rights grant, provided by the Historic Preservation Fund, as administered by the National Park Service, Department of Interior.”
The Riverside Hotel “was dreamed up, owned, and operated by an entrepreneurial African American woman, Mrs. Z. L. Hill, living in Jim Crow-era Mississippi and since 1944 and up until the Pandemic in 2020, the Riverside Hotel had “provided safe lodging in the Delta for some of the most famous musicians in history as well as like-minded folk”, and was the place “where Blues Gave Birth to Rock and Roll”.
RIVERSIDE HOTEL NAMED ONE OF THE 11 Most Endangered HISTORICAL PLACES 2021
by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Since 1944 the Riverside Hotel has provided lodging in the Delta for traveling musicians and like-minded folk. It was home to some, including Sunny Boy Williamson II, Ike Turner, and Robert Nighthawk. Others, like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, made the Riverside their home away from home as they crisscrossed the South.
Still, family-owned and operated, the Riverside Hotel offers a singular lodging experience: an opportunity to experience old-school Southern hospitality and lay your hat where the bluesmen laid theirs, by and by.
Riverside Hotel: Where Blues Gave Birth to “Rock and Roll”
"ROCKET 88" The FIRST ROCK N ROLL SONG EVER WAS WRITTEN AND REHEARSED AT THE RIVERSIDE HOTEL by IKE TURNER and JACKIE BRENSTON before being recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis.
Supporting our community and Preserving our history!
Donate to Riverside Hotel Preservation Fund
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Mail Contributions Payable to
Riverside Hotel Preservation Fund
615 Sunflower Avenue
Clarksdale MS 38614
The Riverside Hotel is in the process of obtaining their 501 (c) (3) as a "Non-Profit Charity" and as a result, we are unable to provide you with a tax-deductible donation receipt at this time. If a tax-deductible receipt is important to you, please register with us through our virtual registry link. Once we have our Non-Profit charity status approved we will share the news with our many beloved supporters.
You can also follow us on social media or email us to be notified when tax-deductible donations can be made...and receive updates on our progress.
Thank You for your Support!