Rate this HBCU Day 21: Mississippi Valley State University

[DrBanneker]

A nod to Robert Johnson?

Or biting off Duke?

*just jokes

Good catch and I really don't know. I wonder if there are campus legends about hearing his tunes in the air at night...

 

[Originalman]

It's an unfortunate 4. There's just far better options for just about everything valley offers in the state.

The thing is in Mississippi ain't nothing and I mean nothing in the Delta. Folks in the Delta don't want to live in the Delta. Most kids in the Delta getting the heck out the Delta when they graduate high school. They going to Jackson, Memphis, Olive Branch, Hattiesburg, the coast.....anywhere that ain't the Delta.

Just ain't nothing there to do. Shoot in Greenwood back in the day and maybe still now the hangout spot would be Krystals for young folks or McDonalds. So its just harder for Valley to recruit students there than say other HBCUs. Not to mention it is a nice drive to get to other larger areas like Jackson and Memphis which is 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours away.

 

[get these nets]

Good catch and I really don't know. I wonder if there are campus legends about hearing his tunes in the air at night...

Yeah, I was in Clarksdale years ago. Went to the Museum and was taken to the spot where the "transaction" took place.
Not sure how far the campus is from there. Hehehe
Didn't know the state was so big and spread out.
There were tons of European tourists there when we went to the museum. I'm interested in what kind of Music Dept. there is at MVSU. The entire planet recognizes that region as the birthplace of modern American music. Wonder if the current dept. chair places an emphasis on that, for symposiums and conferences .

 

[get these nets]

Yes sir. As a tribute to the blues singers, people (mostly white folks) to this day take the blues back roads (highway 61) where they travel this old road from North to the South and it also goes through the Delta of Mississippi. This is the road the old blues travelers would use to travel up and down the south and into the Midwest where blues was spread (for example to places like Chicago). Greenwood MS is also part of the highway 61 blues road.

Fun fact the home that my grandmother, my great aunts and great uncle all grew up in (in Greewood) is still around to this day (not sure who owns it) but the home is over 100 years old. Anyway there supposedly some famous blues singer was born in that same area where my grandmother grew up at (forgot who it was but it wasn't one of the highly well known ones that we still know of today). Well there is a box where folks can leave fan mail.

So back in 2017, I was in Greenwood for a family reunion and my great uncle wanted to show me, my dad and my siblings the house that he grew up in with my grandmother and great aunts. We drive down the street my great uncle shows me the house and there is a line of white folks dropping these letters off in a black box at the corner of the street. We ask them what are the letters and they said its just overall fan mail as a tribute to the famous blues singers that came out of Greenwood (which there are a few famous blues singers out of greenwood) and who also traveled route 61 and the one blues singer that came out of this particular area of greenwood.

@get these nets

Thanks.
My 3 buddies and I linked up to visit that area years back. My guy H. 's family is from the state, but he's 3rd generation Northerner, and had never been.
He kept saying that his people are from the Delta. We say, okay. Think the Blues Special had just re-aired, so the Delta region of MS was talked about a lot.

We're from a small congested state, so used to places being relatively close. Not spread out like MS.
We had a good time, and met some wonderful people.

Turned out, his family is from South East area of the state. Not close to or anywhere near the Delta.

We COOKED him about that ever since. Told him he can't wear Delta Force Nikes anymore. He can't fly Delta Airlines. He's not from the Delta, he's from the AKA, and Zeta of Mississippi.

 

[Originalman]

Thanks.
My 3 buddies and I linked up to visit that area years back. My guy H. 's family is from the state, but he's 3rd generation Northerner, and had never been.
He kept saying that his people are from the Delta. We say, okay. Think the Blues Special had just re-aired, so the Delta region of MS was talked about a lot.

We're from a small congested state, so used to places being relatively close. Not spread out like MS.
We had a good time, and met some wonderful people.

Turned out, his family is from South East area of the state. Not close to or anywhere near the Delta.

We COOKED him about that ever since. Told him he can't wear Delta Force Nikes anymore. He can't fly Delta Airlines. He's not from the Delta, he's from the AKA, and Zeta of Mississippi.

Y'all roasted old boy. But a lot of folks who got family from the Sip, but never been there usually don't know where all them places are maybe outside of Jack Town (Jackson) or the Coast so I kinda feel sorry for your homeboy he didn't know any better. Its like when I went to college in Mississippi and folks at school would ask me where I was from....they would say hey you from Chicago do you know Marcus Smith or say hey you know some Johnsons..... They didn't know they were thinking it was like Mississippi where everyone knows everyone. I would kindly tell them naw its probably 1500 Marcus Smiths in Chicago and probably 40 thousand people with the last name Johnson there... It is a city of 9 million including the surrounding areas.

Glad you were able to go down there and visit. The delta and many parts of Mississippi are beautiful but also like traveling back in time.

Where your friend was from? Meridian? Hattiesburg or Laurel areas? These are all south east areas of the state....or was his family further south like the coast of Mississippi?

 

[Bunchy Carter]

Deacon Jones went to Mississippi Valley State:



Jerry Rice:

 

[staticshock]

I marched at Alcorn. I’m not sure about the dorms but they have a nice campus. I was impressed

Since Valley never came to the Gump, we never traveled to them when the schedules flipped every season. The head director at Bama State is very adamant about not traveling somewhere if they asses don’t travel to us..which is funny considering Grambling’s band came to Montgomery in 05 & we still haven’t paid them a return visit


I always enjoyed going to Spinks stadium to go against y’all. Alcorn is in the fukkin sticks for real..is Valley even more rural than Alcorn?

Yes sir. As a tribute to the blues singers, people (mostly white folks) to this day take the blues back roads (highway 61) where they travel this old road from North to the South and it also goes through the Delta of Mississippi. This is the road the old blues travelers would use to travel up and down the south and into the Midwest where blues was spread (for example to places like Chicago). Greenwood MS is also part of the highway 61 blues road.

Fun fact the home that my grandmother, my great aunts and great uncle all grew up in (in Greewood) is still around to this day (not sure who owns it) but the home is over 100 years old. Anyway there supposedly some famous blues singer was born in that same area where my grandmother grew up at (forgot who it was but it wasn't one of the highly well known ones that we still know of today). Well there is a box where folks can leave fan mail.

So back in 2017, I was in Greenwood for a family reunion and my great uncle wanted to show me, my dad and my siblings the house that he grew up in with my grandmother and great aunts. We drive down the street my great uncle shows me the house and there is a line of white folks dropping these letters off in a black box at the corner of the street. We ask them what are the letters and they said its just overall fan mail as a tribute to the famous blues singers that came out of Greenwood (which there are a few famous blues singers out of greenwood) and who also traveled route 61 and the one blues singer that came out of this particular area of greenwood.

@get these nets

I’ve always wanted to go to the blues festival in the delta & travel the blues trail & go to the Blue Front Cafe

 

[Originalman]

I’ve always wanted to go to the blues festival in the delta & travel the blues trail & go to the Blue Front Cafe

Thing is the blues is such a part of Mississippi that there is a blues festival damn near everywhere in Mississippi every year. Yes the most well know ones are the ones in the Delta (such as Clarksdale and Greensville), but you got them all over the state such as Laurel Ms (which is one of the fliest blues festivals around) has one, Hattiesburg/Lumberton has one, Biloxi got one, Meridian got one, Jackson got one and on and one and on. And them events be big time too. Same with the black rodeo events they have all over Mississippi.

 

[Rekkapryde]

2-4 million endowment

They didn't get any bread from Mackenzie?

 

[Originalman]

Real talk yall got me thinking. I need to go to one of the blues festivals in the Sip this year just to see the elder Bobby Rush while the elder still doing his thing. He one the few last elder blues singers still around doing his thing. Elder 89 and still on the stage and looks good and healthy to be 89.

They don't make entertainers like this anymore.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Located in my neck of the woods (birthplace). To be Black and growing up in that time period in MS, Valley was the school of choice. Most Black folks in that area would go to Valley or Delta St even if they had the grades to go to one of the flagship PWI state schools

 

[staticshock]

Yeah, I was in Clarksdale years ago. Went to the Museum and was taken to the spot where the "transaction" took place.
Not sure how far the campus is from there. Hehehe
Didn't know the state was so big and spread out.
There were tons of European tourists there when we went to the museum. I'm interested in what kind of Music Dept. there is at MVSU. The entire planet recognizes that region as the birthplace of modern American music. Wonder if the current dept. chair places an emphasis on that, for symposiums and conferences .

I think the school being so young kinda hurts them in that aspect (music department). Before Valley even opened, others HBCUs had already produced legendary musicians.

At Alabama State we had Erskine Hawkins & his Bama State Collegians

Other HBCUs in Louisiana & Mississippi also had some musical legends early on.

It would be cool to see if MVSU gives a class on delta blues though. Hopefully they can start something with the Delta Blues or Juke Joint festivals to get some of that revenue

 

[Tenchi Ryu]

Delta Devils Alumni checking in



Was a great break away from Chitown and an experience to see life outside of the city. Its slow as fukk in Itta Bena, a walmart is basically gonna be your go to and a few places in greenwood which you will need a car to get to.

Band paid for the two years I went and had a blast visiting JSU and SU for football games. Famous Amos (I betchu won't) was my drummajor back when he had dreads still. I was in band back when Mr T was director and I know Mr Milton was running things for a while before they recently changed things up, which was needed cause we just always lacked the size the other swac bands had. Its cheap as fukk compared to other schools and a solid education but just know ain't shyt there to do.....

 

[DropTopDoc]

I’ve never been on their campus but MVSU is one of my favorite colleges simply because they are located in the blackest area of the country.

But sadly the Mississippi Delta region is also the poorest part of the country. I remember hearing them having financial difficulties a few years back idk what the status is now. When I was in the band at Bama State & we played them, they never came to our stadium because they only could afford to travel to Alcorn and maybe Jackson.

Their sports teams were good in the 80s with Rice & Totten, but they’ve been the Vanderbilt of the SWAC since the 90s. If they win 3 games a season it’s considered a success smh. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Valley drops from the SWAC & becomes a D2 school because of their financial problems and not being able to compete.


Instead of celebrities always donating to the usual Howard, Morehouse, Hampton, Spelman & other well off schools, MVSU needs to be getting some of those huge donations.


They have a very proud alumni base but it seems like they had more success attracting kids back in the day. Hopefully they can turn things around

This, I’ve always been on this

Been to the campus many times over the years. My dad folks from Greenwood MS which is basically down the road from the University in Itta Bena. My great aunt lived like 5 miles from the stadium where you could literally hear the football games being played (she stayed in the country outskirts of greenwood so her home was basically in the woods).

My great Aunt was a maid in Greenwood (which the story of the help was based on a lot of the black maids in greenwood Mississippi) and help send all 3 of her kids (my older cousins) to JSU and Valley who all graduated from both Universities. And I had 2 other older cousins who played football at Valley.

Every summer when I was a kid my dad would take me down to greenwood, one of my older cousins who attended Valley during the time would take me to campus with him while he would hang out with some of his Valley classmates (realize ain't nothing to do in the delta of Mississippi, I mean literally nothing). So I always had good memories of the University. Not to mention when I left Chicago to go to college in Mississippi, I would always travel to Greenwood to see my dad's side of the family to hang out with cousins and to go to games at Valley. So it was like a sort of coming full circle event for me as a young adult.

Bruh i ain’t know you from the chi too

Yeah, I was in Clarksdale years ago. Went to the Museum and was taken to the spot where the "transaction" took place.
Not sure how far the campus is from there. Hehehe
Didn't know the state was so big and spread out.
There were tons of European tourists there when we went to the museum. I'm interested in what kind of Music Dept. there is at MVSU. The entire planet recognizes that region as the birthplace of modern American music. Wonder if the current dept. chair places an emphasis on that, for symposiums and conferences .

Probably hard to get large masses to travel to the delta

 

[DropTopDoc]

Story time with the Droptopdoc

So i was on the track team to throw the shot put, we had a meet at valley, well Valley is next to an empty field, but beautiful big campus

We got down there, man they had two chicks on the track team dark as Coca-Cola, looking like some one stuffed two hams down the back of their track shorts, with like no waist and muscular legs, both of them was fine af, i know what ever nikkas was beating them down def ain’t rock a rubber, cuz I’d be a daddy fukkin with them, they had a couple other chicks on the team that was fine but them two was killin it

But that’s not what took the cake, they had a dude on the track team that apparently was on the football team but fast af, and they must have just crossed (omega) he had fresh brands and everything, and his frat bros was at the finish line at any rate it was the 200, they lined up boom they running, nikka basically joggin with this other dude for the first half of the race he look at that nikka, (who’s struggling to keep up) shakes his head, drops his inner clutch and proceeds to run way faster than anyone in that race, as he’s crossing the finish line he turns to the stands points to his frat bros throws the hooks up and sticks his tongue out the stadium lost it