Marcus Bottom natives Freddie Kaiser and Sam Walton remember “The Bottom” of the 1950s and ’60s as a bustling community where blues notes floated out of at least a half-dozen juke joints at all hours of the day and night.

“Music all day, every day — it was a lively place down here,” said Kaiser, 66. “We had a lot of fun.”

“And you didn’t have to have a car,” echoed Walton, 65. “You could walk out of one and practically walk into another.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser and Walton were among 60 people who gathered in Delia’s Park for the unveiling of a Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring Marcus Bottom musicians and venues for their contributions to the blues.

“I see Marcus Bottom as a very, very important part of the music legacy, and also the history of African-Americans and Americans in general,” said Earnest McBride, a Marcus Bottom native, journalist and one of the speakers. “There is a real history, there is a real people and there is a real music and all of them are intertwined here. We should not separate the music from the history or from the people who created that music.”

Originally plantation land, McBride said Marcus Bottom was created in 1874 by subsequent landowner David Marcus, a wealthy bootlegger who needed outlets to disperse his liquor. In short order the community of frame houses and small churches became home to abundant corner stores and diners that at night welcomed black jazz and blues musicians on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” — the name given to venues in the South and East where black entertainers could perform.

The area, still known as the Bottom, is generally bordered on the east by Confederate Avenue and on the west by Drummond Street. Halls Ferry Road runs through its midsection.

“Marcus Bottom was not Las Vegas … but it wasn’t exactly a bucket of blood either. It became a very respectable community, and it had two of the best nightclubs anywhere,” said McBride. “Jazz bands and blues bands were one and the same then. The bands were basically dance hall bands.” 

Willie Dixon, a Vicksburg native and one of the blues most prolific bassists and songwriters, drew inspiration from the music being played in Marcus Bottom juke joints in the 1920s. Dixon was especially influenced by early blues and jazz pianist Eurreal “Little Brother” Montgomery, who regularly played in the area and helped standardize the 12-bar blues with his “Vicksburg Blues.” B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland played the Marcus Bottom joints as young musicians, years after Jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, King Oliver and Bennie Moten passed through.

However, there were many more infamous bluesmen and women who performed in Marcus Bottom between the late 1800s and 1960s, and the blues marker unveiled Wednesday pays tribute to some of them as well. The marker mentions Marcus Bottom musicians such as Artie “Blues Boy” White, Percy Strother, Vickie Baker, Willie Johnson, Billy Jones and Leon Dixon. Juke joints mentioned include South Side Park Dance Hall, Zach Lewis’, Bell’s Cafe, Playboy Club, Delia’s Do Drop Inn, The Open House, Big Will’s, Red Dot Inn, Melody Lounge and El Morocco.

“Our residents have gone for many years not noticing the accomplishments of our local artists — the many who have gone on like Willie Dixon to accomplish such great things in terms of the art form of the blues,” said Mayor Paul Winfield. “It’s a wonderful day when we can recognize that fact and honor all of those homeboys and homegirls who have gone on to do great things in many, many ways, but have been unnoticed.”

The Marcus Bottom marker was the 98th installed on the Mississippi Blues Trail since the state blues commission began the project in 2004. Roughly 120 markers and interpretive sites throughout the state are planned. The blues trail has been funded primarily with money from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

The Marcus Bottom marker is the fourth to be installed in Vicksburg. The other three honor Dixon, local group The Red Tops and the musical legacy surrounding U.S. 61, which formerly ran through downtown Vicksburg along what today is Washington Street.

Mississippi Blues Commissioner Dr. Edgar Smith, who was born in Hollandale and grew up in Vicksburg, said the markers have made significant strides in preserving the state’s musical heritage. Additionally, he said they’re contributing to economic development in the state by drawing in tourists from around the world who desire to visit significant sites in Mississippi blues history. Smith said Marcus Bottom exemplified many small, blue-collar Mississippi towns that gave rise to the blues.

“As a child growing up in the vicinity of several juke joints, I witnessed the need for a weekend catharsis, or a steam valve, for those who had toiled long and hard during the week,” Smith said. “It was from such a need that the blues evolved.”

Today, there are only ramshackle remnants of the juke joints that once dotted Marcus Bottom. Although the very last of the area’s juke joints remained open into the early part of this decade, they had long lost the music scene of the joints in Marcus Bottom’s glory days. Kaiser and Walton speculated the demise of the blues scene in their neighborhood was solidified by the introduction of casinos in the early 1990s and the subsequent advent of city ordinances outlawing “neighborhood bars.”

“It’s all gone now,” Kaiser said. “I don’t think it’s ever coming back.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com