The Reopening of the Riverside Hotel Clarksdale, Mississippi

The Reopening of the Riverside Hotel Clarksdale, Mississippi

Several historical buildings lean precariously alongside the endangered Sunflower River in Clarksdale, Miss., in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

The main building was shifting and almost fell in the river. The walls were beginning to cave in after a tree fell on one building that was once a healing place for sick and injured souls and later a safe haven hotel for “negro travelers” in the south.

The Riverside Hotel, a multi-generational Black-owned piece of property, is being repaired and renovated. 

If these walls could talk.

There is a room-turned-shrine, where blues legend Bessie Smith died in 1937 in what was, at the time, an African American Hospital, Clarksdale Colored Hospital. In the basement was the morgue.

The hospital was eventually converted into a hotel that was listed in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a guide that listed hotels and restaurants for blacks in the Jim Crow South. 

Throughout the years many Black entertainers and Blues legends stayed at Riverside Hotel, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Sam Cooke.

Now, it’s once again becoming a museum and interpretive center spilling over with blues history. They will eventually offer lodging in the rooms, except for the sacred space where Bessie Smith passed away.  The rooms are being restored to the hotel days, complete with original furnishings.

You can sleep where many music legends slept.

 

In the 1980’s the morgue area basement was revamped into a hot spot and neighborhood disco, allowing guests to drink, dance and forget their troubles, if only for a while.

“They came down these stairs and boogied all night” says Justin Gates, whose family owns the hotel. 

And early in the 1990s, blues fan John Kennedy Jr. who had been named the sexiest man alive at the time, came to listen to blues and to hide out. “He spent hours listening to stories by my great grandmother,” says Gates of Z.L. Hill, who owned the hotel.

The hotel is just down the street from the Blues Crossroads, the spot in Clarksdale where legend claims Blues musician Robert Johnson “sold his soul to the devil” for his musical expertise.  Clarksdale, about 75 miles south of Memphis is rich in black and blues history and culture.

The hotel may have been saved just in time. In 2021, it was named to the list if the 11 Most Endangered Historical Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Sunflower River, down to a trickle, itself is listed as endangered.

“When you saw the light flick on you knew he wasn’t working up here anymore he was downstairs working on the club,” added another family member Darrius Gates.       

 Clarksdale prides itself on still having an authentic blues scene, with live music seven nights a week. https://www.clarksdale.com/

 The hotel, with over twenty rooms, has been added to the African American Civil Rights Network. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/african-american-civil-rights-network.htm

 It is also listed on the Mississippi Blues Trail. https://visitmississippi.org/things-to-do/blues-trail/mississippi-blues-trail-riverside-hotel/

By Karen Pulfer Focht 2026 ©

Dale and Ray At Hernando's Hideaway

Entertainers Dale Watson and Ray Benson, founding member and frontman of Asleep at the Wheel, perform together at the historic and independently owned music venue, Hernando’s Hideaway, in Memphis, Tennessee April 2, 2026.

Here are a few other photos I’ve taken of Ray Benson over the years, including a double exposure from my film days (early 80’s) and a photo from when he played at Lafayette’s here in Memphis. Another photo from when Benson was honored with the Master Award at the 2024 Ameripolitan Music Awards in Austin, Texas.

A special highlight and surprise was to find Memphian Wyly Bigger sitting in on keyboards.

For more than half a century, Ray Benson has been the unmistakable driving force behind Asleep at the Wheel, the Grammy-winning group that helped keep Western swing alive and thriving. Benson commented Thursday evening on how difficult it was to stay relevant during the disco era.

The band found its home after relocating to Austin in the early 1970s at the invitation of country icon Willie Nelson.

Standing 6-foot-6 in his size-16 cowboy boots, Benson, 75, has been the band’s centerpiece. While more than 80 musicians have cycled through Asleep at the Wheel’s ranks, he remains its sole continuous member. Asleep At The Wheel has over two dozen albums, more than 20 Billboard country chart hits, and nine Grammy Awards.

Even now, Benson shows no signs of slowing down. On April 2, 2026, he took the stage at Hernando's Hideaway in Memphis to a standing-room-only crowd, joining fellow Texas troubadour Dale Watson, owner of the club and part-time Memphian, for a night that blended classic swing with modern honky-tonk energy—a reminder that his legacy is still very much alive onstage.

For more about Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel go to https://www.asleepatthewheel.com/

For more about upcoming shows at Hernando’s Hideaway, go to https://hernandoshideawaymemphis.com/

Karen Pulfer Focht ©2026

East Germany 1987 Before Reunification/ Berlin Wall 36th Anniversary

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961, to divide East and West Berlin, and remained in place until its fall on November 9, 1989. The wall not only kept families apart during the Cold War; but each side lived by very different ideologies.

The Communist government of East Germany built the wall to prevent East Germans from escaping to the West, which was free.

We happened to be in Germany at a seminar for journalists in October of 1987 and again in 1989 at the European Academy Berlin. The seminar specializes in this very topic, the German Question. During the seminar, experts predicted the Berlin Wall would never fall in our lifetime, but at the same time, East Germans were getting restless with their oppressive government.

Less than a month later, Nov. 9th, 1989, after a mistaken comment by an East German official, East Germans flooded the checkpoints into West Berlin and pushed their way through.

This was the pivot that led to the German reunification in 1990.


Most of the photos below were taken in 1987, and they show daily life in East Germany before the wall came down.

A man, Carsten Kaaz, with whom we became friends with a few years later, was one of the few who successfully escaped from East Germany. He eventually moved to Memphis. He wrote a book about life behind the wall, In the Shadow of the Wall .

Chris Geoffroy, was not as lucky. He was the last person to be shot and killed by East German border guards when he tried to escape in February 1989-- less than nine months before people could pass through the wall freely.

Me at the Berlin Wall 1987


By Karen Pulfer Focht ©2025

Memphis Zoo Babies Featured in Choose 901

Memphis Zoo Babies Featured in Choose 901

MEMPHIS? WHY MEMPHIS???

LINK TO STORY HERE: https://choose901.com/memphis-zoo-babies/


Above is the link to the feature about Memphis Zoo Babies for Choose 901- Read all about why I chose “The 901”- Memphis, to live, work, and raise my family, and why I still call it home. I talk about what it was like to work at one of the best photojournalism papers in America and how I fell in love with the Memphis Zoo.

Also, NOVEL Memphis bookstore is now carrying Memphis Zoo Babies as well as the Memphis Zoo Gift Shop or you can still purchase it online here on my website. You are also welcome to just email me to purchase the book directly.

Historic Clayborn Temple Burns

We had a tragedy this week in Memphis when Clayborn Temple burned down. I covered the fire for Associated Press.

The historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tennessee.

As a photojournalist in Memphis, I have had to cover many painful things over the years. There is nothing like hearing the wailing and mournful cries of people in pain at a news scene. It stays with you forever. It can be hard to pick up my camera and document it. But I do. As I explained to someone this week, just as important as showing the burning building, as a storyteller, I need to show that this isn’t just a building; this building meant something to people. Sharing and showing the grief and pain of the people who came to the scene helps people see how important and sacred this place is.

Sadyya Rockett-Miller and her husband Andre LeMoyne Miller prayed their way through their grief and anger outside of the historic Clayborn Temple on Monday. Andre is asking God to help him and give him some peace. Miller’s grandfather had a connection to the Civil Rights Movement and Clayborn Temple. His anger was raging.

The neighborhood folks worshiping at Clayborn Temple over the years.

Carolyn Michael-Banks, founder of A Tour of Possibilities in Memphis, Tn. gives black history-focused tours. I did a story about her and her tours in Memphis Magazine last fall. Clayborn Temple and its history is a highlight of the tour. She reached out to me after the fire and said “ This incident has made me more committed to what I do. If you know the history, fire can’t destroy it. “

https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2024/11/1/a-tour-of-possibilities

The Clayborn Temple has been under renovation for a few years. For more information https://clayborn.org/

CBS NEWS did a nice job covering the story. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-church-fire-mlk-civil-rights/

Gayle Rose wrote a beautiful column for The Institute For Public Service Reporting about it also. https://www.psrmemphis.org/fire-consumed-clayborn-temple-but-it-cant-destroy-the-dream/