Mississippi Blues Trail Marker rededicated at Clarksdale landmark, Riverside Hotel

JANS – In October, Visit Mississippi rededicated a Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring the historic Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, as part of the grand opening celebration for the Riverside Hotel Interpretive Center – the Living Blues and Civil Rights Museum.

The center officially opened its doors as Clarksdale community leaders, local musicians, representatives of Visit Mississippi, the Mississippi Blues Commission, and members of the multi-generational Ratliff family – including the late Frank and Joyce Ratliff’s daughter, Zelena, and grandsons Justin and Darrius – gathered to celebrate the hotel’s enduring legacy and the rededication of the Mississippi Blues Trail marker at the site. Hotel co-owner and granddaughter Sonya Ratliff Gates, currently stationed overseas, was unable to attend in person.

For at least three generations, the Ratliff family’s Riverside Hotel has been one of the only Black family-owned historic hotels in Mississippi and remains a significant landmark in blues and civil rights history.

The original Riverside Hotel Mississippi Blues Trail marker was unveiled in January 2007, with then-owner Frank “Rat” Ratliff present. At the time, it was among the first Mississippi cultural trail markers funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The newly revised marker was designed with input from blues music scholars Jim O’Neal and Scott Barretta. The updated marker reflects a deeper history and broadens the site’s interpretation.

About the site

In 1943, Mrs. Z.L. Ratliff Hill transformed the former hospital into a hotel, extending the building to include multiple guest rooms. The Riverside Hotel opened for business in 1944 and has since provided lodging to travelers of the Mississippi Delta. The hotel was listed in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, published annually from 1936 to 1966, and served as safe accommodation for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era.