Clack is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Tunica County Tunica County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,782. Its county seat is Tunica. The county is named for the Tunica Native Americans. Most migrated to central Louisiana during th ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, United States, located along Old U.S. Highway 61. The Mississippi

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

traverses the west side of Clack. Beyond the levee is Old River Lake, once part of the contiguous

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Clack was established as a flagstop on the

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the Illinois Central Railroad system (IC). Construction began in Jackson, Mississippi, and continued to Yazoo City, Mississippi. The line was later expanded ...

, built in the 1880s. It was named for Phil Clack, who owned the land near the railroad stop. Clack had a post office from 1892 to 1927, and Clack Store served as a commissary and train station. In 1941, as part of a

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

study, researchers

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

and

John Wesley Work III John Wesley Work III (July 15, 1901 – May 17, 1967) was a composer, educator, choral director, musicologist and scholar of African-American folklore and music. Biography He was born on July 15, 1901, in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to a family of pr ...

used Clack Store as a location to record blues musicians Son House, Willie Brown,

Leroy Williams Leroy Williams (February 3, 1941 – June 1, 2022) was an American drummer, mostly known for his work in jazz. Williams first began playing drums as a teenager in the 1950s. From 1959 to the middle of the 1960s he played with singer Judy Roberts, ...

, and

Fiddlin' Joe Martin Fiddlin' Joe Martin (January 8, 1900, Edwards, Mississippi – November 2, 1975, Walls, Mississippi) was an American blues musician, who played mandolin on Son House's recording sessions inspired by Alan Lomax in 1941. Martin was a versatile ...

. Locomotives can be heard in the recording. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker recognizing Son House was erected in Clack in 2007. Clack Store has since been demolished, and the store's sign was moved to the

Delta Blues Museum The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, is a museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing public access to and awareness of the musical genre known as the blues. Along with holdings of significant blues-rel ...

in Clarksdale. Clack today is surrounded by RV parks and the casinos of

Tunica Resorts Tunica Resorts, formerly known as Robinsonville until 2005,

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Tunica County, Mississippi Memphis metropolitan area Mississippi Blues Trail Unincorporated communities in Mississippi