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PAUL:

Where can you explore the world's largest outdoor museum? Would you believe it's right here in Mississippi? Hey, it's Paul Wolf for the front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, Kamel King, the Director of Cultural Tourism for Visit Mississippi, tells us more about the state's trails program, the Mississippi Blues,

Country Music, Freedom, and Writer's Trails. These outdoor markers enshrine the state's cultural past with informative signposts that I bet you've seen all over, but maybe never taken the time to appreciate. Here's my time with Kamel. When and how did the Trails program get started?

KAMEL:

Sure, the Trails program started with the Mississippi Blues Trail and then soon after the Mississippi country music trail. 18 years ago is when a bill was presented to the legislators, which they passed along with the country music trail when, and it not only established the trail, but it established a legislative body, which is the Mississippi Blues Commission and the Mississippi Country Music Trail Commission to preside over the trails. That bill appointed whomever was at the helm at the time in those organizations to also be commissioners on the trail commissions. That was the reason why, you know, the trail was able to go after federal and state grants, national endowment of the arts grants and things of that nature that was able to fund the trail to get it started.

PAUL:

I mean, we're coming out of political season here, Kamel, and this is a really bipartisan, just reach across, everybody can agree that this is something good for the state of Mississippi.

KAMEL:

Most certainly. From the very beginning. I mean, the trail systems in Mississippi are one of the biggest tourism pulls for our state. Not only that, we get to recognize, you know, our blues artists, our country music trail artists, our freedom trail and Civil Rights activists, as well as our newest trail, which is the Mississippi Writers Trail, which honors our literary authors. Not only does it honor them and the places that catapulted the blues and the country music throughout the rest of the world and the people and the artists, but it also gives all these tourists something to do. People from out of state, you wouldn't believe how many people from other countries come to the smallest town, the smallest city that has a population of almost nobody and they will come there so interested, ready to read the trail, ready to experience the people, the food. They want to stay as long as possible. So this trail system not only is a way for us to, you know, to our own horn and for the people and the places to be recognized and memorialized, but it is an absolute, a cult following for a lot of people outside of our state and outside of the country because they want to immerse themselves in our music and cultural richness.

PAUL:

You mentioned visitors from all over the country and all over the world. And just recently the trails program was taken all over the country and literally all over the world. Tell me about the two newest markers in the system.

KAMEL:

Yes, indeed. We are very proud that our marker in Liverpool was now unveiled. It had been unveiled a couple of years ago before COVID and it was stored in the British Music Experience. It was unveiled during the, I want to say, 2019 World Music Tourism Conference that happened there, but it didn't have a permanent home. But because of our overseas reps and Rochelle (Hicks), as well as our commissioners and Craig (Ray) and Ms. Lennon, who owns the Cavern Club, we were able to unveil it. And it is now sitting right outside of the Cavern Club. And if you know anything about the Cavern Club, it is where the Beatles were made famous; they visited all the time. It is an iconic club. It is literally a cave underground. And it was one of the best unveilings we've ever had. And now millions of tourists are going to be able to see it right outside of the Cavern Club.

PAUL:

Then on the Freedom Trail, we had one on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Is that right?

KAMEL:

That was one of the best unveilings I've ever been a part of in my whole career. That was to memorialize and recognize the 1964 Freedom Democratic Convention. And it happened right there in Atlantic City, right on the boardwalk. And so to see these Freedom Trail activists and these freedom fighters who were still alive, who told what it really was like then, but to also see the uniform support from the state of New Jersey, from the city of Atlantic City all the way down to your aldermen. It was a beautiful thing to see. Our governor attended and spoke eloquently. The lieutenant governor of New Jersey was there and also said many wonderful words, but it was a spiritual movement. It wasn't just an unveiling of a marker. It was a remembrance of where we have been, where we have come, and the real truth of what that marker really meant.

PAUL:

Now you promote markers all over the state, but right here in the capital city, Jackson, the City With Soul, we've got a lot of these markers. Tell me about some of your favorite locations or your favorite stories from some of these markers here in Jackson.

KAMEL:

It's so many. I believe Jackson has, if not the biggest concentration, you guys are probably either one or number two. I want to say Jackson is a number one as far as the concentration of all our markers together completely. But I'll tell you the one of the most memorable unveilings that I've had in the great city of Jackson is Dorothy Moore right there at Jackson State. It was just a monumental experience. If you guys don't know who Dorothy Moore is, we call her “Queen Moore.” If you ever heard the iconic hit Misty Blue, she is the artist that did that. Not only that, she's one of the biggest groundbreaking female soul artist to ever come from Mississippi. She broke down all types of barriers and she is an angel of our city. And so unveiling that at Jackson State and seeing how happy she was and all of the love that came out to see her and how Jackson State supported her. Because, of course, that's where she went and she cut her teeth getting into singing and getting her curriculum there as a singer.

But to see from the mayor all the way down to people from her record labels, all of her friends, all of her singers who used to sing with her, and for her to sing that day, I mean, it just moved everybody. But there are so many different experiences like that with our trail systems. And especially when we're able to give someone their flowers while they are alive, that just means so much, too.

PAUL:

Kamel, you all have done amazing work with the trails. I have to know though, is there any one thing that you would kind of hang your hat on as it pertains to the trail program?

KAMEL:

One thing that we are most proud of at Visit Mississippi, as well as the Freedom Trail Task Force and our partners who assist us because the Freedom Trail, is now a bi-agency trail. We have partnered with the Mississippi Humanities Council and they've been wonderful partners… is that our Freedom Trail has now been absorbed and a part of the United States National Civil Rights Trail. Any marker that is a part of the Mississippi Freedom Trail automatically becomes a part of a national system. That goes to show not only how important our story is as the ground zero for Civil Rights for America, which affected the world, but it also shows that our marker systems work. That is so powerful and it's so honest and it has affected so many people that the National Civil Rights Trail has said, you know what, everything that you guys are doing is true, honest, and you're a part of our national system automatically now. And we're very proud of that.

PAUL:

Kamel, I know that we can quite literally learn from these markers. If we go to the marker and we study the text on there, we see the photos, we can get an education that's just beyond compare, but I'm asking you kind of philosophically, what do you think these markers have to say to us as a people and about our state?

KAMEL:

What's interesting about people who hold a bag of jewels is they over time tend to not value the bag of jewels in the same way that other places do. And unfortunately, tends to be a bit of our value of our own jewels. Mississippi, we know we're the birthplace of America's music. There's no doubt in that. We have more Grammy Award winners and nominees than if you put 20-some-odd states in the United States together. But it takes a lot of times other countries, other states to really, to blow that horn for us to really understand. But these marker systems, they make us so proud of ourselves. We're able to go to our own landmarks and read this huge bombastic, beautiful marker, you know, with gold lettering, and on the back, it tells more of a pictorial story and a more robust story about that person or that place. And all of the people around it who helped support that person or that place to become famous. And so the pride that you get from reading that, you know, and it's so curated and it's honest and it's not watered down, it is very truthful. It gives us as Mississippians a sense of pride that I don't think we had before because it is, and I'd like to coin Craig Ray for saying this, it is the world's largest outside museum. It is literally an outside museum that makes us proud of our great state.

PAUL:

That's Kamel King with a look at Mississippi's freedom, blues, country music, and writers trail markers. If you'd like to start your own adventure exploring the people and places that have contributed so richly to our state, you'll find a link to the markers in our show notes at visitjackson.com/soulsessions.

Our podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor.

If you want to learn more about all of the great things happening in Jackson and our efforts to spotlight them, you can visit our website at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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