Indianola — B.B. King's Hometown

Indianola, the seat of Sunflower County in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, was B.B. King's adopted hometown and the place he returned to throughout his life. King was born in the Berclair community nearby and moved to Indianola as a teenager, playing on the streets for tips before his radio career launched him nationally. The town has honoured him with the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center (which tells the story of Delta blues broadly), Club Ebony (which King purchased and donated to the museum), and B.B. King Road through the centre of town.

Club Ebony at 404 Hannah Avenue was one of the most celebrated Black nightclubs in the South, opening in 1948 and hosting virtually every major Black artist of the mid-20th century — James Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, Little Milton, Count Basie, and many others played here alongside the hometown hero. The club's preservation as part of the King museum complex is a rare survival of the chitlin circuit venue network that sustained Black musical culture through the segregation era.

The B.B. King Museum opened in 2008 and is one of the finest music museums in the South — its exhibits on Delta blues history, sharecropping, and King's specific biography are thoughtfully curated. King is buried in the museum grounds. Indianola is in the heart of the Delta, 45 minutes south of Greenwood and an hour from Clarksdale — easily included in any Delta blues itinerary.