| History of Hazlehurst | Events Timeline | Robert Johnson Timeline |
Important Dates |
| 1901 |
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Charles Dodds and Julia Ann Dodds purchase property in Hazlehurst, MS.
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| 1909 |
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Charles Dodds injures a prominent white man in a fight in Hazlehurst, MS. He leaves town wearing women’s clothes to avoid a lynchin’. He leaves with his mistress, moves to Memphis and changes his name to Spencer. (According to Alan Greenberg, this event occurred in 1907, while Guralnick places the date as 1909.)
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The Dodds property is sold to Matthews who holds a note against it. According to the Dodds family, Julia remains in the house.
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| 1911 |
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May 8th |
Robert Leroy Johnson is born in Hazlehurst, MS to Julia Ann Dodds and an itinerant field hand named Noah Johnson. (This is the commonly agreed on date of Johnson’s birth.)
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| 1911-24 |
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Robert travels with his mother and two sisters to the Delta to work in the fields.
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| 1920 |
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Robert plays his first guitar made of 3 nails and 3 strands of wire—a diddley bow. He nails the strands to the east side of his house and uses a bottle to keep the strings from laying flat. He uses the bottle to tune the homemade instrument.
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| 1924 |
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Robert moves in with his stepfather, Mr. Spencer and family. Robert attends St. Peter’s school in Memphis.
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| 1927 |
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Robert gets his first guitar. (According to Johnny Shines, Robert primarily favored the Kalamazoo and the Stella.)
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| 1929 |
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February 16 |
Robert marries 16-year-old Virginia Travis.
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| 1930 |
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April 10 |
Virginia and the baby die in labor.
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Robert tells one of his friends in the Delta that “I don’t wanna work; I’m tryin’ to learn how to make my livin’ without pickin’ cotton.”
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June |
Robert approaches Son House in Robinsonville and asks him to teach him to play. Son House works with Robert, but tells him that he’s just making “racket.”
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Robert returns to Hazlehurst, looking for his father. (Johnny Shines and others who knew Robert assert that he never met his father, and from time to time swung between a sullen disregard for him and an obsessive concern for his whereabouts.)
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Robert takes Ike Zimmerman as a guitar mentor.
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Robert practices every Saturday morning on the Hazlehurst Courthouse steps before he plays at the jukes on Saturday night.
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Robert stays with friends he meets in Hazlehurst—a common practice among blues musicians.
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| 1931 |
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This year Johnson uses Hazlehurst as his home base. It is the year that Johnson comes into his own as an exceptional musician. If there is a crossroads, then it’s in Hazlehurst.
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March |
Virgie Jane Smith Cain has a one-time encounter with Robert on a country roadside and becomes pregnant with Claud Johnson.
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May |
Robert marries Calletta "Callie" Craft in Hazlehurst, MS.
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December 16 |
Claud Johnson is born in Martinsville, MS.
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| 1935 |
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Johnny Shine and Johnson travel together. (According to David Bianco, “Robert Johnson was a rambling man who was ready to hop a freight train at the drop of a hat…He hitched rides on trains, rode on back of trucks, and sometimes he made enough money to buy a bus ticket.”
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| 1936-37 |
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Robert contacts H.C. Speir, a record dealer and recording officianado from Jackson, MS, who sends him to Don Law of the American Record Corporation. Law becomes the first and only person to record Robert Johnson. (Recording took place in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas. Payment for the 29 recordings was probably $10-$15 for each one with no royalties. In 2006, an original Vocalion 78 sold for over $9,000.”)
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| 1938 |
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August 16 |
Robert Johnson dies and is buried at the Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church two miles north of Greenwood, MS. However, controversy remains over cause of death. (This grave site was confirmed by Mrs. Rosie Eskridge as she claims that she saw her husband, Tom Eskridge, dig the grave.)
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December 13 |
Record producer John Hammond seeks out Robert to play his Carnegie Hall concert called From Spirituals To Swing.
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| 1951 |
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Muddy Waters and Elmore James record Johnson's Dust My Broom. They introduce Johnson’s music to Chicago, which leads to the development of Chicago Blues.
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| 1961 |
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With the release of the Columbia LP record King of the Delta Blues Singers, a new worldwide audience is introduced to 16 of Robert Johnson’s recordings.
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| 1969 |
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The Columbia album is reissued.
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| 1970 |
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Columbia releases the LP King of the Delta Blues Singers-Volume 2, containing Robert’s final 13 songs.
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| 1980 |
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Robert Johnson is inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.
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| 1983 |
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Alan Greenburg writes Love in Vain, first screenplay about Robert Johnson.
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| 1986 |
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Robert Johnson’s “photo booth” photo is first published in Rolling Stone Magazine’s article announcing his induction into the newly formed Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame.
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The movie Crossroads comes out. It is about Robert Johnson and Willie Brown and stars Joe Seneca and Ralph Machio. (Johnson sings about his 'friend-boy, Willie Brown’ in his Cross Roads Blues.)
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| 1990 |
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Columbia releases a two-CD box set, The Complete Recording of Robert Johnson. It reaches number 80 on the Billboard Pop charts, wins a Grammy, and goes platinum, selling nearly 2 million copies worldwide.
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1994 |
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September |
United States Post Office issues a commemorative stamp of Johnson.
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The City of Hazlehurst honors the Robert Johnson family by hosting a blues festival at Lake Hazle, Hazlehurst, MS.
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| 1998 |
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September 20-27 |
The Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum honors Robert Johnson in a weeklong tribute--their Third Annual American Masters series.
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| 1999 |
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December 12 |
The release of Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl?:The Life and Music of Robert Johnson marks the first effort to tell Robert Johnson’s complete biography on film.
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| 2001 |
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March 7 |
The Songs of the Century, a list compiled by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts, is released. Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues comes in 342.
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June 15 |
The Mississippi Supreme Court rules that Claud Johnson is the legal son and heir of Robert Johnson.
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| 2004 |
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The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation is established by the son (Claud Johnson) and grandsons (Steven, Gregory and Michael Johnson) of Robert Johnson. |
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March 30 |
Duck/Reprise Records releases Eric Clapton’s CD Me and Mr. Johnson. (Clapton says of Robert Johnson, “It is a remarkable thing to have been driven and influenced all of my life by the work of one man.”)
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The Librarian of Congress, James J. Billington, selects The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
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June |
Eric Clapton invites the Johnson family to the Crossroads Festival in Dallas, TX.
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August 13 |
The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation and Morgan Freeman present the first New Generation Award at Ground Zero in Clarksdale, MS. to fourteen-year-old Jacqueline Nassar from Itta Benna, MS.
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August 14 |
The Johnson family hosts the Robert Johnson Heritage and Blues Festival in Greenwood MS . Headliners are Honey Boy Edward and Henry Gray.
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| 2005 |
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The 1st Annual Robert Johnson Blues Festival is held at Chautauqua Park, Crystal Springs. The Headliner is Latimore.
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August |
The Johnson Family is honored at the 2005 Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in Clarksdale.
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| 2006 |
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February 8 |
Robert Johnson is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, CA. Claud Johnson, accompanied by Steven Johnson, receives the award.
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March 1 |
Robert Johnson Blues Foundation purchases a building at 218 E. Marion Ave. in Crystal Springs, MS for their office headquarters.
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March |
The City of Hazlehurst provides space for the Robert Johnson Center in the Hazlehurst Depot, the depot Robert Johnson frequented.
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May |
Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi proclaims the first weekend in May as Robert Johnson Weekend.
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May 4 |
The Robert Johnson Center officially opens in Hazlehurst.
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May 5 |
The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Museum officially opens in Crystal Springs.
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May 6 |
The 2nd Annual Robert Johnson Blues Festival is held at Chautauqua Park, Crystal Springs. The headliner is Robert Lockwood, Jr.
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The second New Generation Award is presented to thirteen-year-old Patrick T. Droney from Linwood, N.J.
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| May 7 |
The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation hosts Gospel Fest at the 2006 festival. Headliners include the Canton Spirituals featuring Harvey Watkins Jr. and Lee Williams and the Spiritual QCs.
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(Information compiled by Dr. Janet Schriver)