Development Arrested ─ The Blues and Plantation Power in the Mississippi Delta

Development Arrested is a major reinterpretation of the two-centuries-old conflict between the African Americans and planters in the Mississippi Delta. In a definitive study of the history and social structures of the plantation system, Clyde Woods examines both planter domination of politics and economy in the region and the continuing resistance of the African American working class to the system’s depredations. “Development Arrested” traces the decline and resurrection of plantation ideology in national public policy discourse from Thopmas Jefferson to Bill Clinton. Woods documents the unceasing attacks on the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and how, despite having suffered countless defeats at the hands of the planet regime, African Americans in the Delta have continued to push forward their agenda for social, economic, and cultural justice. He ecamines the role of the Blues in sustaining their efforts, surveying a musical tradition-including Jazz, Rock and Rolll, Soul and Rap-that has embraced a radical vision of social change. This is an important contribution to the current political debates involving Mississippi politics, the presidency and Congress, and to our understanding of Black, US, and Southern history.

Clyde Woods is Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at Pennsylvania State University.