As a 20th Century city boy, it took me coming here to realize how different the world was in 1920 in the Delta. In the first place, there were probably five to ten times the number of people in the rural areas. The gin made cotton profitable, but machinery hadn't yet collapsed the population. Though sparsely-populated today, the Delta would have been teeming with people then, almost all black sharecroppers. Second, very little of what passes as entertainment to us now or even to city-dwellers back then was available to the rural communities. That helped me understand why there were dozens, perhaps several hundred small jook joints. Almost always run by a single family … small places. The Poor Monkey is a survivor (though without live music). It’s about a mile and a half down a rutted gravel road. But in the 20’s, there were probably plenty of people to make Saturday night profitable, enough money to attract traveling musicians.
If you assume that posted rules and regulations are a result of prior experience that made them a necessity, it's apparent that you can have a pretty good time at the Poor Monkey.
Location:Clarksdale, ms
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