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is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County. It is located on the banks of the Sunflower River.
Clarksdale was named in honor of founder and resident John Clark, brother-in-law of politician James Lusk Alcorn, whose plantation home is nearby.
Clarksdale is located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, an alluvial flood plain in northwest Mississippi. In the early 20th century, Clarksdale was known as the "Golden Buckle in the Cotton Belt" and enormous plantations such as that of the Stovall family dominated the landscape. Clarksdale figured prominently in the regional agricultural landscape and became pre-eminent when the International Harvester Company perfected the development of the single row mechanical cotton picking machine at the nearby Hopson Plantation in 1946. This technological advancement quickly revolutionized American agriculture and had far-reaching economic and social implications for the cotton industry worldwide and particularly for the Mississippi Delta.
Whereas previously the area's sprawling plantations were worked largely by an indentured African-American workforce, the rapid mechanization of cotton production made these underpaid and systematically exploited workers expendable. This change, concurrent with the return of many African American GIs from World War II accelerated what came to be known as The Great Migration to the north, the largest movement of Americans in U.S. history. The Illinois Central Railroad operated a large depot in Clarksdale which quickly became a primary departure point for many African-Americans in the area. This important rail hub provided an escape route away from an accelerating climate of racist hatred for which Coahoma County quickly became known as evidenced by violence against such well known local figures as musician Ike Turner and Civil Rights leader Dr. Aaron Henry.
The African American exodus from Mississippi was recounted with Clarksdale triangulated with Chicago and Washington D.C. in the award winning book "The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How it Changed America" by Nicholas Lemann. "The Promised Land" was later produced as a documentary film series by the History Channel narrated by award-winning actor and Clarksdale restaurateur, Morgan Freeman.