Chapter 4: Clarksdale Summary and Analysis

Ike Turner was born Izear Luster Turner on November 15, 1931, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the heart of the renowned Delta blues region. He is the the son of a doting, stay-at-home mother and a father who is a man of the cloth. Reverend Turner is not above cheating on his wife, however, which leads to a bizarre albeit slow-motion end. He is pulled out of the house one evening and shot several times by the irate husband of a woman with whom he is having an affair. Since the white hospital won't take him, the doctor has a tent set up in the front yard where they could care for him. The Reverend Turner lays in the tent, finally dying after three years! The town is segregated with blacks who are made to stay on the east side of the town...