This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Up next, a story out of Mississippi where we broadcast in Oxford about an hour south

of Memphis. And this story is about the King of the Delta Blues. We're talking about Robert Johnson.

Much of his life is shrouded in lore and mystery. Here to separate fact from fiction is Robert's

grandson. Let's get into the story.

Robert Johnson born May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, which is a town in Coppire

County, Mississippi. And his mother name was Ms. Julia Dobbs. Julia had about five kids. Robert

was the youngest, and she was married to a guy named Charlie Dobbs. Charlie Dobbs was not

Robert's dad, okay? Charlie Dobbs was a man that got in trouble in Hayes or Hearst because, you know,

the racial tension and everything and Mr. Charlie was, he was one of those that, okay, I'm going to do

what I do. And so he had to get out of town because he wanted to do what he wanted to do.

And he left Julia and the kids there.

Well, while they were there, a man by the name of Noah Johnson started, you know,

calling her courtship.

Noah Johnson is robber's biological father.

Okay.

And the family, she took the family from Hayeshurst, moved to the Delta area, and, you know,

considered to be a sharecropper.

And from sun up to sundown, you were working the fields for little or no money.

You were living on land, on plantation, where they still were plantations.

Even though slavery was over, it was still plantations. And they had what they called a commissary.

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