By Josh Troy
Clarksdale Advocate
“Taking it back to our roots” was the theme of this year’s annual Friars Point Weekend from May 5 to 7. Friars Point Weekend consists of a parade on Friday night. There were food and T-shirt vendors, along with music and other activities in the streets and parks for the remainder of the weekend.
The parade consisted of two contests in an effort to take it back to the roots of Friars Point. Sheriona Collins Marshall and her family won first place for the most loud and proud vehicle. Cookies Nolan won for the most creative vehicle.
Friars Point Community Action Club President, Charles E. Nolan, organized the weekend. Friars Point Community Action Club member Barbara Jakes organized the parade.
“It’s a festival to celebrate the town,” Charles E. Nolan said. “We all come together. It’s like a big family reunion. People come in. They have family reunions sometimes. They come in and they are just together. It’s more like a family gathering, a big family reunion, a town family reunion.”
Charles E. Nolan said people come to Friars Point Weekend from neighboring areas such as Quitman, Sunflower, and Tunica counties, as well as Memphis, and other parts of the country such as Las Vegas, Nev., California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Milwaukee, Chicago, and St. Louis.
“You have people from all over the world in Friars Point,” he said.
Charles E. Nolan talked about the history of Friars Point. The town is near the Mississippi River and has a Friars Point Museum.
“Friars Point used to be the county seat of Coahoma County, but during the 1927 flood, it flooded us out. That’s when everybody kind of migrated to Clarksdale,” he said.
Charles E. Nolan said people with ties to Friars Point are coming together as one for the weekend.
“It was mostly made up of the townspeople, different families,” he said.
“There are so many things going on in the world. We do need to come together as a peaceful town.”
Charles E. Nolan praised the efforts of the Friars Point Police Department and the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Office to make the weekend successful.
“We have a really peaceful time. We receive help from our local police department,” he said. “They do a great job. And the County Sheriff (Charles) Jones, he sends his officers out here to assist the police here.”
