Civil rights pioneers and participants to be honored in MLK parade

Alderman Frazier will serve as grand marshal

 

Billie Joe Frazier
Natchez Alderman, Ward 2

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Natchez Alderman Billie Joe Frazier, Ward 2, will serve as the grand marshal for the Natchez NAACP Dr. MLK Parade on Monday, January 20, announced Jacqueline Marsaw, who chairs the parade committee.

“It is an honor and a pleasure to be named grand marshal for this parade,” said Frazier. “This is an important event. It is very special to me, and I appreciate what it means to our city.”
 
The parade will kick off at 3 p.m., with the line-up beginning at 2 p.m. on Broadway Street on the Bluff. This year’s theme is “Natchez All In.”
 
Prominent names in Black History, such as Medgar Evers and Wharlest Jackson Sr., will be honored in the parade, along with Ida B. Wells-Barnett, whose image now appears on the U.S. quarter.
 
Others who will be honored include Derrick Johnson, president of the National NAACP; Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley, former civil rights worker and coordinator of Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society; and Nick Bezzel, founder of the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Pistol & Rifle Gun Club.
 
Marsaw said that one of the highlights of the event will be the “Parchman Living Legends,” the civil rights workers who were arrested on October 2 and 3, 1965, for marching through the streets of Natchez, defying a court ban against marching. This resulted in several hundred of them being arrested.
 
When the local jails became full, the authorities bused 150 of them to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman where they received harsh treatment at the prison. Their experience became known as “The Parchman Ordeal.”
 
The “Parchman Living Legends” will have their own float in the parade, according to Marsaw. Those who were arrested but did not go to Parchman, will also be honored, she said.
 
The parade is especially meaningful to Frazier. In an August 2023 interview, Frazier said that in the 1960s, he was one among many teenagers who participated in the protest marches during the Civil Rights Movement in Natchez. “It all started at the grassroots level,” he said. “We were the young people then who took everything to the forefront.” 
 
Frazier went on to serve in law enforcement. In 2008, he retired as a lieutenant with the Natchez Police Department, where he served for 32 years. Frazier spent three and half years in the Navy. He is serving his ninth year as a member of the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

Marsaw reported a team of nine volunteers with AmeriCorps will assist with the parade. The team, designated as River Five, will be led by Team Leader Craig Kuhnert of AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps).

A deserving tribute to the 'Parchman Living Legends'

Top of the Morning column published in The Natchez Democrat (Wednesday, January 15, 2024, page 4A)

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Top of the Morning

 

A deserving tribute to the ‘Parchman Living Legends’

 

By Roscoe Barnes III

 
When Jacqueline Marsaw decided to feature the “Parchman Living Legends” in the Natchez NAACP Dr. MLK Parade on January 20, she made an excellent choice.
 
Marsaw chairs the MLK parade committee, and by recognizing these veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, she is doing her part to share their stories while helping to preserve an important piece of Natchez’s history.
 
Marsaw is also introducing these heroes to a new generation. This is important, in part, because some of the atrocities that occurred at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan – and other racists – are simply hard to imagine today. For many, the terror that ripped through Natchez in the 1960s (and earlier) is either forgotten or hardly discussed.
 
But who are these “Living Legends” that the parade will feature? In short, they were the warriors of the movement who refused to give up in the face of racial violence. As Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley has stated, “They didn’t let nobody turn them round!”
 
On the weekend of October 2-3, 1965, over 300 of them were arrested after they marched through the streets of Natchez, defying  a court ban against marching. When the local jails became full, the authorities bused 150 of them to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where they endured harsh treatment. It is said that they were “Proud to Take a Stand.” Their experience became known as “The Parchman Ordeal.”
In his book, “Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi” (University of Illinois Press, 1995), John Dittmer writes that the protesters over 12 were sent to Parchman.
 
“City officials hoped that this action would crush the movement, for at Parchman male prisoners were stripped naked and for two nights suffered through temperatures in the forties with windows open and fans blowing,” Dittmer writes. “Men and women both were force-fed laxatives and given only ‘sparse supplies’ of toilet paper.”
 
According to Stanley Nelson, author of “Devils Walking: Klan Murders along the Mississippi in the 1960s” (LSU Press, 2016), some of the protesters were ordered to drink out of the toilets. Nelson notes that one of those arrested and sent to Parchman was Exerlena Jackson, the wife of Wharlest Jackson Sr. Wharlest was killed in the February 27, 1967, bombing of his truck by the Ku Klux Klan on Minor Street in Natchez.
 
Nelson also reports: “One fourteen-year-old female inmate was sent home early by bus, arriving just in time to be rushed to the hospital, where she delivered a stillborn child.”
 
As you can see, these veterans of the movement made notable sacrifices for the cause. They paid a high price for freedom and civil rights, but in the end, their efforts resulted in one of the most successful community victories in Mississippi.
 
A few days ago, I asked Marsaw about her reason for featuring these civil rights veterans. She said the idea originated with Helen White, who was one of the protesters who went to Parchman. White had asked her about honoring these heroes in the 2024 parade and onward.
 
Marsaw liked the idea. She said that many from the movement are now up in age, and some have passed on. “I wanted to make it a point to honor them this year and each year going forward,” Marsaw said. The honorees will include the protesters who were arrested but did not go to Parchman, she said.
 
The “Parchman Living Legends” will have their own float in the parade. Marsaw said she’s grateful to the people who made donations for the float.
 
The MLK parade will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, January 20, with the line-up beginning at 2 p.m. on Broadway Street on the Bluff.
 
---------------

ROSCOE BARNES III, Ph.D., is the cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez.

Mark your calendar for the 2025 Annual Dinner of the Natchez Historical Society

The dinner is Tuesday, January 28, at the Natchez Grand Hotel.

Reservation and payment deadline is January 14.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

‘I Have a Dream Youth Luncheon’ set for Jan. 20

By Roscoe Barnes III
The Natchez Democrat
Published Friday, January 3, 2025

Praise Dancers of Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church perform at an earlier "I Have a Dream Youth Luncheon." The next program will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, January 20, at the Natchez Convention Center. Photo courtesy of William Terrell of The Bluff City Post.

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- After being on hold for several years, the “I Have a Dream Youth Luncheon” will once again be held in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event, last held before COVID-19 in 2019, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, January 20, at the Natchez Convention Center. The price of the meal is $11 per person.
 
The program is being organized by the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture (NAPAC) and the Natchez Business and Civic League.
 
Jimmy Ware, president of the Natchez Business and Civic League, said the program is a way for the volunteers and the community to live up to the ideas of King. He noted that for the past 30 years, attendance at the event actually grew from 75 guests to about 1,200.
The luncheon, which was held annually, shut down in 2020 because of the pandemic.
 
Mary White, a longtime member of the MLK Day Committee, said the program is exciting for everyone. It features children ages three to young adult who share their talent in presentations and a variety of performances, she said.
 
“We have kids from churches and schools participating,” she said. “They perform in dance groups. They give speeches, and some of them sing. After the performances, we feed them lunch and then they go to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. All of the kids are talented.”
 
The music is provided by a professional musician, White said.
 
The MLK Day Committee is seeking sponsors for the event. Ware shared: “All sponsors are asked to make a monetary contribution, which will help offset expenses such as facility rental fees, food services, and publicity. Sponsors may also purchase tickets that will be donated so that local youths may attend the luncheon.”
 
Sponsorship levels include: Platinum Sponsor: $1,000; Gold Sponsor: $700; Silver Sponsor: $500; Bronze Sponsor: $250; Sponsor: $50; and donations of any amount.
 
Sponsors are asked to promote the event in their place of business, Ware said, adding the names of all of the sponsors will be listed in the luncheon program.
 
The 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade, which will follow the luncheon, will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, January 20, with the line-up beginning at 2 p.m. on Broadway Street on the Bluff.
 
For more information, call Flora Terrell at 601-446-6288 or Jimmy Ware at 601-870-5088.

Prince among slaves: New grant will fund Prince Ibrahima brochure

By Roscoe Barnes III
The Natchez Democrat
Published Friday, January 3, 2025  

Beverly B. Adams, a descendant of Prince Ibrahima, displays a copy of the book she wrote about the prince. It’s titled “Chronicles of the Life of Prince Abdul-Rahman Ibrahima: A Journey through Slavery From Timbo to Natchez” (The Gazell Studios LLC, 2018). Adams said she and her family are elated about the forthcoming publication on the prince. (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Mississippi Humanities Council recently awarded a $2,111 mini-grant to Visit Natchez for a new publication on the life of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori (1762-1829).

 
The working title is "Prince Ibrahima: A Profile and Self-Guided Tour." It will feature a short biography of Ibrahima, a list of the sites he visited and other areas, including gravesites, related to his life history in Natchez and Adams County. A map and photos of the selected sites will be included.
 
"The story of Prince Ibrahima is one of the most fascinating chapters in Mississippi's history,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “The Humanities Council is pleased to support Visit Natchez's efforts to share this remarkable story with both visitors and local residents."
 
Lynsey Gilbert, interim director of Visit Natchez, said the publication will introduce people to an important figure in Natchez's history. 
 
"We're excited about this project on Prince Ibrahima, and we appreciate the support of the Mississippi Humanities Council in helping us to honor his legacy by publishing and promoting his story," said Gilbert.
 
She noted the publication will be designed as a pamphlet, which will make it suitable as a convenient, easy-to-use resource for self-guided tours.
 
“My family and I are elated that our ancestor is being recognized with this prestigious honor,” said Beverly B. Adams, a descendant of Prince Ibrahima. “I believe that Prince Abdul Rahman would also approve of the story of his life being shared with others to acknowledge the unfortunate events of slavery and how it affected victims of it.”
 
Bobby Dennis, executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, said the publication will be good for sharing Natchez history and for promoting tourism.
 
“This can bring to life a story about the skills and wisdom of the enslaved person before he was enslaved,” Dennis said. “The knowledge and skills needed for the plantation owner's success are never expressed but can be seen through Prince Ibrahima’s life here in the Natchez District.”
 
The Natchez Democrat has been tapped to provide the graphic design. Printing will be done by Murray Printing.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Ibrahima (1762–1829) was a Muslim prince from Timbo, Guinea, West Africa, who was captured in 1788 and sold to slave traders. He spent 40 years enslaved on Thomas Foster’s plantation near Natchez.
 
Ibrahima arrived in Natchez in August 1788. He gained his freedom in 1828 with the help of  Andrew Marschalk, who was known as the “Father of Mississippi Journalism,”  and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Clay in President John Quincy Adams’ administration.
 
On April 8, 1828, Ibrahima and his wife, Isabella, boarded the Neptune steamboat and departed Natchez with their freedom as they waved goodbye to their children who remained enslaved. In 1829, they sailed to Liberia where Ibrahima died at the age of 67. He never reached his homeland.
 
Ibrahima’s story is told in Dr. Terry Alford's book, "Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977). Most of the research in the new publication is based on Alford's book.
 
The new publication will support other historical and promotional initiatives implemented to tell Ibrahima’s story, according to Visit Natchez.
 
In October 2024, the Natchez Historical Society approved a donation of $3,420 that will cover the cost of the area’s first historical marker honoring the prince. The marker will be acquired through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. It will be located on MDAH property off of Highway 61 North near Historic Jefferson College.
 
Read more at: https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2025/01/03/prince-among-slaves-new-grant-will-fund-prince-ibrahima-brochure/
 

MDAH in 2025: New name in store for Grand Village

By Roscoe Barnes III 

The Natchez Democrat 

Published Sunday, December 29, 2024

Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, recently announced major plans for historic sites in Natchez and other locations. (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, announced major plans for multiple historic sites in 2025 -- and later -- that include Windsor Ruins, the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, and Historic Jefferson College, among others.

 
The Grand Village will be renamed the Natchez Tribal History Center. Windsor Ruins will have new signs and a new interpretation, and Jefferson College will be restored and serve as an interpretive center and preservation field school.
 
Blount also outlined plans for the Margaret Ann Crigler Park, which will be adjacent to the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, the Vicksburg Civil War Project, and an exhibit in 2025 that commemorates the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
 
Blount shared her vision for these sites during a December 18 media roundtable in Jackson. She told the press that Mississippi has important stories to tell and there is a growing number of people who want to hear those stories. This growing interest is having a positive impact on tourism, she said.
 
“We are moving around the state ensuring that our most important stories are told in all their complexity and that we're reaching a broader audience with these stories,” Blount said.
 
She also noted: “I think that there is a consensus among leadership, local and state in this state, that tourism is on the rise for Mississippi and that we have important stories to tell and that people will come and that we'll all have a better understanding of who we are and where we've come from.”
 
Windsor Ruins
 
“When we opened the Two Museums in 2017, we knew that our next priority really needed to be our sites around the state,” Blount said, noting the sites around the state needed MDAH’s attention.
 
Attention was first given to Windsor Ruins in rural Claiborne County. Blount said the columns were in danger of falling. But thanks to the state legislature, funds were provided through the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program that allowed them to acquire specialists to stabilize the columns and restore the capitals at the top of the columns. The work is now done, she said.
 
Research and archaeological work has been done at the site to uncover the stories of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Windsor. A new interpretation of the site will be announced early next year. New signs will go up at the site around the beginning of 2025.
 
Grand Village
 
Blount said their next priority was the Grand Village, a National Historic Landmark site that the department has owned since the 1970s. “It’s highly significant, and we had done very little to expand or update the initial interpretation from the ‘70s,” she said. “So we're building a new museum there and a new outdoor pavilion. And we are we're going to add walking trails.”
 
She noted all of the exhibits and interpretation will be new. In addition to the citizens of Natchez, MDAH is working with scholars of Native American history in Mississippi and their tribal partners, she said, adding the lead tribal partner is the Muscogee.
 
The new Grand Village should open in 2028, and when it opens, it will be known as the Natchez Tribal History Center. Blount said their native partners felt it was time to change the name. “’Grand Village’ is what the French knew the site as,” she said. “It’s not really a village.”
 
According to Blount, “Mississippi has more interesting, consequential, complex history than any other state.” She said one of the most important ways to tell the stories of the people and what happened here is to preserve the places where they happened.
 
Jefferson College
 
Next on MDAH’s list of priorities is Jefferson College, which Blount described as “the birth place of statehood, where the delegates first gathered to write the first state constitution.”
The college was the state's first institution of higher learning before the public universities opened. It also served briefly as a Freedman's Bureau after the Civil War. In addition to restoring the school’s eight historic buildings, plans include work on the roofs, windows and interiors, and the opening of an interpretive center.
 
The center, she said, will tell the stories that are central to the history of Natchez and to the country. These stories will focus on the cotton boom, slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction, and the aftermath of Reconstruction up to the Civil Rights Movement.
 
The establishment of a historic preservation field school will be another feature of Jefferson College. It will be a place where students can come from area universities, as well as Natchez Adams School District, to get hands-on training in historic preservation trades.
Blount said that while MDAH will continue to work on its programs, including the preservation field schools, “the work on the buildings will take years” to complete. She said it is important to get the buildings in shape before they place exhibits inside.
 
Projected costs
 
When asked about the amount of money being spent on the various projects, Blount provided projected costs for each of them.
 
Since Windsor Ruins is done, there is no need for more funding of the project, she said. And because some of the funds have already been placed into the Grand Village, its total will be less than $25 million. Total cost for the work at Jefferson College “remains to be seen,” as MDAH is just beginning the restoration of the building, Blount said.
 
Blount said the total cost for the projects will include funds they already have on hand. She explained that the money will come in from state, local, and federal government and from private donors.
 
Blount thanked the State Legislature for providing support of all of the projects.
 
Hurricane Katrina
 
Near the end of the meeting, Michael Morris, executive director of the Two Museum, announced plans to tell the story of Hurricane Katrina. He said it was an important event that impacted people in Mississippi and Louisiana.
 
On May 8, 2025, a photographic exhibit on Hurricane Katrina will be displayed at the Two Museums. The photographs were taken by Melody Golding, who is a photographer who's worked with the Smithsonian Institution and etcetera, Morris said. A number of programs on the topic will be held throughout the year, he said.
 
 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade will be Jan. 20

Event to feature civil rights activists of the Parchman Ordeal

(Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. --- The 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, January 20, with the line-up beginning at 2 p.m. on Broadway Street on the Bluff.
 
The theme is “Natchez All In.” The event will include civil rights activists from the 1960s.
 
“In the January 20th MLK parade, the remaining living members that went to Parchman will be honored,” wrote Parade Chairperson Jacqueline Marsaw in a Facebook post. “I feel so good in honoring them as they should be every year.”
 
Marsaw described the activists as “Parchman Living Legends” because of the suffering they endured in the struggle for civil rights. On October 2 and 3, 1965, hundreds of protestors marched in solidarity through the city’s streets in defiance of a September 30 court ban against marching. They were all arrested, and  when the local jails became full, the authorities bused 150 of them to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
 
The protesters were subjected to harsh treatment at the prison. Their experience became known as “The Parchman Ordeal.”
 
The parade will also honor such leaders as Medgar Evers, slain civil rights leader and NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi; Wharlest Jackson Sr., civil rights leader who died when his truck was bombed by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Natchez, on Feb. 27, 1967; and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist and activist who led anti-lynching crusades in the 1890s and fought for woman suffrage.
 
Others who will be honored include Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley, former civil rights worker and coordinator of Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society; and Nick Bezzel, founder of the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Pistol & Rifle Gun Club.
 
Natchez Alderman Billie Joe Frazier, Ward 2, will serve as grand marshal.
 
Entry fees for the parade are: $50 donations for any amount of vehicles; $50 for floats and 2 vehicles; and $10 per car.
 
Marsaw said bands, dance groups, horses, motorcycles and all organizations are welcome to participate in the parade.
 
The parade route will start at North Broadway and Franklin streets. From there, it will travel along Franklin to N. Dr. M.L. King St., where it will turn left and proceed up to Minor Street, where it will end.
 
The parade will be followed by trophy presentations at the corner of Dr. M.L. King and High streets for the best float.
 
The parade is sponsored by The Natchez Branch of the NAACP.