Mental health theme set for 86th commemoration of Rhythm Night Club Fire

Diana Hunter to serve as guest speaker for the April 25 event

By Roscoe Barnes III
Natchez, MS, USA / ListenUpYall.com
Apr 14, 2026 | 3:25 PM

Monroe Sago, co-owner with his wife Betty of the Rhythm Night Club (On Site) Memorial Museum, stands at the historical marker in front of the museum. Photo by Roscoe Barnes III (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Diana Addison Hunter, longtime employee of the Mississippi State Hospital, will serve as guest speaker at the 86th commemoration of the Rhythm Night Club Fire, which occurred on April 23, 1940. The annual ceremony will be held at 12 p.m. Saturday, April 25, 2026, at the Rhythm Night Club (On Site) Memorial Museum at 5 St. Catherine Street.

The event is free and open to the public. This year’s theme is “Mental Health: Where the Rubber Meets the Road.”

Betty Sago, co-owner of the museum with her husband, Monroe, said mental health is a topic she has wanted to address for many years, in part, because of conversations with the survivors.
 
“So many of the people we’ve talked to over the years, especially the survivors, said they can’t get the fire out of their mind,” she said. “They’ve struggled with the loss of their friends and family members. So many people were affected by this tragedy. We thought it was time to finally talk about these issues in mental health.”
 
Betty Sago said Hunter is the ideal speaker for the occasion because of her professional experience in the mental health field.
 
Hunter, a resident of Jackson, is a human resources supervisor at the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield. She is a graduate of West Point High School and Jackson State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Finance.
 
In addition to completing coursework for human resources certification, she is a Certified Public Manager. She has been employed at the hospital since 1993.
 
“This is an opportunity to share and educate people and let them know they have options and a lot of different avenues through which they can maintain mental health. A lot of us focus on our physical health, but mental health is just as important.”
 
Hunter said the theme is fitting. “If our mental health is not in tune or intact, we’re not able to hit the ground running,” she said.
 
Hunter also expressed appreciation for the Sagos and their work. She said the Sagos “are amazing people,” and for her, it has been “a grand opportunity to know them and see the work they’re doing with the museum.”
 
The Sagos have hosted the commemoration each year since 2010 to honor the more than 200 victims who died in the club’s 1940 fire. They also recognize the survivors and their families. Additionally, they award scholarships ranging from $500 to $1000 to local high school students who write a winning essay about the museum and the story of the fire.
 
The 2025 recipient was Octavius Saul Jr, who was a senior at Natchez High School. He was awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Betty Sago said he planned to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge.
 
Participants in this year’s ceremony will include Stephanie S. Vivian of Terry, who will serve as the Mistress of Ceremonies. Soloists Lawrence Winston of McComb and Barbara Evans of Natchez will perform special selections. Dr. Roscoe Barnes III will share remarks about his work as the cultural heritage tourism manager at Visit Natchez.
 
As a community event, the ceremony is supported by the Natchez Fire Department, which will open the event with a siren blast of a fire engine. Near the conclusion of the program, organizers will distribute door prizes, and refreshments will be served afterward.
 
The Sagos also invite attendees to tour the museum and view recently acquired items in its collection.
 
For more information, call 601-597-0557 or send email to bettysago@rnconsitemm.org.

See more at this link: https://listenupyall.com/2026/04/14/mental-health-theme-set-for-86th-commemoration-of-rhythm-night-club-fire/

 

Visit Natchez releases new self-guided tour brochure on Prince Ibrahima

By Roscoe Barnes III
Natchez, MS, USA / ListenUpYall.com
Apr 10, 2026 | 1:24 PM

The newly released “Prince Ibrahima: A Profile and Self-Guided Tour” brochure was produced by Visit Natchez with a mini-grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. — A new brochure telling the story of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima (1762-1829) — and mapping key sites tied to his life in Natchez and Adams County — is now available free to the public.

The publication, titled “Prince Ibrahima: A Profile and Self-Guided Tour,” was produced by Visit Natchez and funded by a $2,111 mini-grant awarded in 2024 by the Mississippi Humanities Council.

“The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to support this project that highlights one of Mississippi’s most remarkable stories,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “This brochure is part of Natchez’s ongoing effort to uplift its full history and challenge simplistic or incomplete accounts of its past.”

The pocket-sized tour guide features a biographical profile of Ibrahima, along with a list of key sites tied to his life in Natchez and Adams County, including places he visited and related gravesites. A map and photographs of the selected sites are included.

The brochure was designed by Dustin Hinkle of Open Market Design Company and printed by Catherine Murray of Murray Printing.

Lynsey Gilbert, interim director of Visit Natchez, said she and her staff are excited about the publication, as are many others in the community.

“This is a beautifully designed publication that meets a real need in our community,” she said. “It tells an important story. At the same time, it is practical in that it allows readers to literally visit the places frequented by Prince Ibrahima. We invite everyone to pick up a copy and start engaging with this vital piece of Natchez’s history.”

Gilbert noted that the prince’s story is published as a convenient, easy-to-use resource for self-guided tours. It is available in print and online at the Visit Natchez website.

Bobby Dennis, director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, said the prince’s legacy remains an essential part of Natchez’s history. Among other things, he said, “The story of the prince’s life in Natchez shows the amount of knowledge and skills a man had before his enslavement.”

Mayor Dan M. Gibson welcomed the brochure, saying it aligns with the city’s broader efforts to share its complete history.

“The story of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima is one of the most remarkable stories in all of Natchez history,” he said. “This new brochure not only honors his legacy but also invites residents and visitors to learn more about Natchez as we continue to tell all of our stories.”

Ibrahima, who was Muslim, was a highly educated Fulani prince and military leader, from Timbo, in the Futa Jallon region of present-day Guinea, West Africa. He was captured in 1788 and sold to slave traders. He spent 40 years enslaved on Thomas Foster’s plantation near Natchez before gaining his freedom in 1828 with the help of Andrew Marschalk, known as the “Father of Mississippi Journalism,” and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Clay during the administration of President John Quincy Adams.

Copies of “Prince Ibrahima: A Profile and Self-Guided Tour” are available at the following locations:

* NAPAC Museum, 301 Main St.

* Visit Natchez at The Depot Visitor Center, 200 N. Broadway St.

* Visit Natchez, 500 Main St., Suite 1

* Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St.

* Natchez City Hall, 124 S. Pearl St.

* Natchez City Sightseeing Tours (in the lobby of The Natchez Grand Hotel), 111 N. Broadway St.

The Prince Ibrahima brochure may also be downloaded at https://visitnatchez.org/wp-content/uploads/website-11×17-Ibrahima-Brochure-2026-FINAL.pdf

For more information, call Roscoe Barnes III at Visit Natchez at 601-492-3004.

Natchez unveils second Prince Ibrahima marker on Silver Street

By Roscoe Barnes III
Natchez, MS, USA / ListenUpYall.com
Apr 10, 2026 | 7:24 AM

Direct descendants of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima join ceremony participants, Mayor Dan Gibson and Alderwoman Valencia Hall at the new historical marker on Silver Street. The marker was dedicated Wednesday, April 8, 2026. Photo by Michael Wilson (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. — The City of Natchez unveiled a historical marker honoring Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima (1762–1829) on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, on Silver Street. The marker stands near the site where he arrived as an enslaved man in 1788 and later departed Natchez as a free man with his wife, Isabella, on April 8, 1828.

“This marker ties into the larger story of Natchez, a river city that embraces its full history, even the shameful periods, for the purpose of enlightening its residents, visitors, and tens of thousands of tourists annually,” said Shelia Byrd, guest speaker for the ceremony. “This marker is a reminder to all that a rich history is undoubtedly complicated, complex and uncomfortable.”

Byrd is a former Associated Press reporter who now serves as deputy director of Programs and Communication Division at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Nearly 200 years after he sailed from a dock here, we’re gathered to unveil a lasting marker so that, perhaps, in another 100 years, future generations will know the story of Prince Ibrahima, his escape from slavery, and of Natchez Under the Hill,” she said.

Ibrahima was a Muslim prince from Timbo in the Futa Jallon region of present-day Guinea, West Africa. He was captured in battle in 1788 and sold to slave traders. He endured 40 years of enslavement on Thomas Foster’s plantation near Natchez, before gaining his freedom.

Byrd discussed his history through the lens of family and legacy and how it fits into the broader story of Natchez and the United States.

“Prince Ibrahima’s story is unique, but in many ways ubiquitous,” she said. “Though he was an educated man, who was multilingual, he was stripped of any material regality in Natchez, where he was made a laborer. He was among the tens of thousands enslaved in Mississippi at that time.”

Despite his subjugation, Byrd said, “Prince Ibrahima was a husband and a father, who provided stability for his family – as much as possible under the circumstances. When we think about slavery and its many destructive elements, we must remember the extreme toll exacted on Black families.”

In opening remarks, Mayor Dan Gibson said it is good to live in a city like Natchez “where we are not afraid to tell our whole story.” He said there was a time when the whole story was not told here and that even today it is not told in many places across the United States.

“But here in Natchez, we know that this is a story that must be told, because it is a story about a people, and about today, a particular individual who absolutely helped build Natchez,” he said.

Gibson suggested Ibrahima is someone to admire for many reasons. He noted his “brilliant upbringing,” his royalty and education, including his multilingual abilities and leadership.

“The story is the story,” he said. “I’m not here to repeat that story. My job is to say we are telling that story. Not just today but every day, and it’s not just the story of one prince, it’s the story of an entire people.”

Gibson said there is good and bad in Natchez’s history, “but it is our history.” He added:

“It is unconscionable to stand right here on this beautiful river in this oldest city on the mightiest bluff on the mightiest river and to ignore those and their ancestors who came before us and built this city. In fact, it is unconscionable that we would ever fail to recognize those across our country whose ancestors built so much of this country and on whose backs much of this country was established.”

The program included remarks by David Dreyer, local historian and genealogist. He said, “This marker acknowledges the 40-year impact of slavery on one man’s life and family over 200 years ago, but the story remains to be told about the complexities of his family’s attempt to recover from the American experience of slavery and to rectify its injustice and inhumanity.”

Other participants in the day’s program included Vickie R. Green, Mistress of Ceremonies; Rev. Dr. Joan Gandy, who presented the Invocation; Tony Fields, who sang special selections; and Rev. Clifton Marvel Sr., who provided the Benediction.

Ainsley Dupre, student at Adams County Christian School, and Halle Stamps, student at Cathedral High School, both members of the Mayor’s Youth Council, read excerpts from Dr. Terry Alford’s book, “Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South” (Oxford University Press, 1977).

The Silver Street marker is the second one erected in the Natchez-Adams County area honoring the prince. The first, funded by the Natchez Historical Society, was unveiled in October 2025 on Highway 61 North near Historic Jefferson College and focuses on Ibrahima’s 1807 meeting with Dr. John Coates Cox. The new riverfront marker highlights his West African roots and the site of his departure to freedom.

See more here: https://listenupyall.com/2026/04/10/natchez-unveils-second-prince-ibrahima-marker-on-silver-street/

Natchez filmmakers donate ‘The Parchman Ordeal’ to JSU’s Margaret Walker Center

Film and original interviews preserved, now available to the public
 

by Mississippi Monitor | Apr 7, 2026 | Capital/River

By Roscoe Barnes III, Ph.D., Visit Natchez

Natchez filmmakers Robert Morgan and Darrell S. White donated "The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story," co-produced with the late director G. Mark LaFrancis, to the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University for preservation and public access on YouTube. This earlier photo shows the three producers (from left): Darrell White, G. Mark LaFrancis, and Robert Morgan. Photo courtesy of Robert Morgan (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- “The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story,” a documentary highlighting a pivotal chapter in the Civil Rights Movement in Natchez, has found a permanent home at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. The film is now preserved in the university’s archives and available for free viewing on the Center’s YouTube channel.
 
The Margaret Walker Center acquired the film and its accompanying original interview footage through a donation from Natchez filmmakers Robert Morgan and Darrell S. White, who co-produced the film with director G. Mark LaFrancis. LaFrancis died in June 2024 following a long battle with cancer.
 
“The Parchman Ordeal” premiered in October 2015 at the City Auditorium in Natchez, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1965 civil rights events it depicts. The documentary presents the story of African Americans arrested in Natchez for attempting to march for their civil rights. They were later jailed at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman in 1965, where they endured severe abuse.
 
“The Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University is extremely pleased to be adding the documentary film, ‘The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story,’ as well as its accompanying original interview footage to our oral history collection,” said Alissa Rae Funderburk, oral historian at the Margaret Walker Center.
 
“Though we have an extensive collection of civil rights interviews in our archive, this documentary sheds light on an important moment in the struggle and brings the stories of Parchman’s brave survivors to the forefront,” Funderburk said. “We hope that by providing access to such a thought-provoking film, we can remind our audience of the value of storytelling and the power of truth.”

Morgan said he is “deeply appreciative” of the university’s commitment to preserving and sharing Natchez’s history.
 

“We thank the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University for preserving the documentary and making it accessible,” Morgan said. “Honoring the roughly 150 young men and women arrested for parading without a permit during the civil rights era inspires future generations to boldly stand up against unconstitutional injustice.”

White echoed those sentiments. “The filmmakers’ mission was to accurately document the sacrifices made by those who took a stand on behalf of others, and the price they paid for their efforts,” he said. “We salute the Margaret Walker Center of Jackson State University for their commitment in helping to tell this forgotten and previously untold story.”
 
Lynsey Gilbert, interim director of Visit Natchez, applauded the decision by Morgan and White to partner with the Margaret Walker Center.
 
“This is an important documentary of Natchez’s history that highlights both the struggle and triumph of our local residents during the Civil Rights Movement,” she said. “Visit Natchez was pleased to assist the filmmakers with this new arrangement with the Margaret Walker Center. We’re especially excited to know ‘The Parchman Ordeal’ will be professionally preserved and made available to a much wider audience.”
 
In 2017, “The Parchman Ordeal” was recognized as the Most Transformative Film at the Crossroads Film Festival. The film was produced in partnership with the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture and was funded in part by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. In addition to being aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, it became the basis for the book, “The Parchman Ordeal: 1965 Natchez Civil Rights Injustice” (The History Press, 2018).
 
“The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story” can be viewed on the Margaret Walker Center’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/yJqTXt2tEp4
 
About the Margaret Walker Center
 
The Margaret Walker Center is an archive and museum dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of African American history and culture. Founded as the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People by Margaret Walker in 1968, the Center seeks to honor her academic, artistic, and activist legacy through its archival collections, exhibits, and public programs.
 
 See more at this link: https://www.themississippimonitor.com/natchez-filmmakers-donate-the-parchman-ordeal-to-jsus-margaret-walker-center/ 

Anne Moody is spotlighted on Mississippi History Now homepage

I'm happy to see my article featured on the Mississippi History Now homepage! Anne Moody (1940-2015), the powerful civil rights activist and author of the classic memoir Coming of Age in Mississippi, is currently spotlighted right on the front page — and I’m proud that my piece about her is part of this collection.

What an honor to contribute to this outstanding resource from the Mississippi Historical Society and MDAH.

Take a look: https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/anne-moody-1940-2015-civil-rights-activist-and-author-coming-age-mississippi

 

Ibrahima marker to be dedicated April 8

Top of the Morning column published in The Natchez Democrat (Wednesday, April 1, 2026, page 4A)

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Top of the Morning

Prince Ibrahima marker dedicated April 8

 

By David Dreyer

 
Two hundred and thirty-eight years ago, Abdul Rahman aka Prince Ibrahima was captured in an ambush in the fog of war. He was 26 years old, educated in Timbuctoo and already a military hero in his father’s Kingdom of Futa Jallon, an independent nation in the mountains of today’s Republic of Guinea in West Africa.
 
He was sold into slavery, brought to Natchez in the bowels of a slave ship, and sold under-the-hill to a man his own age who took him to his plantation north of town at Foster’s Fields on Pine Ridge. He was held here during the terms of our first six presidents of the United States, although initially Natchez was then under the rule of Spain.
 
Forty years later, at the age of 66, he was allowed to travel north to Washington, D.C. on his return to Africa with his American-born wife Isabella, but they had to leave their children behind in hopes he could raise enough money to free them as well.
 
After a year raising money, he felt compelled to leave and shortly thereafter died in what became the new nation of Liberia. Two of his sons, including the family of one of them, also reached Liberia the following year and intermarried with local people.
 
Meanwhile his other children were divided among the slaveholder’s wife, children and sons-in-law in the Natchez District and southern Louisiana, not to experience freedom for another 35 years.
 
Generations later in 1977, a young historian, Terry Alford of Indianola, Mississippi, published a book about his life called “Prince Among Slaves.” A generation after that, Artemus Gaye, a refugee from the Liberian Civil War, discovered that book and his own descent from Prince Ibrahima.
 
In 2003, Gaye held an Ibrahima Fest at the Natchez Community Center, bringing together scholars, descendants and most importantly, an American Muslim filmmaker, Alex Kronemer, who would tell Ibrahima’s story on film for the American Experience series on PBS. That would renew stories by other descendants of their descent from an African Prince.
 
On Wednesday, April 8, at 11:30 a.m., a marker will be dedicated near the dock under-the-hill to commemorate his life as an identifiable African who was brought here enslaved and whose family now has a 300-year-old history which connects them directly to a place and family in Africa. Few descendants of enslaved African Americans are able to do that because of the anonymity imposed by slavery.
 
This marker to an enslaved African represents all of them, many who remain nameless, for what they did to create and develop this city, state, and nation. It will greet the many visitors to Natchez who arrive and depart in comfort on riverboats to see what the labor of thousands of Africans and their descendants have created here in the Natchez District and neighboring Louisiana.

------------
 
David Dreyer is a local historian and Natchez resident.
 
See more at this link: https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/opinion/ibrahima-marker-to-be-dedicated-april-8-624b1ef9

Images from Natchez Powwow 2026

 

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Bruce Wayne Klinekole II is featured here. He is a Native American character actor of Comanche/Apache Tribe of Oklahoma/Mescalero Apache ancestry.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Oscar-nominated songwriter Scott George of Hominy, Oklahoma (center, wearing the white hat), is pictured at the drum during a performance at the Natchez Powwow on Saturday, March 28, 2026. To his left sits Eddie Yellowfish (Osage-Otoe-Comanche) of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who served as head singer of the Southern Drum.

George composed “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” which was featured in Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon. On Sunday, March 10, 2024, George and the Osage Tribal Singers — including Yellowfish — performed the song live at the 96th Academy Awards.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

I’m pictured here with Cherokee Nation flutist Tommy Wildcat at Natchez Powwow 2026.

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I'm pictured here with Natchez Police Chief Lee Best at Natchez Powwow 2026.