The Natchez Democrat: More than $30K in grants awarded to Natchez museums

Published 9:05 am Saturday, September 4, 2021

By Staff Reports

Monroe Sago is reflected in pictures taken from the family scrapbook of Paul Stott, one of the musicians killed in the Rhythm Night Club fire on April 23, 1940. The family sent Sago the scrapbook from California for display in the museum on St. Catherine Street. (File photo | The Natchez Democrat)

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NATCHEZ — Three Natchez museums will receive more than $30,000 of funding this year through the ARP Humanities Recovery Grant program offered by the Mississippi Humanities Council.

The museums and the amounts awarded to them are The Rhythm Night Club Memorial Museum, $14,160; Natchez Museum of African American History & Culture, $12,200; and The Dr. John Banks House Museum, $12,000 — which altogether is a total of $38,360 awarded to Natchez.

These awards are part of more than $450,000 awarded by the Mississippi Humanities Council to 36 different cultural organizations, historical societies and museums recover from the financial hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funds were provided by U.S. Congress through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which engaged MHC along with 55 other state and territorial humanities councils, to support America’s cultural sector.

Roscoe Barnes III, cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez, said he was ecstatic when he learned of this news.

“These museums play an important role in our community,” he said. “They have stories about our past that are crucial to understanding our history. These are stories that will be meaningful to people of all races and backgrounds.”

Barnes said that he and Visit Natchez are honored to have played a role in assisting them with the grant applications.

For more information about this program, visit mshumanities.org.