A deserving tribute to the 'Parchman Living Legends'

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

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