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Willie Carter displays the barber chair previously owned by James 'Big Jack' Jackson, who served as president of the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice. Carter is owner of the building that was home to Donnan's Barbershop, the meeting place for the Deacons. He moved the chair to his current barbershop. (Click on image to enlarge.) |
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This ceremony aligns with the 79th Annual Mississippi NAACP State Convention and Policy Institute taking place in Natchez November 7-9. The Rev. Dr. Robert James, president of the Mississippi NAACP, will be one of our speakers. About 150 attendees of the NAACP convention will attend the unveiling ceremony.
Dr. Shawn Lambert is an associate professor and undergraduate coordinator at Mississippi State University.
NATCHEZ, Miss. — Dr. Shawn Lambert, associate professor and undergraduate coordinator at Mississippi State University, is inviting the public to his presentation on the Prospect Hill Plantation.
Lambert’s talk will focus on the archaeology of his
enslavement project at Prospect Hill. His topic is, “Before They were Settlers:
Material Culture and Spaces of Enslavement at the Prospect Hill Plantation.”
Lambert will deliver his hour-long presentation at 12:30
p.m., Thursday, October 24, 2024, at Dumas Hall, Room 107, Alcorn State
University, Lorman Campus. He will also share his presentation at 1 p.m.
Friday, October 25, 2024, at the Natchez Museum of African American History and
Culture, 301 Main St., Natchez.
The programs are sponsored by the Southwest Mississippi
Center for Culture and learning at Alcorn. They are free and open to the
public.
“Dr. Lambert’s work is significant in many ways,” said
Teresa Busby, executive director of the Southwest MS Center for Culture and
Learning. “I especially appreciate that he developed the work at Prospect Hill
as a multidisciplinary project that involved diverse scholars from several
areas of academia to help us better understand the history of enslavement in
the South. We will all benefit from Dr. Lambert sharing their findings with
us.”
According to Lambert, the research at Prospect Hill has
global significance. “It is research that represents the collaboration with
diverse communities and descendent communities as well as researchers from
other disciplines such as archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, historians,
and biological anthropologists,” he said.
Lambert noted the “research is a multivocal and
multi-perspective attempt to not only understand the history and archaeology of
enslavement at Prospect Hill in Mississippi, but also trace this reverse
African Diaspora to Liberia where hundreds of enslaved individuals from
Prospect Hill were resettled.”
Prospect Hill is located in Jefferson County. Lambert
described it as “an early-to-mid 19th century plantation site that, until
recently, has had very little anthropological research.”
The site played a significant role with early plantation
life in the South and with the American — and Mississippi Colonization
Societies — that relocated hundreds of enslaved people to Greenville, Liberia,
Lambert said.
“In this spirit, Prospect Hill is globally connected to
the history and development of West Africa and to local communities in
Mississippi,” he added.
Lambert works in the department of Anthropology and
Middle Eastern Cultures at his university.
According to his bio, his research interests include
protohistoric and historic decolonial and community-engaged archaeology in the
U.S. South with specific focuses in pre-European Contact Native American
communities, and the archaeology of enslavement in the American South.
Lambert is recognized as an expert in remote sensing
technologies, ceramic analysis, ancient iconography, organic residue analyses,
and elemental analyses of artifacts.
Lambert said he is “committed to working with diverse
descendant communities and the public to further decolonize archaeological
practice, strengthening relationships with underrepresented communities, and
making field work more inclusive and supportive for student experiential
learning.”
For more information, send email to tbusby@alcorn.edu
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NATCHEZ, Miss. — After years of sitting in disrepair on the corner of North Rankin and Monroe streets, the Nellie Jackson house has a new makeover. The wood-frame building has a new roof, new porch, and its original screen door that features a metal cutout of a woman wearing a hoop skirt with a man in top hat bowing in front of her.
The house is painted white with a red door and red
trimmings. Its renovation work is continuing inside with new floors and walls.
The house, which was commonly known as Nellie’s Place (or
simply Nellie’s), was owned by Nellie Jackson (1902-1990). It is located at 416
N. Rankin and is currently owned by J. T. Robinson, who is restoring the
building. Robinson said he purchased the house in 2019.
Caesar Cobb of Cobb Construction, Gloster, is doing the
renovation. Completion date is set for November 30, according to Robinson. He
plans to open the home as a museum.
Jackson was well known as a friendly madam who openly ran
a brothel from her home for about 60 years.
Jackson’s house was built in the Queen Ann style between
1892 and 1897, according to the Historic Natchez Foundation. The house has
three bedrooms and two baths. It has undergone a number of changes.
The house was one of the filming locations in the movie,
“Get on Up” (2014).
Though mostly known for operating her brothel, Jackson
also was known for her charity.
According to news reports, she fed the hungry and
regularly provided money for people in need. She also provided transportation
for nuns. During the mid-1960s, she served as an FBI informant and provided
information on members of the Ku Klux Klan gleaned from her employees who
serviced Klan members, according to local historians. She was also known to
bail civil rights workers out of jail.
Jackson’s story is told in the documentary film,
“Mississippi Madam: The Life of Nellie Jackson” (2017).
Jackson was born into poverty on August 3, 1902, in
Possum Corner, an unincorporated community in Wilkinson County. She was the
youngest of twins. While growing up, she attended Oak Grove Church in Wilkinson
County, according to her obituary. She moved to the house on Rankin in 1921,
and a few years later, she joined the Holy Family Catholic Church, the obituary
noted.
Jackson died on July 12, 1990, from injuries received in
a fire at her home on July 5, 1990. Police said the fire was caused by Daniel
Eric Breazeale, 20, a former resident of Oxford. Newspapers reported he was a
junior at the University of Mississippi majoring in business. He stayed in
Natchez for the summer where he was working. He was living on North Rankin at
the time of the fire.
Breazeale reportedly became angry when he was denied
entrance into Jackson’s house in the early morning hours. Police said he was
told to leave because he was drunk.
Breazeale left and returned with gasoline in an ice
chest.
Police said he “poured gasoline on the front porch,
entered the brothel and poured gasoline on Jackson. In the process, he
also splashed gasoline on himself,” according to The Clarion Ledger (November
13, 2019). Former Mayor Tony Byrne told The Clarion Ledger, “”When he lit the
fire at Nellie’s, it blew him almost across the street.”
A witness told The Natchez Democrat (July 6, 1990) that
Breazeale resembled a “ball of fire shooting across the street.” The witness
said, “He came flying across the road. It looked like a cartoon.”
The Natchez fire chief at the time said the fire
destroyed the front porch and one bedroom. Jackson’s bedroom was near the
porch. She was asleep at the time of the fire, The Natchez Democrat (July 6,
1990) reported. Two of her four dogs died in the fire.
Jackson suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns
over 100 percent of her body, according to press reports. Breazeale suffered
third-degree burns to 80 percent of his body.
Breazeale and Jackson died from their injuries. Jackson
was 87. Her funeral was held on July 16, 1990, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
Services were officiated by Father David O’Connor. Jackson was buried at Sunset
View Memorial Park.
Read more at:
https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2024/10/15/before-after-nellies-has-new-look/
Board members of the Natchez Historical Society display a poster of Prince Ibrahima. They approved a donation of $3,420 for a marker in the prince's honor. In the front row from left are Al King, Karen Hill, and Adam Gwin. In the back from left are Roscoe Barnes III, Daye Dearing, and Bobby Dennis. (Click on image to enlarge.)
NATCHEZ, Miss. — The Natchez Historical Society has made it possible for Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori (1762-1829) to be honored with his own historical marker.
On Monday, Oct. 14, the society’s board members approved
a donation of $3,420 that will cover the cost of the marker, which will be
acquired through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The total
cost includes $2,670 for the marker and post, plus an additional $750 for a
sign underneath that reads, “Sponsored by the Natchez Historical Society.”
Karen Hill, the society’s president, said she is very
pleased with the board’s decision.
“I am proud of the Natchez Historical Society,” she said,
adding the donation is important for many reasons. “I’m happy that our gift
will help to ensure that the legacy of Prince Ibrahima will be honored and
shared for years to come.”
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” (Oxford University Press, 1977). Alford welcomed the news
about the funding.
“Kudos to the Natchez Historical Society and to Dr.
Roscoe Barnes III, Visit Natchez’s cultural heritage and tourism manager, for
this exciting news,” he said. “The diverse history of our area’s exceptional
people is well-served by this worthy step.”
The marker will be a first for the Natchez-Adams County
area that pays tribute to the African prince who spent 40 years enslaved on
Thomas Foster’s plantation near Washington. His story has been widely known and
publicized for decades.
“I feel this marker will give recognition to the man and
his skills utilized in the productivity of the Natchez District, which helped
to build its wealth,” said Bobby Dennis, director of NAPAC Museum and new board
member of the society. “The knowledge of an enslaved man or woman is rarely
discussed, only the productivity of the enslaved slave who an owner led.”
In addition to Dennis and Hill, the society’s board
members who approved the donation include Daye Dearing, Al King, Virginia
Benoist, Adam Gwin, and Roscoe Barnes III.
Dr. Artemus W. Gaye, a seventh generation descendant of
the prince, said he and his family were excited to learn about the donation.
“The responsibility or obligation of the living and the
community is never to forget the past and the ancestors whose footprints we are
walking in the here and now,” he said. “After 240 years since Prince Abdul
Rahman and his trusted friend, Samba, walked the paths of their enslavement in
Natchez and Washington, the onus is now on us to always remember their legacies
and the society they built within their own constrained limitations. This
historic marker in essence is a testimonial of this great effort to reconcile
and remember!”
Gaye is the author of “Dr. Isabella Rahman and the
African Prince of Fouta Djallon” (Forte Publishing International, 2023).
Once the application for the marker is approved and
processed, it will be delivered around August 2025. An unveiling ceremony will
be planned around that time or later.
The marker will be posted near Historic Jefferson College
and Highway 61, a site that played a significant role in Ibrahima’s life. It
was in this area in Washington that Ibrahima recognized Dr. John Coats Cox in
1807 at the market place. Cox, an Irishman, had sailed to West Africa in 1781.
After going ashore, he became lost and later collapsed. He was rescued by the
Fulani people and taken to Timbo, where Ibrahima’s father cared for him until
his health was restored.
After Ibrahima and Cox recognized each other at the
market in Mississippi, the doctor tried for many years to buy his freedom.
However, Foster refused to sell him. Cox died in December 1816. The story of
their chance meeting near Natchez became widely known.
Read more at: https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2024/10/16/natchez-historical-society-funds-marker-honoring-prince-ibrahima/
Reena Evers-Everette and Roscoe Barnes III (Click on image to enlarge.) I recently attended the 3rd Annual U.S. Civil Rights Trail Connectiv...
