For the New World, the history of Natchez, Mississippi, goes way back.
The city, now with a population that hovers around 14,000, is often cited as one of the oldest continuously inhabited European settlements in the United States. With its enviable position on the Mississippi River, the French established Fort Rosalie there in 1716. Since then, Natchez has continued to reinvent itself.
Now, the city is grappling with its complicated racial history and making efforts to do justice to telling a multi-leveled history that goes beyond the gentility of antebellum homes — and gets to the heart of the American civil rights story.
Debbie Cosey grew up in Natchez, but spent many years in San Francisco before purchasing Concord Quarters, an 1820s quarters for the enslaved, in 2014.
"This was never meant to be a bed-and-breakfast. When I bought the property, I thought it would be a good place for a bride," Cosey said. "Then came George Floyd and nobody wanted that sort of thing. Then, we found that it was a slave dwelling. At first, it was horrible for us."
But Cosey kept researching.
"The more I started to work and look at things and realize things, I understood that this place is so worthy of restoration," she said. "It is why I am here. The ancestors chose us. I tell their story as often as I can."
Shining a light on history
Natchez is digging into fascinating angles to connect the dots of its past, including the story of Forks in the Road, the slave market that existed in Natchez. From 1833 to 1863, Forks in the Road was the second-largest slave market in the Deep South.
According to the Natchez National Historical Park, "tens of thousands of enslaved men, women and children were transported from Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and the Carolinas to the market at Natchez."
When the Federal troops arrived in Natchez on July 13, 1863, many slaves fled the plantations to join the troops.
"They joined the U.S. Colored Troops," said Roscoe Barnes, cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez. "Forks in the Road was horrific when you had humans sold as cattle, but in my mind, it has a happy ending. The men who fled plantations helped dismantle and take the wood from Forks in the Road to help build barracks for Fort McPherson. Now, those who joined the army were wearing uniforms and carrying weapons for the first time in their lives."
Natchez is erecting a monument to honor over 8,000 Black men who served with the U.S. troops.
Barnes, who grew up in the area of Mississippi known as "the Delta," is playing a pivotal role in researching and shining a light on a history that even he, a native Mississippian, is learning. Barnes returned to Mississippi in 2013 after being gone for 30 years, after joining the military and living in Europe and New England.
"When I came back to Mississippi, it was like a culture shock. I had forgotten certain things. There was still a certain mindset on race that I had been removed from for all those years," Barnes said. "When I was coming up, I didn't know the civil rights history of Mississippi. My parents were not activists. I would hear of a bombing, but it really didn't mean anything to me. When I came back, I began to study the civil rights history."
The George Metcalfe bombing
Barnes' research began to uncover the details of the stories many people of Natchez had lived, stories worthy of retelling.
For example, there's the incredible story of George Metcalfe, who was president of the NAACP in 1965. Metcalfe knew he was being stalked by the Ku Klux Klan, including Klan members who worked beside him at the Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company.
"They thought they would put a stop to him by placing a bomb in his car," Barnes said. "But it did not kill him."
The injuries Metcalfe endured from the car bomb on Aug. 27, 1965, took more than a year for him to recover.
"And then, he went right back to work," Barnes said. "They thought the bombing would shut him up, but it had an opposite effect. The bombing galvanized the Black community."
The bombing served as a "we've had enough" moment, Barnes said. Barnes paraphrases a historian to say, "The bomb that shook the ground under that car shook the Black community. Many Blacks who had been timid until then came out."
Attention to untold stories
Metcalfe's story is told through a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker at the Dr. John Bowman Banks House, located at 9 St. Catherine St., in Natchez. The Banks home served as the local NAACP headquarters and was Metcalfe's home.
"During Freedom Summer of 1964, when civil rights workers converged on the state, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee also resided here," the Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker reads. "In January 1965, 'night riders' fired shots through a window of the home in an effort to terrorize the local movement."
In that environment, the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice began to form. A Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker honoring the Deacons is in the works for Natchez to be unveiled in November in front of Leon Donnan's Barbershop.
The Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice played a critical role in the civil rights movement throughout Mississippi. On Sept. 10, 1965, they held their first official meeting in the barbershop, under the leadership of barber James “Big Jack” Jackson, who served as the president of the paramilitary organization. The barbershop became the command post for the Deacons, who provided armed protection for the Black community and civil rights workers.
“After police repeatedly refused to shield activists from physical attacks by Klansmen and segregationists, the Natchez Deacons arose to provide that vital protection. They never provoked a fight, but if activists were attacked, armed Deacons fiercely defended them,” said Stanley Nelson, author of “Devils Walking: Klan Murders Along the Mississippi River in the 1960s,” (LSU Press, 2016).
"When I see the changes taking place, I am encouraged. I have hope," Barnes said. "In the summer, we will be commemorating Freedom Summer, 1964. In Natchez, it's wonderful to see these other stories being told in Natchez. In previous decades, people have focused on the antebellum homes. Now the other stories are being told."
Natchez is also home to Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, located at 301 Main St, Natchez. The museum shows 300 years of history of African Americans from the Colonial and Cotton periods to the Civil War, including information on the so-called "Prince of Slaves."
Prince Ibrahima, a prince from West Africa, who was captured by slave traders in 1788. Prince Ibrahima worked as a slave for 40 years in Natchez on the Foster Plantations. He was 67 years of age when a miraculous series of events led to his freedom and his trip back to Africa. A 2007 movie called "Prince Among Slaves" tells his story.