Race and Racism

Natchez has always been and remains today divided along racial lines. Natchez was home to many tobacco and later cotton plantations, and thousands of slaves toiled in its fields. The descendants of planters are generally not keen on acknowledging how their wealth was made and maintained. The Forks in the Road slave market was the second largest in the Deep South, and its presence in Natchez is marked with only a small memorial. Slavery is generally not discussed in the Pilgrimage home tours, and white tourists do not want to hear about it. Likewise, no one wants to meditate upon the vicious Jim Crow laws that limited the freedoms of Black people and incarcerated many of them without just cause. However, Ser Boxley and other activists believe that healing will be forever delayed unless Natchez can come to grips with its sinful past and its racist...