Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley Guest Speaker Presentation……..  Worthy Women of Watkins Street Cemetery Second Annual Reflections and Remembrance Program December 30, 2006

Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church Natchez Mississippi

From Africa to the Forks of the Roads to Watkins Street Cemetery, as African descendants, why are we here in

Mississippi and Louisiana

Our African presence begins with the enslaved Africans from the Bambara Nation force-brought up to Natchez by French enslavers-invaders around 1714-1720.

As Freedom Seekers and resisters of enslavement, we ran off to the Natches and other Native American Nations. We fought with Natches against the French helping to annihilate them at Fort Rosalie in 1829.

Spanish invaders force-brought more of our African Ancestors and Foreparents here to Natchez and enslaved them on land grants. This was the era of Prince Adullah Rahkman Ibrahima.

As Freedom Seekers, we continued to run away. In fact, Ibrahima ran away, however he returned and did not become free until 1828.

The 1800’s was the Euro-American Invaders era. These Euro-American invaders mainly came from Kentucky, Missouri Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Many came from other northern states. When migrating from the upper south, many of these invaders force brought in captivity with them, thousands of our enslaved Foreparents and Ancestors.

As freedom seekers, we resisted enslavement by running away.

Early on in the 1800’s America’s long distance enslavement dealers were force bringing our Foreparents and Ancestors here.

In the 1820’s, cotton and sugarcane became the cash crops for generating wealth for plantation enslavers. During this time, America’s long distance enslavement trafficking from the upper south to the lower south, increased. Natchez was the center to which more and more of us were force-brought as chattel human investment commodities.

We continued resisting enslavement by running away.

In the early 1830’s, the Forks of the Road enslavement markets opened and with the force removal of the Native Americans from their own land a cascade of Euro-American invaders flocked to the Southwest is search of fortune and fame.

We continued resisting by constantly running away.

From the 1830’s, to first of the 1860s, cotton became king of fortunes and sugar became queen.  Many thousands of our Foreparents and Ancestors were force-brought here in captivity from Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee and sold into plantation enslavement in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.

We continued resisting by constantly and increasingly running away

After one hundred and forty-nine years of chattel slavery, in the Freedom Summer of 1863, our enslaved and non-enslaved Foreparents and Ancestors rose up as part of the “Greatest slave revolt” in the history of the United States. During the Civil War, thousands of upon thousands of them self-emancipated by abandoning their places of enslavement and oppression and running off to emancipation proclamation freedom behind the United States Army lines. The able-bodied men deliberately injected themselves into the United States Army and decisively helped defeated the separatists, rebelling Confederates up and down the Mississippi River.

Establishers of our first “Black” African Descendants Bank of Mass Freedom

These Self-emancipated Freedom Fighters, African Decent Foreparents and Ancestors, who became known as United States Colored Troops and Navy men and some women, were born roughly between the 1820’s and 1850. They ranged from age 13 to 45. They became the first truly free African descent citizens. They built our first “Black” Bank of Mass Freedom by depositing in it the first mass freedom from chattel slavery, which included their role in making it possible for Juneteenth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment civil rights freedom of the Nineteenth Century. They reunited families, built churches, schools, colleges, agricultural economics, homes, (shotgun houses communities) businesses, political democracy and so on of that period called “reconstruction.” They were schoolteachers, preachers, Buffalo Soldiers, civil rights activists, local, state and congressional legislators, lower level school and college students, businesspersons, agriculturalists and so on.

WHO BECAME THE WORTHY FOREPARENTS AND ANCESTORS THAT ARE BURIED IN OUR WATKINS STREET CEMETERY

Seventeen or so of those buried there were born during chattel slavery times, such as Elizabeth Randolph born in 1843. Others were born in the late 1840’s, the 1850’s and mid-1860’s. Elizabeth Randolph was 20-years old and possibly an active supporter of Union Army Freedom Fighters African decent, a resident of the “Contraband Camp,” but certainly an adult witness to Civil War freedom and a Congressman John R. Lynch peer. She must have witness or been a participant in the first “Night Watch” December 31,1862 when millions of enslaved Ancestors and Foreparents at midnight sat in great anticipation waiting for the January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation Day to arrive.  

However, the real story buried in the Watkins Street Cemetery which needs resurrecting, preserving, presenting and interpreting are the stories of the people born from the 1870s to the 1940’s.

1870’s:

Buried in our Watkins Street Cemetery are the children born of Foreparents and Ancestors who were part of the Greatest Generations of Black Freedom Fighters such as Nathan, James and George Wright of Richard Wright ancestry and openers of the first “Black” Bank of Mass Freedom.

They were our next wave of Negro school and college children, preachers, citizens, politicians, businesspersons, Buffalo Soldiers and so on. They brought you the “Black” Greek societies so you can do your the Greeks copied from the Africans thing today.

1880’s:

Buried in our Watkins Street Cemetery are the children born of Foreparents and Ancestors who were the children, and now the great grand children of the Greatest Generation of Freedom Fighters African descent. They were your next wave of Negro school and college children, preachers, citizens, politicians, businesspersons, Buffalo Soldiers and so on who were Jim Crowed out of their political and economic freedom deposited in the first “Black Bank of Mass Freedom. They lived under overt, white supremacy domination racism and oppression, intended to reduce us to subhuman levels of existence again, forever. Some of these 1880s-born Foreparents and Ancestors fought in WWI, like Mr. Jack Ross and Willie Carr. They all withstood all the racism heaped upon them so we could be here today.

1890’s:

Buried in our Watkins Street Cemetery are the Great Grandchildren of the Greatest Generation. These Foreparents and Ancestors sat at the feet of their great grandparents who were Freedom Fighters during the Civil War and their immediate grandparents getting the wisdom and training needed to move our race forward. They continued the “Black” African descendants community’s way of life values made available to them. They became WWII fighters. They grew up under and survived Mississippi’s legal system of Black Code, segregation and violent racial oppression so we could be here today.

 1900’s:

Buried in our Watkins Street Cemetery are Foreparents and Ancestors who endured 60 plus years of Black Code segregation and police enforced racial oppression. They continued the “Black” African descendants community’s way of life values made available to them by their parents and grandparents buried in Watkins Street and other cemeteries. They fought in WWII and became Tuskegee Airmen and Black Greeks, Masons, Eastern Stars, NAACP, Urban Leaguers, Doctors and the grandparents of parents of people who today are now in their 60’s and 70’s. Their grandchildren’s generation challenged them to stand up against white supremacy domination Jim Crow in Natchez and elsewhere.

Those buried there born in the 1920’s represents the parents generations of us now in our 60’s and 70’s. They fought in the Korean War. They worked under extreme conditions of poverty and white supremacy domination Jim Crow so we could be here today.

Their great grandparents, who were Civil War Freedom Fighters, began passing away and hundreds are buried in our National Cemetery. The older than any one near a hundred years old can remember, 30^th of May/Decoration Day march from Vidalia, Louisiana across the Mississippi River, to be joined by those waiting at the Natchez Toll Bridge and marching on to the National Cemetery is how we still go out there each year, to honor them.

However, in the 1930’s and 40’s they raised children who became the second greatest generations of Blacks in America, who in the 1960’s 20^th Century Civil Rights movement, rose up in revolutionary mass protest and agitation and destroyed public Jim Crow, White Supremacy segregation oppression. They made another huge deposit of mass freedom in our Bank of Black Freedom. We are the generations of parents who say we worked to make it better for our children of today.

Nevertheless, our children and grandchildren of today, no longer carry on our necessary freedom fights and struggles, thereby making more deposits of mass freedom in our Bank of Black Freedom. As a result, our Black Mass Freedom Bank is going bankrupt.

The lessons for the freedom mission our children and grandchildren must accomplish lay buried in our history, from Africa to the Forks of the Roads to the Watkins Street and other cemeteries. 

 Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley, Founder/Curator Africa House Ya Providence Educulture Museum and Gallery Natchez Mississippi

A History of Watkins Street Cemetery

“In 1909 in consideration of $500 and five promissory notes of $700 each, the Natchez Colored Cemetery Association duly incorporated by ten men of color, purchased approximately seventeen acres of land in northern Natchez from Albert E. James. This transaction established The Colored Peoples’ Cemetery, known today as The Watkins’ Street Cemetery. At different intervals through the years, several funeral directors or organizations following the death of the incorporators managed this privately owned cemetery. For the past several years, the cemetery was without regular maintenance resulting in immense deterioration as the only noticeable attention was provided by hired personal caretakers of local or out of town residents who inherited plots from deceased family members.

            The Worthy Women of Watkins’ Cemetery Association organized in 2005 by Mrs. Thelma T. White seeks to restore and maintain this historic African American cemetery. This gigantic effort has progressed through the cooperation of local officials, community volunteers and local and out of town donations. Accomplishments include removal of trees and debris; several clearings of overgrowth and sprayings; petitioning city officials to install drainage and grave lanes, petitioning Adams County Supervisors to provide inmate labor from the Sheriff’s Department to assist with regular maintenance, cataloguing tombstone information, decorating Veterans graves on special holidays and installing a gate.

            A recent and significant accomplishment is submitting an application to the Department of Archives and History for a certificate of historical significance for unmarked burials associated with the Rhythm Night Club Fire of 1940. This certificate awarded in June 2006 instructs the County Board to exercise authority granted under Section 35-5-19 of MS Code annotated, 1972, to repair, rehabilitate and maintain these unmarked burials as a historical monument.

            Plans are to install section markers, erect entrance signs and establish a Rhythm Night Club Fire Monument to identify this burial site. Other appropriate improvements deemed pertinent to the preservation and beautification of the cemetery will be implemented.

            This is our Second Annual Program appealing to churches, groups, businesses, organizations and individuals for much needed monthly, semiannual or annual donations to the Watkins’ Street Cemetery Fund established at Britton & Koontz Bank. All donations are tax deductible. We graciously appreciate all past, present and future donations. Good intentions alone will not achieve our goals. We operate solely on the generosity of those who care enough to give.” WWW Cemetery Association Members: Mrs. Thelma White, President, Mrs. Dorothy Sanders, Treasurer, Mrs. Rosalie F. Hawkins, Assist. Treasurer, Mrs. Carolyn Smith, Secretary, Minister Dorothy Hills, Public Relations, Mrs. Gloria J. Butler, Mrs. Rose Dromgoole, Mrs. Adair W. Jackson.

Make donation checks payable to: WWW Cemetery Association. Mail to:

P. O. Box 17893 Natchez, Ms. 39122