Natchez is latest stop on Facebook CEO’s tour of South

Published 12:49 am Thursday, February 23, 2017

NATCHEZ — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was spotted Wednesday in downtown Natchez, the latest stop on Zuckerberg’s road trip through the South.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, apparently made their way to Natchez after stopping in Vicksburg Wednesday and Clarksdale Tuesday.

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Zuckerberg posted on Facebook Wednesday evening that he and Chan stopped in Vicksburg Wednesday to see the battlefield and included a photograph of himself and Chan at the Vicksburg National Cemetery.

“It’s struck me over the past few days how much our history is still part of our every day life,” Zuckerberg said in the post. “Black and white families living in the same town together in Mississippi are likely descendants of slaves or those who held slaves generations ago. History is recent enough that older folks today can tell stories their grandparents told them from their experiences with slavery and the Civil War. This history is still fresh and shapes our lives today.”

The post about Vicksburg initially included a Natchez geo-tag. Facebook’s geo-tag allows users to tag their location on status updates or photos. The geo-tag was later changed to Vicksburg.

Zuckerberg announced on Facebook Sunday that he and Chan “are taking a road trip through the south this week as part of my challenge to visit every state in the US.”

Zuckerberg has been documenting the trip by posting a summary and photographs following each stop on the trip.

The couple’s first stop, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post, was Alabama, where they spent the day in Mobile and Bayou La Batre. Zuckerberg and Chan had lunch with fourth-generation shrimper Dominick Ficarino and workers from the local fishing business, where they shared stories about the industry and their communities.

“I’m looking at more of the world through the lens of building community these days,” Zuckerberg said on Facebook.

Zuckerberg then posted that he was in Selma, Ala., where he made a stop at The Selma Times-Journal, owned by The Natchez Democrat’s parent company, Boone Newspapers Inc.

Zuckerberg next traveled to Birmingham, Ala., where he met with Anthony Ray Hinton, who was freed after spending 30 years in prison on death row after being convicted of murder, which was later overturned.

Zuckerberg and Chan then stopped in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where they met with University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and players.

On Tuesday, Zuckerberg posted on Facebook that he stopped in Clarksdale and posted photos of a visit with actor Morgan Freeman at Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club.