I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.&uot;

Natchez’s own Richard Wright wrote those words in his book &uot;American Hunger,&uot; a sequel to his better known &uot;Black Boy.&uot;

They emphasize an underlying theme in Wright’s work &045; that we are all human, regardless of color; that we all have a hunger for life.

Why study black history? It is a history that includes and influences all of us, regardless of race or color.

Natchez alone has been home to great events and great figures in black history, from the dark days of the Forks of the Road slave market to the triumph of the slave prince, Ibrahima, traveling home to Africa; from the everyday ramblings of William Johnson, the barber of Natchez, to the great acts of heroism during the Civil Rights movement, battles fought by citizens who still contribute to our community.

We study black history to enhance our understanding of ourselves and our society, and, at a more local level, our community.

We study black history in order to move forward.

And we study black history because it is our shared history, because great figures of the past have sent forth their stories &uot;to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.&uot;