NATCHEZ &045;&045; The Voices of Civil Rights bus wasn’t planning on stopping in Natchez during its nationwide tour.

But veteran newsman Vernon Smith had his own plans and, accompanied by a History Channel videographer, made a trip to his native Natchez to tell the stories of those who, though not famous, made their own mark on the movement.

People such as Natchez native Mamie Lee Mazique. Former alderman George &uot;Shake&uot; Harden. Ser Seshs Ab Heter-C.M. Boxley, who works to tell the story of black history in Natchez.

That was in August. Now Smith, once Atlanta bureau chief and national correspondent for Newsweek, plans to return to Natchez next month to film the people he didn’t get to interview on that one-day trip.

&uot;Being from Natchez, I know the area has a quite a rich civil rights tradition,&uot; Smith said by telephone from Atlanta.

&uot;We all know the famous names … but there were plenty of regular people that rose to the occasion as well.&uot;

The Voices of Civil Rights is a project of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the AARP. Stopping in about 35 cities, participants will work to record personal stories, oral histories and personal artifacts of the civil rights movement.

Those accounts will then be stored at the Library of Congress as the largest civil rights collection in existence, Smith said.

In addition, the History Channel is filming a one-hour documentary on the project &045;&045; including, hopefully, the footage filmed in Natchez. As it now stands, the documentary is set to air in February.

The AARP will also distribute 80,000 brochures on the project to schools throughout the nation.

That organization chose to participate in the project because of how profoundly the civil rights movement affected those 50 and older &045;&045; the population the AARP seeks to serve.

The movement &uot;has, either actively or passively, affected where people are today &045;&045; from who they live next to to the role of who changes the baby’s diaper,&uot; said Muriel Cooper of AARP media relations.

In addition to interviewing both black and white Americans, Cooper said, the Voices team has interviewed such groups as Hispanic people involved in labor disputes in the West to people housed in Japanese internment camps during World War II.

But for Smith, telling the tale of black Americans who participated in the civil rights movement &045;&045; including those from his hometown &045;&045; may be the greatest story of all.

&uot;We’re doing this for future generations,&uot; he said, &uot;so they can appreciate the struggles.&uot;