NATCHEZ &8212; Audely Mackel didn&8217;t get credit for his leadership at first.

The Natchez man had to do all his work underground in 1940. The town didn&8217;t welcome the NAACP, and it&8217;s club meetings weren&8217;t allowed to share space with things like rotary and the chamber of commerce.

Mackel helped organize the first Natchez chapter of the NAACP before Judge Mary Toles stepped foot on the civil rights scene, but she thanks him for it today.

&8220;I recognize how much courage it must have taken,&8221; Toles said. &8220;That&8217;s a special kind of bravery. In looking back at what people did, I&8217;m just awed by that.&8221;

A group of black Natchez residents was chosen &8212; after Brown vs. Board of Education &8212; to approach the school district about integration &8212; bravery, Toles said.

Charles Evers, brother of slain civil rights hero Medgar Evers, was NAACP secretary in the late 1960s around the time Natchez resident Wharlest Jackson was killed by a truck bomb.

Toles &8212; a part of the civil right movement herself by this time &8212; credits Evers for stepping up and rallying the black Natchez community.

&8220;It wasn&8217;t that he was so brilliant,&8221; she said. &8220;He motivated people. I know we would not have moved the way we did had it not been for his leadership.&8221;

And then there were the visionaries like Rev. Leon Howard and Barney Schoby &8212; men who led the way toward voting rights in the 1970s.

&8220;They were the strategists,&8221; Toles said. &8220;They knew if African-American people were going to truly get a piece of the pie they were going to have to start voting. (They) came up with the early redistricting plans.&8221;

A former civil rights activist and current justice court judge, Toles has made the list of influential, black Natchez residents herself, but she&8217;s not the only local leader still having an impact.

&8220;The mayor,&8221; Natchez Police Department Public Information Officer Charles Woods said. &8220;He has come a long way and been in politics for a long time.

&8220;He has impacted the African-American society by becoming the first African-American mayor in the City of Natchez since reconstruction. That&8217;s something to be very pleased about.&8221;

And Adams County Sheriff&8217;s Deputy Chuck Latham tries to model his actions after the man that got him a job at the ACSO &8212; Bob Lee Williams.

&8220;He&8217;s the cause of me having the job, because of a recommendation,&8221; Latham said. &8220;He was always an advocate with black children. I grew up under him. There was no generation gap between he and children.&8221;