If the following words seem like a prominent pile of prose aimed at pandering to the good graces of the women of Natchez, guilty as charged.

The fact is, whether or not those of us possessing the arguably defective Y chromosome want to admit it, Natchez wouldn’t be Natchez without its women.

This weekend marked the beginning of the second full week of the 2007 Natchez Spring Pilgrimage.

This year Natchez is celebrating 75 years of officially planned Pilgrimage; the first one was a brilliant, spur-of-the-moment event.

Most of us know at least a bit of how Pilgrimage was born.

State garden club meeting.

Poor weather.

Ingenuity to roll with the punches.

Guests invited inside the fabulous houses instead of just the gardens.

Now think for a minute of what would have happened if by some chance guys were running the garden club back in 1931.

OK, OK, it’s a stretch, but go with it for a minute.

Had guys been in charge, we’d have probably used a bit of baseball logic.

Hmm, poor weather, bad field, let’s just cancel the game and play later.

Fortunately for Natchez, the good women of Natchez used their brains and created something great, making a win-win situation right in the heart of the Great Depression.

Perhaps the founding of the first Natchez Pilgrimage was destiny.

Women in the Natchez area had been hugely important for generations before Pilgrimage or even antebellum houses existed.

The Natchez Indians — the city’s namesake — knew how important women were hundreds of years before the modern day Women’s Liberation Movement.

In Natchez Indian society, one’s social status was gained by the lineage of one’s mother.

That’s a pretty cool thing to think about given our society’s tendency to take the opposite view on lineage.

Women can do anything, from raise a child to preserve the history and save the economy of a small river town.

Where else could Pilgrimage and all its interesting side events, such as the Historic Natchez Pageant, succeed except in Natchez?

A friend, who is involved in the pageant, recently summed it up rather well.

“What other event is run by a group of women, staffed completely by volunteers — many of which are children — brings people to town and helps keep them here overnight and makes a profit?”

Her point was right on target.

Pilgrimage and the pageant and Southern Road to Freedom and Southern Exposure and all the other elements that make up Pilgrimages have changed through the years. Houses come and go, along with the people behind the scenes.

The original garden club became two, equally involved and equally important to Pilgrimage.

The world was different 75 years ago, but this year the pageant has made a serious effort to begin involving all of the Natchez community into the pageant.

Naysayers may say the move is overdue. But as many wise grandmothers have said in the past, “Things happen when they should.”

And this year was the time and the first steps were taken. Most important, it was, again, the women who reached out and said, “It’s time for this to happen.”

And they made it happen. Some of Natchez’s interesting African-American stories are represented in the pageant this year, including the story of William Johnson and Prince Ibrahima. Thanks to the women involved, the community can begin coming together regardless of skin color.

Generations of families have participated in Pilgrimage, but the women have led the charge making the event world-renowned.

Women run this town and smart men can admit it.

We’re all indebted to the women of Natchez — past, present and future. Thanks for all that you ladies do to make our community better.

Kevin Cooper is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.