As the day draws near for our second annual Black and Blue Civil War Living History Camp at Jefferson College, the State of Mississippi has just begun organizing to commemorate the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the American Civil War.

Official Commissions have been or are being established in all states of America to plan commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

The Mississippi State Legislature passed Senate Bill 2288 effective July 1, establishing the Mississippi Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission.

The commission’s job is to “prepare for and commemorate the sesquicentennial of Mississippi’s participation in the American Civil War from April 1861 to April 1865.”

After attending the commission’s first organizing meeting in Raymond on Sept. 23, I now view our Black and Blue Civil War Living History Camp as being in a great position to become an integral component for commemorating the American Civil War in Southwest Mississippi.

Commission members sounded off on subjects such as the Civil War relative to economic development, tourism, public school books and curriculum, students’ lesson plan for doing genealogy and getting the Civil War story right this time, preserving it for generations to come.

For the past 10 years Friends of the Forks of Roads Society Inc. has been on point by annually putting forth programs and activities designed to commemorate the history of and educate the public about enslaved and non-enslaved African descendants in the Miss-Lou who self-emancipated and became freedom fighters in the Union army and navy.

The other Friends of the Forks major activity is the preservation, presentation and interpretation of chattel slavery trafficking at the Forks of the Road.

Like I have emphasized to Underground Railroad proponents, you cannot talk about Underground Railroad unless you first talk about chattel slavery in America.

Thus, you cannot even begin to talk about the Civil War in America, without first talking about chattel slavery.

Friend’s of the Forks mission encompasses all of the above and more.

One of our two subcommittee action arms is Fort McPherson Sons and Daughters of U.S. Colored Troops and Sailors Chapter. This chapter holds a charter from the Sons and Daughters of U.S. Colored Troops National Organization based in the National Black Civil War Museum Washington, D.C., and is a member of the national organization of U.S. Colored Troops Living History Association based in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

At its re-organization meeting in Raleigh North Carolina in 2007, USCTLHA member Joe Certaine empowered those of us in attendance to return to our home states and start organizing to be an integral part of the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War.

He placed special emphasis upon the sesquicentennial of the Civil War being the “first time in America’s history that blacks can tell our own story” of our ancestors’ and foreparents’ freedom fighting actions in the civil war.

Upon returning to Natchez from Raleigh North Carolina, as coordinator of the Friends of the Forks, I compounded our past civil war activities into our first Black and Blue Civil War Living History encampment presenting the Miss-Lou “black” experience in the Civil War in 2008.

In October of 2008 the Mississippi Department of Archives and History who co-sponsored our first Black and Blue Civil War event, adopted our black and blue Civil War event as an annual event.

MDAH is one of the 15 total state legislature designated members of Mississippi’s Sesquicentennial Commission.

MDAH’s executive director has expressed and shown his sensitivity for equal history commemorations relative to African descent people’s military role in the Civil War in Mississippi by adopting our Black and Blue Civil War event as an annual event.

Such a relationship should weigh a great deal toward the work of an “advisory council of citizens at large” the commission is empowered to establish.

It certainly should weigh in as the commission is also empowered to “provide technical and financial assistance to localities and nonprofit organizations to further the commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.”

I want to personally thank the businesses and individual donors, supporters, actors and re-enactors from afar and near for stepping up and helping make it happen.

I invite the Miss-Lou public to join us for what we think will be a great second annual Black and Blue Civil War Living History Camp at Jefferson College at noon Saturday. Bring your children to our Children’s Soldiers Camp at 10:30 a.m. that morning. Bring your chairs.

Ser Seshs Ab Heter-CM Boxley is the coordinator of the Friends of the Forks of the Road.