NATCHEZ — In October 1965, approximately 800 civil rights protesters were arrested for marching against segregation and discrimination in Natchez after the city had passed an ordinance banning parading without a permit.

The ordinance was later deemed unconstitutional, but the large number of arrests quickly filled the city’s jails and the arrested protesters who would not fit in the city’s jails, were detained at the Natchez City Auditorium on Jefferson Street.

J.T. Robinson, who was Natchez police chief at the time, made a deal with C.E. Brazeale, who was at the time superintendent of the Mississippi Penitentiary at Parchman, to transport approximately 150 of the detainees, who were mostly young black men and women, to the state penitentiary where they were held for several days, abused and humiliated.

The event is a little-known civil rights battle that affected hundreds of people and some civil rights veterans liken it to the March 1965, Selma, Alabama, incident known as “Bloody Sunday” in which civil rights marchers from Montgomery, Alabama, to Selma were beaten by police as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

The Parchman Ordeal, as the Natchez event has become known, however, is not as well known as the Selma incident.

A new book titled, “The Parchman Ordeal: 1965 Natchez Civil Rights Injustice,” that details the 1965 civil rights incident in Natchez, could help shed more light on the incident and its place in the nation’s civil rights history.

The book, published Nov. 12 by Arcadia Publishing and The History Press, is written by G. Mark LaFrancis, Robert A. Morgan and Darrell S. White, all of Natchez.

The three co-authors also produced an award-winning documentary film in 2015 titled “The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story” on the topic.

“The Book is an extraordinary, expanded version of the film allowing the voices of the survivors to have a much more in-depth story than we could present in the film,” LaFrancis said. “Also, we chronicle the journey of African Americans over a vast period of time in the early part of the book to set the stage for what happened during the civil rights era, why it happened and why the survivors were so determined to march.”

LaFrancis said the authors also found more printed resources and conducted more interviews to help tell the story in more detail in the book than the film contained.

“For the book, we went to many lengths to find new and different resources,” LaFrancis said. “We were able to tell a richer, fuller story than we could in the film.

The book also has approximately 70 photographs from the era, not only of survivors but also of historic events about that time,” LaFrancis said.

The book, available only in paperback, sells for $22, and features a foreword by James Meredith, the first black student to integrate Ole Miss in 1962, and who has become international civil rights legend.

“The authors need to be applauded for their passion in telling this story,” Meredith writes in the foreword. “… So be prepared to be amazed, moved and inspired by this most incredible chapter in the civil rights movement … finally told.”

LaFancis said a book launch event will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Nov. 24 at the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture at 301 Main Street.

The event will feature a meet-and-greet with the authors and survivors of the event, book signing and a short preview of the documentary film.

The book will be on sale for $22 and DVDs of the documentary film will be available for $16.

“Part of the proceeds from sale of book will benefit the Parchman Ordeal Foundation that will allow us to take the book and film in an education outreach program mostly to schools to educate young children about voting and civil rights,” LaFrancis said.