NATCHEZ — Willie Mae Robinson, the oldest living survivor of the Parchman Ordeal, visited the site of the planned “Proud to Take a Stand” monument Thursday afternoon.

The planned monument that is in construction will be 6-feet tall and 12-feet long with the engraved names of approximately 150 protestors who were unjustly sent to the state penitentiary at Parchman in 1965 for violating a city ordinance banning parades.

The ordinance was later ruled unconstitutional, but by that time the damage had been done.

As Robinson, 94, sat down at the plaza where the monument would be placed she said she remembered being held by authorities 54 years ago at the Natchez City Auditorium, located just behind her.

“It means a whole lot,” Robinson said. “I thank the Lord that somebody came forward and started this, because we need it just like all of the other monuments — just like the one down there on the bluff. I hope I will be able to see them finish it. … I thank the Lord for my being here so that I can remember the things that they did.”

In October 1965, Robinson, along with her children, nieces and nephews, marched with hundreds of civil rights protesters before being wrongfully arrested.

“We were marching and made it to Beulah Church,” Robinson said. “Then they took us down to the city auditorium, right here. They brought us down here and put us in here until the buses came. I don’t know where they got the buses from.”

Robinson said the buses took and her friends, family and her to the state penitentiary in Parchman, where they were shoved into tiny cells packed with at least 10 other people.

“They put us in a little cell, a room was about half the size of this,” Robinson said, gesturing to the plaza where she sat. “There were about 10 of us in there. It was dark and there was one little commode in the corner. I just thank the Lord for taking care of me because I didn’t eat anything. I couldn’t eat right beside the commode, especially with someone sitting on it. I drank my water and that was it. But if you trust in God you won’t starve to death. He took care of me.”

Robinson said she was in prison for at least three days or more before she was released and even then she had to pay for her ride home.

“Don’t say I wouldn’t do it all over, because I would,” Robinson said. “If there comes a day where these young people go through the same thing that we older people went through, I’d do it.”

Robert Purnell, chairman of the monument committee commissioned in 2016 to see the project through, said committee members are in the process of checking the punctuation and spelling of each of the names on the monument, adding once the list is approved, construction crews would engrave the monument and mount it at the site.

Once the monument is in place, Purnell said better landscaping, illumination and security cameras would be added around the structure.

Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said the Historic Natchez Foundation also is working on sidewalk panels that would tell the story of the Parchman Ordeal on the sidewalk leading up to the monument plaza.

“Hopefully in the next month we’ll have a monument,” Grennell said. “We don’t have it ready yet, but we’re pushing to have it dedicated in October on the anniversary of the event.”

Grennell said the monument would also be engraved with a resolution approved by the Natchez Board of Aldermen decades later, apologizing for the events that occurred there.

“‘This monument honors the Natchez citizens who were proud to take a stand for racial justice,’” Grennell said, reading from the inscription that would be engraved on the monument. “’May their courage inspire future citizens to stand united against injustice everywhere.’ That’s not just applicable to ethnicity. That’s in respect to all forms of justice. … This monument also sends the message that it’s OK to talk about it. That’s what brings unity and healing — just talking about it.”