Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Rickey Banks and David Haywood said they feel vindicated by the ruling of Sixth District Circuit Judge Carmen Drake issued Friday, which effectively overturned a decision by the Natchez Board of Aldermen and they said will allow them to reopen their Truth Lounge at 719-½ Franklin St.

Banks and Haywood opened the Truth Lounge after being granted a special exception to operate by the Natchez Planning Commission on March 16, 2023.

Banks is a 20-year resident of Natchez who said he operates a cross-country trucking company and a janitorial service in multiple states, and Haywood, a lifelong Natchez resident, is the Natchez High School men’s basketball coach and has operated other businesses in the past.

The two told the city’s planning commission in March 2023 they wanted to provide entertainment for locals and tourists.

“We found a nice piece of property downtown and hope to provide entertainment, particularly for tourists in town,” Banks said in March 2023. “We plan to have security regularly and keep the area clean and up to par.”

Banks and Haywood said they would feature live music and drinks. Haywood assured the commissioners that the nightclub would operate under strict codes, serve no one underage, and would have no spillover of partying outside the lounge.

However, shortly after opening, neighbors to Truth Lounge complained of loud noise and unruly crowds gathering outside the club, partying and littering nearby parking lots.

After what Natchez Police Chief Cal Green and NPD Commander Jerry Ford described as “complete chaos” that threatened to overwhelm the police officers and Adams County Sheriff’s deputies in the early morning hours of Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson called a special meeting and aldermen who attended voted to close the Truth Lounge until its owners could provide assurances of no such incidents happening again.

Banks and Haywood have argued they have no control over what goes on in the city’s streets and on nearby property. They say that it is the jurisdiction of the city’s police department to manage, not theirs.

On Saturday night, both men pointed out that their case has now been before two Circuit Court judges, and both have ruled in their favor.

“We brought entertainment to Natchez just as every other local bar, club, lounge does in downtown Natchez. We want clean fun for everyone. We can’t control what someone does outside and off our property,” Haywood said Saturday night.

“We have been scrutinized and have had to endure all this negative energy in 2024. We have been made to look so bad during this process, when all along it has not been us,” Banks said.

“So much false information has been put out to where Mr. Banks and myself have actually been made to look like criminals in the eyesight of the public. So many things in The Democrat and on social media. We have been blamed for things that someone did more than a block away from our property.

“No other business in Natchez is being held to that standard — not downtown, not on U.S. 61 south, not on U.S. 61 north. Plenty of incidents happen near businesses, but our business has been attacked by this city’s administration,” Haywood said.

“I think Natchez as a whole deserves better leadership. This shouldn’t happen. No business should have had to go through what we went through for the last year,” Haywood said.

Both said they plan to reopen Truth Lounge in the building they own at 719-½ Franklin St.