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NATCHEZ—Rose Ann Baroni Miron remembers that while growing up in Natchez and attending Cathedral school, some of her friends weren’t allowed to spend time with her, all because of her mother.

“Some of the parents were not happy with me, but some friends sometimes spent time with me anyway, going against their parents’ wishes. I really appreciated that,” Miron said.

What was her mother’s sin in the eyes of white Natchezians of the day? She sharply went against the norms of white citizens and fought fearlessly for civil rights and dignity for all people, regardless of the color of their skin. Doing so put herself, her husband and her children often in danger and open to ridicule and ostracization. Nonetheless, she persisted.

Miron is the fourth child of six born to Louis J. and Marjorie Rushing Baroni.

Marjorie Rushing Baroni was born into a Baptist family in Lincoln County. When she married Louis J. Baroni of Natchez, she joined him in his Catholic faith.

“When she married my dad, she converted to Catholicism and that was the basis of her commitment to civil rights. They say those who convert to Catholicism are more dedicated than those born into it, and she certainly bore that out,” Miron said.

Natchez Together: A Festival of Ideas

“I was really honored when Valencia (Hall) talked to our family about the city’s interest in recognizing our mother’s efforts on behalf of civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s. It is something I never thought would happen,” Miron said.

Miron, her siblings, and their grandchildren were in Natchez Saturday for the event held in honor of Marjorie Baroni.

“We gained so much from having her as our mother, and we were gratified to learn how many people appreciated her activities,” she said.

“During the peak of the activities, I was in eighth through 12th grade. It was very stressful. We all knew how important the work was. She was very careful not to force us to do things we were not comfortable with,” Miron said. “Through our formative years, for me and her four youngest children, even though we learned a lot by watching her, it affected our lives. But she did not force us to put ourselves in socially uncomfortable positions.

“Our family was certainly ostracized and threatened by KKK members and some of their affiliated members, but we need to acknowledge that whatever we suffered pales in comparison to the terrible treatment of Black families, especially those who were active in the civil rights struggle.

“I was thrilled to see such a broad, diverse audience Saturday,” she said. “There were white and Black community members. There were people who are long-time Natchezians and people who moved to Natchez recently. There were people who didn’t know our family. I was touched that they had learned about my mother’s story and wanted to learn more. That told me a lot about where Natchez is and the potential to reconcile ourselves to that dark place in its history.”

Miron said she is impressed by the leadership in Natchez today.

“Natchez is very lucky to have Mayor Day Gibson and to have Valencia. Valencia is an amazing person. I had never met her before. Both are genuine people who care about the future of the city,” she said.

Miron left Natchez after graduating from Cathedral in 1969 and attending Millsaps College in Jackson, where she earned a sociology degree. She then moved to New Orleans and married. Her travels with her husband took her to the University of California at Irvine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she worked in university administration.

After Hurricane Katrina, Miron and her husband wanted to return to New Orleans to be part of its rebuilding. They moved back in 2008.

“I felt like there was a lot that came out of this Natchez Together that could be carried on in future years. I think it could be an annual event. There were questions about how to deal with the political environment of today and how to communicate with people who don’t agree with you. One person talked about the lack of history being taught in our schools. There were lots of topics that were important and deserve more discussion and exploration.”

A day of healing

“Our goal for the day, my goal, was to have healing and reconciliation. Little did I know it would be my own,” Valencia Hall said of the Saturday event.

“During our panel discussion, I mentioned the time when a student came up to me and a boy in my class. This girl went up to us and said to the boy, ‘Don’t talk to that (n-word),’ Hall said. “To this day, I hate that word. I’ve forgiven a whole lot in my life, but I’ve had a very difficult time with that. I remember it so well to this day. However, the moment I verbalized it in that setting, it was gone. Saturday was a day of reconciling that bitter memory for me. It is gone now.”

Hall said the Natchez effort to tell our entire story from slavery to civil rights must also include the story of the white Natchezians who fought for civil rights for all people.

“My sisters and I were taught about Mrs. Baroni by my parents — Joseph F. Hall and Naomi Webb Hall. My parents knew her. She would often be in our neighborhood and would visit Mrs. Mamie Mazique,” she said.

“My parents told us what dignified people the Baronis were. What an outstanding family and that they were fighting for us,” Hall said. “There were only two voting precincts then; one was at Holy Family in our Parish Hall. Mrs. Baroni and Father William J. Morrissey, the priest at the time at Holy Family, went out and helped register Blacks to vote.”

Hall said she hopes the Natchez Together: A Festival of Ideas continues and perhaps will become an annual event.

Her only disappointment with Saturday’s event was that it did not include more children. She invited children from the public and private schools and even Co-Lin, but the only children in attendance among the 150 or so adults were Mrs. Baroni’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Some attendees and those who watched the symposium on Facebook Live or on Mid-South Broadcasting have told Hall how powerful the discussion was.

“They have told me how powerful it was. Some did not know the depth of the injustices that went on at that time,” she said.

Exceeding expectations

Philip Baroni of Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Baronis’ third child, said he did not have high expectations of the event before Saturday.

“It went a lot better than I expected, although I don’t know what I expected. I didn’t know how many would attend. I’ve never been a part of something like that. Growing up in Natchez, I have good and bad memories. However, there was a good representation of the community there,” Baroni said.

“I thought it was very valuable. There seemed to be a lot of interest for one thing. And there seemed to be some healing there,” he said. “I talked to several classmates from high school at Cathedral and they expressed regret for some of the things that happened during that time around integration. It was a tough time, and I was able to expound on that myself,” he said.

Philip Baroni graduated from Cathedral in 1967. The Baronis’ other children are Neil, firstborn, who is deceased; Mary Jane Baroni Tarver, who lives in Greensboro, N.C.; Miron; David Baroni of Spring Hill, Tennessee; and Mark Baroni of Natchez.

Baroni said his father’s work for civil rights is sometimes lost in the shadow of his mother. Louis Baroni worked at Armstrong Tire and Rubber Co. for more than 30 years during a tumultuous time at that plant.

“My mother was the society page editor at The Natchez Democrat for Jimmy Lambert. I used to go to her office in the very old days when they still had the teletype machine. I remember the smell of the printer’s ink,” Baroni said. “She left there just before she began to get involved with civil rights, and she left because the newspaper would not publish the photos of Black brides. That was in the late 1950s. Once she got involved in the civil rights movement, she had various administrative jobs and worked for Mayor Charles Evers in Fayette as his secretary for a number of years.

“My father was as committed to civil rights as my mother was but was not as involved. He is the real hero in the story,” Baroni said. “I say that being his son and observing this steadfastness in him. He went to work at Armstrong every day, and I mean every day. He had that kind of work ethic. There were lots of Klansmen at that tire factory. He was very supportive of my mother, but did he like it? He was a quiet man and I think if he had had a choice, it would be to be left alone. But he did not stop her from doing anything, and we always knew he was there to do the very best he could to defend us. If violence occurred, we knew he could handle it.”

Baroni, too, complimented the city’s leadership.

“I really have much respect for the leadership of the City of Natchez, and that includes the mayor and Valencia. Valencia worked very hard and long hours to get this organized. She did great work, and I respect the City of Natchez for even supporting this,” Baroni said. “I remember how tense and violent it was during those times, and for something like this to happen even 60 years later, it’s just tremendous. It’s a tribute to the City of Natchez and how much people have come together.”