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NATCHEZ — For many in the Natchez community, the scars from racism run deep and the struggle is far from over, as evidenced by stories shared at an event Wednesday evening at 1720 Gallery at 227 N. Martin Luther King Jr. St.

There were tears in the eyes of some who shared about their struggle.

On Wednesday evening, BlackNatchez.org hosted an event called “Community in Conversation” with Dr. Ariela J. Gross, Distinguished Professor of Law and History at UCLA School of Law.

Information shared at Wednesday’s forum will be used to support Gross’s upcoming book called “Erasing Slavery: How Stories of Slavery and Freedom Shape Battles Over the Constitution.”

Gross told attendees that she has been researching how the Supreme Court recognizes and tells the history of slavery and what happened after Reconstruction — or rather, doesn’t tell it.

“Telling only a particular version of that history is part of what allows the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution in a very narrow way,” Gross said. “Especially the amendments that were passed after Reconstruction, after the end of slavery, that were supposed to give freedom and equality, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment. Part of the way they do that is by saying slavery is deep in the past. It happened a long time ago. It doesn’t have any legacies. It doesn’t have any repercussions. It ended in 1865 and then it was over. Then they jumped right from 1865 to 1965, or 1954 at least and they don’t tell the history that came that came in between.”

Gross said she is interested in first-hand experiences from people who lived during that time, when slavery ended but the struggle was still there.

However, Gross not only heard from people who are aged to their mid to late 70s and older but from people younger than 40 talking about racism and about segregation continuing to happen in Mississippi and in Natchez.

These were stories from both white and Black people in attendance on Wednesday.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the BlackNatchez.org non-profit, which has been active in dressing up the Martin Luther King Jr. Street triangle area and hosting a Black History Month parade each year, expressed his excitement about seeing a diverse crowd of around 30 people attend the gathering.

“It’s really important that everybody understands that Black Natchez is not just for Black people. Black Natchez is for everybody,” he said. “Because as much as Natchez is what she is, she would not be anything were it not for the people of African descent who helped make her what she is.”

One of the first to speak was Mary Jane Gaudet, who said her family lived outside the norm for most of the white population.

“I grew up on Homochitto Street and later married two men who lived on Homochitto Street, so I haven’t gone very far,” she said with a smile. “I’m also a sixth-generation Natchezian from my father’s side of the family and my mother’s side. And for some God-given, unique reason, my family was very comfortable with discussing everything and anything. … So my family grew up radicalized. Christianized is what we called it. And we just asked questions and talked about what was going on. … I have lived in Natchez my whole life and I have watched us go from the most despicable community to what I now claim is a very (joined) community in my eyes. Now that’s not everybody’s eyes. That I realize. That’s my experience.”

Philip West, a current Natchez Adams School District Board of Trustees member and the first African American Mayor of Natchez since Reconstruction, said when he’d finished high school in 1964, Natchez was still segregated. In fact, he challenged the segregated school system in a 1989 lawsuit. His son, who was in high school at the time, testified in court, West said.

“They put him on the stand and asked him one question, other than his name. They said, ‘Have you ever been in a classroom with a white student?’ This was in 1989. And he said, ‘no’.”

That lawsuit ended with the judge ruling that there would only be one public high school and one junior high school in Natchez, forcing white students to go to the same school as Black students.

“But it didn’t work out that way,” West said. “Most of them left and they still have not returned. But I believe that with us having been fortunate enough to build a new high school just a couple of years ago, we are improving the opportunity for all children who go there. Even though 95 to 98 percent are still Black. I believe that someday in the future, there will be a return of the caucasian community to the public school district.”

Jamal McCullough, who graduated in 1987 from South Natchez, said his high school years were a blur to him.

“Sadly, I don’t remember high school because it was so traumatic,” he said. “I hear the stories about getting along, but for me, my experience was different. I was one of the few Blacks in all my classes, being in what they call AP classes. … There were a lot of micro-aggressions. I just blocked it out.”

McCullough recalled one of his classmates asking him what he would do if all his classmates had come to school the next day wearing white sheets. If he picked up a slice of watermelon one day in the cafeteria, there were jokes about it.

“My 20-year class reunion, one of my classmates introduced me to his wife as ‘my good friend Bryan.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m the other Black guy, Jamal,’” he said.

Michelle Williams, who graduated from high school in 1998, said she remembers being treated badly and feeling heartbroken when she found out that the white students in her class secretly had a separate prom.

Then, as an adult, she remembers taking a friend from out of town to visit a local “white” bar after Dimples had closed. She recalled receiving glances from the white people in the bar. One of the ladies had said, “‘You’re the wrong bar!’” Williams said. “I’ve never been back there since.”