African Americans and the Natchez Trace

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was the first African American opera singer who became popular in the United States and Europe. Many reviewers and critics portrayed Greenfield as unusual and exotic to increase her popularity. Nevertheless, her performances disrupted racist stereotypes about slavery and Black people. She became the best-known Black concert artist of her time and performed for Queen Victoria.

Hiram Revels was the first African American Congressman. He represented the state of Mississippi. In 1870 he was elected to fill one of the vacant seats in the US Senate. He was also a minister and was also the president of Alcorn College, in Natchez, MS. He was outspoken and fair. Notably, he opposed a harsh Republican push to punish former Confederate soldiers, and argued instead for amnesty if the soldiers swore allegiance to the USA.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) was a journalist, civil rights advocate, suffragist.

Medgar Evers (1925-1963) served as the NAACP's field secretary for the state of Mississippi where he and his wife fought tirelessly for racial justice. An assassin's bullet ended his life in 1963, but his legacy lives on.

Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams is an American civil rights activist and public figure who worked for over three decades to seek justice for the 1963 murder of her husband Medgar Evers, civil rights activist and Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP.

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home is a national monument in Jackson, Mississippi commemorating the lives of these two important civil rights figures.

This is the site of the Union defensive stand on the "White House Ridge" by the United States Colored Troops (USCT). It was here that the Federals attempted to stop the Confederate pursuit or at least slow it down to give the other Union regiments time to get themselves and the wagon train to safety. This site is managed by the Mississippi Final Stands Interpretive Center.