UNITY DAY: The future is bright in Natchez – Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper

By DUSTIN HINKLE

Particular to The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — The third Annual Natchez Day of Unity celebration kicked off Juneteenth’s week stuffed with occasions on Tuesday.

Yearly held on the Bandstand on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, the Unity Day celebration was relocated indoors on account of a warmth advisory. It was hosted at First Presbyterian Church on Pearl Road in Downtown Natchez by the invitation of the Rev. Joan Gandy.

Caroline Curtis Deason was emcee for the occasion. Her late husband, the Rev. Kevin Deason of New Route Outreach Ministries, was honored with a key to town in 2020 by Day of Unity host Dan M. Gibson, mayor of the Metropolis of Natchez.

Gibson opened the ceremony with a message of “Unity in our Group.” Gibson quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who mentioned, “Hate is just too nice a burden to bear.”

He went on to say neighborhood and unity are the keys to future success in Natchez.

Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith sang the Nationwide Anthem adopted by Alderwoman Valencia Corridor main the Pledge of Allegiance.

Bishop Stanley Searcy of New Hope The Imaginative and prescient Heart opened with prayer with a shifting name to unity, range and love.

Gandy adopted with a phrase of reality from Zechariah Chapter 8, verses 4 and 16.  The Rev. Clifton Marvel of Macedonia Baptist Church supplied a rousing mini-sermon, bringing laughter, self-reflection and in the end applause from the viewers.

Not too long ago appointed Poet Laureate for the Metropolis of Natchez, Mark LaFrancis, shared a poem, written particularly for the Unity Day Celebration, titled, “Our Palms”

“…As soon as shackled, now free, as soon as armed, now peaceable, as soon as downtrodden, now proud, as soon as oppressed, now robust, our arms, they heal, they lead, they create…”

Fields and Gibson led the gang in a rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”

Within the spirit of range and inclusivity, Beau Baumgardner, president of the Jewish Congregation of Temple B’Nai Israel, closed the day with a prayer for unity, stating, “Bless us with the popularity that we are able to disagree with out turning into unpleasant, that we are able to battle concepts, with out battling one another.”