Saturday, June 2, 2001

Kathy Moody grew up at Lansdowne, one of dozens of antebellum mansions that brings tourists to Natchez, Miss., each year. Moody, who is white, helps her family give tours of the museum and is on the board of directors for the Natchez Association for the Preservation of Afro-American Culture. Sometimes visitors criticize her involvement. Here are excerpts from a talk Moody had with Post-Standard staff writer Teri Weaver.

This museum has had a really hard time getting local support. The city, state and federal government have given very, very large amounts of money to this museum. But as far as just local Antebellum

means before the Civil War

fund-raising, it's pitiful. And the vast majority of the members are white.

We've certainly had really good support from city aldermen, black and white. And it's the local black people who have money who ought to be contributing and are not doing so. There are many black doctors, Alcorn employees, many black people who are earning high salaries. That's not the issue.

There has traditionally been a lack of interest in history in Natchez by a large contingent of people who think that the whole concept of slavery is too unpleasant to memorialize. There's a certain contingent of people here that think (the antebellum homes) should all be burned down. But it's one of the only things the city has to promote that will bring income.

My cousins and my aunt and uncle live (at Lansdowne). And I help ... be a docent, during March and October, when they have tours and occasionally other times during the year. Like June 5th they have some big tour coming, and my aunt is going to be out of town so I'm going to go out there. I don't have to put on my hoop skirt that day.

The black community has, since the '60s, been totally opposed to any such participation. None of the black people want to be in costume anymore. From 1932 until the '60s, there was very much an integrated arrangement. Up until the '60s, the black people who participated were paid.

So it was an economic blow to them that the NAACP told them they couldn't participate anymore. When you meet some of the black people who contributed to that effort, as children particularly, they loved it. It's just one of those weird, uncomfortable, political situations where there's a whole contingent of the black community who thinks it's an affront to them to participate in this historical drama that depicts slavery. They certainly do it all over the country.

And during the rest of the year, Lansdowne and many of the other houses have employees who are black who show the house to whoever comes up.

Having black people not participate in this very public drama about a time period when slavery was what supported the community is insane. Our friends come and see it and they say, "This is lily white. What's going on here?"