NATCHEZ — A handful of events are slated for this weekend to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrest of hundreds of Natchez civil rights activists and subsequent mistreatment at the state penitentiary.

On Oct. 2, 1965, hundreds of black Natchez and Adams County residents gathered at Beulah Baptist Church on B Street to determine if they would march to protest the denial of their Constitutional right to register to vote.

Before the march could even take place, the protesters — some even as young as age 7 — were arrested for parading without a permit by Natchez police as they walked out of the church.

Approximately 700 protesters were arrested over three days. Of those 700 protesters, approximately 200 were sent to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

“They were never charged and never went before a magistrate,” said Darrell White, director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture. “Since there was no place to accommodate them, they sent them to Parchman, where they were subsequently terrorized and abused.”

Organizers have scheduled activities for Saturday and Sunday In recognition of the 50th anniversary of what has been named the Parchman Ordeal.

The activities include:

-A reenactment service at Beulah Baptist at 10 a.m. Friday.

-A “reconciliation banquet,” which will include presentations from Brenda Rice Scott, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Natchez Mayor Butch Brown, presenting a proclamation from the City of Natchez; former mayor Phillip West; and Darrell White. The banquet has limited seating, and tickets should be purchased for $20 by 3 p.m. Friday at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center.

-A discussion on reconciliation, restoration and retooling at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Natchez Convention Center.

-A National Park Service symposium featuring Ted Ownby, Director of the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, and Concordia Sentinel Editor Stanley Nelson.

Natchez National Historical Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond said the symposium is geared toward educating attendees on the Parchman Ordeal events and their relation to the larger Civil Rights Movement.

The National Park Service’s centennial plans include a call-to-action, Bond said, that asks parks to unearth local civil rights stories.

Education is a first step in moving forward from the past, Bond said.

“If we’re going to move forward, we need to learn each other’s stories,” she said.

-A restoration church service at 2 p.m. Beulah Baptist Church.

Organizer Betty Cade said the commemoration’s theme — Reconciliation, Restoration, Retooling — is aimed at racial reconciliation, important healing that Cade said should happen ahead of the city’s coming celebration of its 300th birthday.

“Many of the people in this town never knew this event happened,” Cade said. “We’re doing this at the 50th anniversary, but had we decided not to, we would have done something next year for the tricentennial. We felt it necessary to have this commemoration now, so that going into the tricentennial, we will be relieved of the pain of the past.

“It’s just time for healing in Natchez.”