NATCHEZ — Before this week, Robert Bradford Jr., 16, had never heard of St. Clair Drake. But on Thursday, he was recording a video describing Drake’s efforts to bring educational services to Natchez’s African-American community.

Bradford’s video was part of the Natchez history minute project, which features videos with voice recordings detailing events that happened either on or around that particular date in Natchez’s history.

“If you don’t know where you came from, you might end up at the same place,” Bradford said.

Bradford and several other Natchez-Adams School District students recorded Natchez history minutes on Thursday and Friday to help celebrate the tricentennial.

Beginning Jan. 1, the recordings will be posted every day on YouTube throughout Natchez’s tricentennial year.

“It’s a little glimpse of history every day for 366 days,” historian Jeff Mansell with the Natchez National Historic Park said. “But it’s also a community wide project.”

Mansell said project organizers wanted the people in the videos to reflect the community’s diversity, which meant getting people of all races, genders and ages to participate.

NASD Public Relations Coordinator Steven Richardson said tricentennial organizers reached out to the school district about the project. More than 100 students signed up to participate.

“There is a lot of history that our students, at a young age, do not know about the area in which they live,” Richardson said. “This is an opportunity for them to learn about how things used to be.”

Students from five schools —Natchez High School, Natchez Early College Academy, Natchez Freshman Academy, Robert Lewis Magnet School and Morgantown College Prep Academy were set to participate, with the possibility of more schools joining later.

NASD schools aren’t the only schools involved though. Natchez’s three private schools, Cathedral School, Trinity Episcopal Day School and Adams County Christian School, are also participating. Cathedral has already completed its recordings, and Trinity and ACCS will do theirs later.

Mansell said the original goal was to have students complete approximately one-third of the recordings. The large student response rate, however, means students may ultimately complete as many as half of the segments.

“I love that they may be learning a little glimpse of Natchez history they may not be familiar with,” Mansell said.

Some of the students learned things they never knew about where they live, such as K’Metrick Johnson, 16. Johnson’s history minute was about William Johnson, a freed slave who became a successful Natchez businessman.

“I knew a little bit about him, but reading the history minute helped me know more,” K’Metrick Johnson said.

Johnson said that he never knew that William Johnson was freed by his father, who was also his owner.

Vincent Bonds, 14, recorded his minute on Natchez native and musician Lil Poochie, or Robert Lee Watson.

“I learned that you don’t have to have nice things to become a musician, to become successful,” Bonds said.

But students are learning about more than just their local history. Mansell said the project gives students a chance to interact with history and be part of Natchez’s 300th birthday.

“I’m hoping it’s something they look back on and feel good about,” Mansell said.