The Natchez Historical Society invites you to join us on Tuesday at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 South Commerce Street.

The meeting, free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 p.m. with a social gathering, followed by the program at 7 p.m.

Susan T. Falck will discuss her recent book, “Remembering Dixie: The Battle to Control Historical Memory in Natchez, Mississippi, 1865–1941,” which was the result of her participation in the Natchez Courthouse Records Project.

Falck helped process hundreds of 19th-century Natchez legal records and researched the history of slavery and Jim Crow. Currently, the executive director of Rancho Camulos Museum in Ventura County, California, she taught U.S. history at California State University, Northridge.

In its summation of the book, the Amazon website states, “Using a wide range of late 19th- and early 20th-century sources ― many of which have never been fully mined before ― Falck reveals the ways in which black and white Natchezians of all classes, male and female, embraced, reinterpreted and contested Lost Cause ideology.

Those memory-making struggles resulted in emotional, internecine conflicts that shaped the cultural character of the community and impacted the national understanding of the Old South and the Confederacy as popular culture.”

In her acknowledgements, Falck credits the help of many Natchezians who welcomed her into their homes, sharing memories, diaries, photos, iced tea and the occasional toddy. She even mentioned the Carriage House fried chicken and biscuits.

She states that her research “helped me understand the complicated jigsaw of Natchez’s past.” She evoked her own Southern roots and her regard for “Natchez as my home away from home, thanks to the graciousness and kindness of the Natchez folks I encountered.”

Surely, this will be most enjoyable and informative program. Please join us.

Maria Bowser is publicity chairman for the Natchez Historical Society.