Natchez &8212; Two-dozen people huddled together Tuesday mulling how to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Natchez&8217;s most famous native son and author&8212; Richard Wright.

Literary scholars say that although Wright is known as one of America&8217;s first great black writers, he achieved fame for the quality of his writing, not the color of his skin.

Sept. 4, 2008 will mark 100 years since Wright was born on Rucker&8217;s Plantation near Roxie, a date literary experts say is the perfect time to celebrate the greatness of Wright, who died in 1960. Although Wright scholars and fans will celebrate the literary talent of the man in 2008, Natchez will get a leg up on the world by kicking off the celebration a year early in 2007.

The rationale for beginning early in Natchez makes sense, because Wright&8217;s life started here and Natchez could capitalize on that fact, said co-chairman Carolyn Vance Smith.

She compared the potential Natchez has in celebrating Richard Wright to the annual celebrations in Oxford for William Faulkner.

&8220;We&8217;re asleep,&8221; she said. &8220;We could be doing a conference every year on Richard Wright.&8221;

The idea for starting a celebration of Wright in Natchez &8212; and a year before the 2008 anniversary &8212; came to Dr. Jerry W. Ward Jr., a Wright scholar and professor of English at Dillard University in New Orleans.

&8220;It pleases me because it&8217;s much larger than anything I conceptualized,&8221; Ward said Tuesday to members of the Natchez Richard Wright Centennial Planning Committee.

Ward will present a series of public discussions each month in 2007 featuring one of Wright&8217;s works.

&8220;The discussions are, indeed, discussions, not lectures,&8221; Ward said, adding that participants will read Wright&8217;s work prior to attending.

The locations and specifics will be set and publicized in coming months. The sites will likely be varied to include schools and other public places to maximize the reach of the discussions into the community, Smith said.

&8220;If we move these sessions around, the community becomes more involved and this becomes a community project,&8221; she said.

Public discussions of Wright are only one of several potential celebrations under way leading up to the 2008 anniversary of the author&8217;s birth.

Natchez Little Theatre will present &8220;Native Son&8221; in its 2007-2008 season.

Ward is also organizing an effort to get a Richard Wright stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

Also under consideration is a possible field trip to sites important to Richard Wright either in his life or his works. Some of the research for that is already under way by Wright&8217;s second cousin who still lives in Natchez, Charles Wright, who is working on the family history.

Smith and Ward both said that the literary world would be watching as Natchez kicked off its events because Wright was known worldwide.

&8220;In the last 14 years of his life, Wright was very much on the international scene,&8221; Ward said.