NATCHEZ — Today, two local community leaders who served in prominent positions during the Civil Rights Movement will sit down for a public discussion about their experiences during the 1960s and the years after.

Retired instructor and historian Jim Wiggins will moderate a panel discussion between civil rights activist and former Fayette mayor Charles Evers and former Natchez mayor Tony Byrne.

Wiggins said the idea of the panel came at Byrnes’s suggestion for a follow-up to a Natchez Tricentennial Legends and Lore presentation Wiggins made last year on the Civil Rights Movement in Natchez up until about 1965.

“Tony Byrne was mayor from 1968 to 1988, and he suggested we have a session … pick up the story and carry it forward a bit,” Wiggins said.

Byrne, a Natchez native, is a graduate of Natchez High School and Mississippi State University.  He was the manager of the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce from 1961 until 1968, serving on the Board of Aldermen during that time.  He was elected mayor of Natchez in 1968 and served for 20 years.

Evers is a civil rights activist, former politician and brother of slain activist Medgar Evers.

Evers was elected as mayor of Fayette in 1969, following the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965. He was the first African-American mayor elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction. That same year, the NAACP names Evers Man of the Year.

Evers served for 20 years as mayor of Fayette.

He is the owner of radio station WMPR in Jackson and the author of two books, “Evers” and “Have No Fear.”

Wiggins said discussions like those that will happen today are important to have, even decades after the Civil Rights Movement.

“We still have race problems, in Natchez, in the nation and the world,” Wiggins said. “We can pretend that we are beyond all this, but we’re not. We will not get past this until we come together and talk about it. It is not a magic bullet, but it starts the process.”

The panel is sponsored by the Natchez Historical Socety and will begin at 7 p.m. at The Hotel Vue. A social gathering prior to the event will begin at 6:30 p.m. The events are free and open to the public.