NATCHEZ — A pro-life display has been relocated from the Natchez bluff after organizers voiced displeasure with the bluff location the city granted to the group.

Pro-life Natchez-Adams County board chair Virginia O’Beirne announced Wednesday her group would move the display, less than one week after the Natchez Board of Aldermen approved the display on the far north end of the bluff.

The group plans to move the display of white crosses over to the vacant lot across from the St. Mary Catholic Church Family Life Center located on Main Street. The group’s candlelight vigil will still take place at 5 p.m., Jan. 25 in the Natchez Grand Hotel.

Pro-life Natchez-Adams County Co-chair Ruth Powers argued that the group had been relegated to a less-visible section of the bluff, which goes against the whole point of its mission.

“The purpose of our display is public information and education,” Powers said. “We’ve always been able to put our display somewhere in a more heavily traveled area of the bluff. Essentially, there’s not a whole lot in the way of traffic (on the north end of the bluff) — foot traffic or vehicle traffic.”

For many years, the organization placed the display adjacent to the gazebo off Broadway St., but last year the more than 100 little white crosses — one for each abortion performed per minute in the United States — sat near the Natchez Grand Hotel.

That locale drew the ire of numerous hotel guests, Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell said.

“Last year, we got a lot of complaints from the Grand,” Grennell said. (Natchez Grand Hotel Manager) Walter Tipton called about it … We asked (O’Beirne) to move it to the north end of the bluff, that way when people at the Grand are looking out their window to look at the river, those crosses will (be elsewhere).”

Grennell also disagreed that the north end of the bluff was in any way more secluded or less traveled than other areas of the bluff.

“People use the entire bluff. You go down there on the north end, there are people walking, jogging, enjoying the north end of the bluff,” Grennell said.

Asked if any displays would be permitted near the Grand Hotel in the future, Grennell said the subject matter of the display would factor into that.

“It depends on what kind of displays they are,” Grennell said.

Grennell and Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Smith, who also said she had received complaints about last year’s display, spoke about a solution for the display in passing prior to last Friday’s board meeting.

“This was just a compromise not to put the hotel in a difficult position and still put it somewhere that gets a lot of traffic,” Smith said.

At last Friday’s meeting, Grennell announced prior to the board’s vote the newly approved location for the display, at which no one from the group voiced any opposition.

This year marks the 12th iteration of the group’s cross display.