I, in my capacity as coordinator of Fort McPherson Sons and Daughters of U.S. Colored Troops and Sailor Chapter, will serve as the uniformed representative honor guard at the Native Guards Symposium in Biloxi on Jan. 10.

This is an Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art opening reception and symposium event highlighting the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards who served at Ship Island during the Civil War.

An exhibit titled “Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island’s African American Regiment” will be at the museum. The museum is hosting an opening and book signing reception honoring Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Gulfport native Natasha Trethewey from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 9, at its 1596 Glenn Swetman St.

At 9 a.m. Jan. 10, a Native Guards Symposium and book signing with Trethewey will be held at Bancorp South. The symposium features a panel of experts on the black military experience during the Civil War, specifically the Second Regiment of Louisiana native guards at Ship Island.

Key presenters are James G. Hollandsworth Jr., Nana Bennie McRae Jr., and C.P. (Kitty) Waver.

An evening reception honoring Trethewey will be in the home of Julie and John Gustafson in Ocean Springs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 9.

Nana Bennie McRae Jr. is the owner of the most comprehensive Web site in the world regarding the history of blacks in the U.S. military dating from the Civil War to modern eras. He is the official resource historian for Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society’s relative to blacks in the Civil War in the Mississippi Valley Campaign.

He also offers and maintains FRSI’s Web site free of charge.

“The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island’s African American Regiment” features photographs from the collection of C. P. (Kitty) Weaver, of Massachusetts, and Isiah Edwards of Long Beach Mississippi.

Native guard re-enactor Isiah Edwards has engaged me to serve as the uniformed, living history honor guard for this prestigious event honoring the Second Regiment of Louisiana native guards, featuring Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey, for her poetry “Native Guard.”

The native guard event is sponsored by Mississippi Power Foundation, Rex Distributing Company, Jerry and Martha O’Keefe, BancorpSouth and Beau Rivage.

It’s assisted financially by National Endowment for the Humanities via Mississippi Humanities Council.

Ser Sesh Ab Heter-CM Boxley is the coordinator of the Friends of the Forks of the Road Society.