When Nakesha Watkins initially visited Unita Blackwell’s property she remembered the historical weight of it and her initial sadness.

Her interest in Blackwell, the first Black woman elected mayor across Mississippi in 1976, started years ago when she was working for the Unita Blackwell Young Women's Leadership Institute, a leadership youth program for young Black women in Alabama, southwest Georgia and the Mississippi Delta. Since she had heard of Blackwell she decided to also read her autobiography, Barefootin’: Life Lessons From the Road to Freedom. Watkins said that, before she started working there, Blackwell would still come for the summer convenings the organizations hosted.

Blackwell was born in 1933 to a family of sharecroppers and eventually became a household name during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. Her work included helping set the path for bolstering awareness of the lack of voting power for Black people after hearing about it through a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer. She at one point volunteered to try and register to vote at a county courthouse in Mississippi and failed the registration exam, a tactic often used to keep Black people from becoming registered voters.

She eventually became an organizer for SNCC and would lead people to the courthouse in attempts to register to vote. As mayor of Mayersville starting in 1976, Blackwell led efforts to incorporate the town and to raise money for water, sewerage, and housing and stayed on in the role for 25 years. She even served as an advisor to several U.S. Presidents, including Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. She died at 86 years old.

“We went to see the house, and the house was dilapidated, and I thought that was both sad and poetic,” Watkins said. “One of the things I thought right away was like this person who has done so much, not only in this town, but represents so much for this state and perhaps even the region, that her memory had not been held up…and so at some point I knew that that was something that I wanted to do something about.”

Now, as chief operating officer for The Lighthouse Black Girls Project, a leadership development program for Black girls and women that is also responsible for helping oversee Blackwell’s property, Watkins said she is most excited about securing the area’s future. The property received funding from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in 2024 to focus efforts on doing needed construction and rehabilitation with the property. The organization works with Blackwell’s family and is continuing to raise funds for their efforts.

A 'Treasure Trove'

Blackwell’s property is a unique one. There’s the Freedom House, which was not only where she and her family lived but was also used as a meeting place during the Civil Rights Movement, hosting groups including the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the Council of Federated Organizations, and SNCC. Besides Freedom House, the property also includes the Ranch House where Blackwell conducted her mayoral work, and her neighbor’s shotgun-style house. The property was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

Watkins said the team is working to clear Blackwell’s home and has found the clean out days to be “a treasure trove” of unearthing all sorts of things. This includes awards, degrees, trophies, kitchen utensils, and even a World War II jacket that they believe to be Blackwell’s husband. She said the team has also seen many photos of people they can’t recognize because of water damage. Watkins said she was moved by finding an original poster from when Blackwell was running for office, “the beginning of her formalized political career” before her mayoral run. She has even seen signage from when Blackwell ran in the 1993 special congressional election. She lost to now Rep. Bennie Thompson.

In Blackwell’s case, Watkins pointed out that things people often take for granted in rural areas, including in Mississippi, include her contributions to improving the infrastructure for the water system. She was also elected as the first woman president of the National Conference of Black Mayors in 1990. What’s more, Watkins said people often don’t realize that Blackwell and Fannie Lou Hamer, another civil rights leader, were not just co-founders for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, but actual friends. She said it was not uncommon for Watkins and Hamer to be seen together in the 1960s.

“I think her fingerprint is on a lot of things that people just don't even have no idea,” Watkins said.

A Vision for the Future

Long-term, the Lighthouse Black Girls Project has big dreams for the property. They envision creating a museum and cultural center where parts of the property would become a museum with some of the restored and rehabilitated artifacts from around the house being displayed. She said the goal would be to make it so that when visitors walk in they can experience what the Freedom House might have looked like on a busy Wednesday morning working with people from SNCC. The team is also aiming to make the space more active so people in the community can host meetings.

“Ideally at some point we would like to, because Mayersville is right on a levee near water, make it a destination of sorts, for retreat, relaxation, but also, you know, an opportunity to experience the museum and a little bit of cultural programming. That kind of thing is what we ultimately would like to see,” Watkins said.

Watkins said what she appreciates most about Blackwell is not just her courage or how she made history but “how fully human she was.”