From the Civil War burning of Meridian to a tornado wiping out the city’s business district 1906, the history of the Queen City will come alive for area residents Saturday during the second annual Meridian Downtown History Walk. Free to the public, the self-guided history walk will begin at noon and run until 4 p.m. Attendees can pick up tour maps at Dumont Plaza. Also new will be a story presented by the Meridian Freedom Project on the old E.F. Young Hotel and its historical importance. The skit will center around the hotel’s inclusion in the Green Book, a travel guide published during segregation in the South that identified hotels and businesses that would accept African American customers. The downtown history walk is funded in part by The Mississippi Humanities Council, Lauderdale Tourism and the East Mississippi Community Foundation…an estimated 1,000 people attended last year’s event.
