Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley

Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley, widely known as Ser Boxley, has spent decades fighting for justice, human rights, and the equitable representation of African American history in Natchez. Since 1963, he has successfully advocated for institutional change, often by challenging one-sided historical narratives, particularly within Natchez tourism. His impact is reflected in the historical markers, interpretive programs, National Park Service recognition, and publications that document and interpret African American history in Natchez.

Boxley was born to Edrena Boxley and Peter Allen on 23 July 1939 in Natchez. The oldest of seven children, he was given the first name Clifton at birth, but it was misspelled as “Cleverton” on his birth certificate.

Boxley is a 1960 graduate of Sadie V. Thompson High School, a segregated Black school in Natchez. After high school, he moved to California where he worked for the US Post Office Department and later managed the Economic Opportunity Council for Redwood City. He soon began serving as an activist by fighting racism, poverty, and discrimination.

His education includes a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from California State University, San Jose. He also completed an associate degree in business at the College of San Mateo.

Returning to Natchez during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Ser Boxley joined the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice, an organization that provided armed protection for the Black community and civil rights workers. Boxley assisted the Deacons with a fundraising campaign in California that allowed them to purchase firearms and acquire other resources for the struggle in Natchez.

Boxley also spent many years traveling in Africa. He visited Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Ghana. In 1994, he adopted the name, Ser Seshsh Ab Heter. Ser is an ancient Egyptian title that means “elder,” and Seshsh Ab Heter means “balanced joy unites us.”

In 1995, Boxley began his research on chattel slavery in Natchez while also fighting for the equal treatment, preservation, and promotion of Natchez’s Black history. His efforts led to national recognition of the Forks of the Road slave market in Natchez, which was the site of the second-largest slave market in the US between 1833 and 1863. In 2021, largely as a result of Boxley’s efforts, the Forks of the Road became part of the Natchez National Historical Park.

In the November 2015 issue of Smithsonian magazine, Boxley was described as the “Guardian of the Forks.” The article called him “the man in the South who has done the most to call attention to the Slave Trail.” He has created a wide range of living history programs that engage the public. In 2008, he organized the Black and Blue Civil War program, where he and volunteers presented the Union Army’s Mississippi 3rd US Colored Cavalry freedom-fighting stories at Historic Jefferson College. He later organized the Civil War encampment of the 3rd US Colored Cavalry on the Natchez Bluff.

Boxley coined the term “Julyteenth,” which commemorates 13 July 1863, the date that the Union Army seized control of Natchez and prompted thousands of enslaved people to begin fleeing plantations and traveling to Natchez, where they found freedom behind the Union Army lines.

Through publications and public programs, Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley has contributed to the interpretation of enslavement, the civil rights movement, and African American history in Natchez. In December 2022, Boxley donated his life’s work and research on the Forks of the Road and the US Colored Troops to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.