Independent Historian

Roscoe Barnes III is a former newspaper journalist and independent scholar whose research focuses on Anne Moody and the civil rights movement, F.F. Bosworth, Ernest Hemingway, and the history of Natchez, Mississippi.

A native of Indianola, Mississippi, Barnes is the cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez and a member of Mississippi Historical Society’s board of directors. He is also founding chairman of the Anne Moody History Project.

Barnes is the author of multiple books, including F.F. Bosworth: The Man Behind ‘Christ the Healer’ (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009) and Off to War: Franklin Countians in World War II (White Mane Publishing, 1996). He holds a Ph.D. in Church History and Church Polity from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and a Master of Arts in Religion from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He earned his Bachelor of Science from East Coast Bible College, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Barnes’ articles have appeared in magazines and academic journals, including Corrections Today, Grit Magazine, American Jails, The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, The Arkansas Review, Africa Journal of Pentecostal Studies, and Refleks Journal. Barnes’ work is also published in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (Brill, 2021).

John Bowman Banks (1862-1911)

Dr. John Bowman (“J.B.”) Banks was the first Black physician to practice medicine in Natchez, Mississippi. He recruited Dr. Albert Woods Dumas, the second Black physician to practice in the city. Together with four other businessmen, they founded an African American bank in Natchez called … Read MoreJohn Bowman Banks (1862-1911)