They'll be coming home this weekend from major population centers all over the country-from St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Oakland-for one huge gathering. Greenville will host the three-day convention of the Greenville Travel Clubs, beginning Thursday. Local organizers expect anywhere from 500 to more than 2,000 out-of-town guests. The visitors will mostly be blacks who in the past 50 or 60 years left the Delta and state, many of them part of the Black Diaspora (1910-60), Northbound or Westbound for economic and social opportunity.

"Years ago, folks started leaving home. But what happened was that when somebody died it didn't seem like a funeral, it just seemed like a get-together." Said Charles Collins, a 68-year-old retiree who is the Greenville chapter's treasurer. "That's why we started these clubs, so we could hug each other and have a good time."

The conventions began in 1974 and are held about every four years in Greenville, Collins said. The last national gathering was in Chicago in 1987. Visitors not only will exchange stories and jokes and relate pieces of their lives, but during their stay here will feel the allure of rural life that greatly contrasts to their urban experience, according to Eugene Parker, local chapter president of the Greenville Travel Club.

"I've been talking to a man from Los Angeles and he's anticipating moving back," Parker said. "Some of the older people are coming back, but what's good about this is that I've noticed that we're getting more younger participation. The young people who come enjoy getting into their roots and everybody likes getting out that rat race for awhile," Parker said.

The theme of this year's convention, according to Afollonia Moore, an organizer, is "Progressing to Higher Heights the Mississippi Way."

Black Greenville elected and school officials will gather for a program 8 p.m. Friday at St. Matthews AME Church on Nelson, The featured speaker will be Aleta Cannon Dowell, the vice mayor of Oakland, Calif. Registration for the convention will begin Thursday at the Elks Club, 1818 E. Alexander, and continue through Friday. A picnic at the Washington County Convention Center grounds is planned for Saturday afternoon and a grand ball at the convention center at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Parker said he want whites to know that the homecoming event is not exclusively for black. He's invited many of his friends and said the affair is something the whole community can celebrate since white and blacks have gone elsewhere in sizable numbers.

Historian Neil R. McMillen, in analyzing state population trends in a recent book, noted that the number of whites leaving from the late 19th century to 1950 has bee significantly overlooked. "For more than a century one of Mississippi's principal exports was people." McMillen wrote.

Paul Artman, Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce president, said he will be present for 7 p.m. welcoming ceremonies at the Elk's Lodge, as will Greenville Mayor William Burnley and the Chamber Ambassadors. "We are very enthusiastic about this and if everybody would follow suit and come back and visit we would be busy all year round with tourism," Artman said.

"A man called this morning from Los Angeles and said he hadn't been to Greenville since 1946, " said Collins. "At Raney's Auto Parts (Tuesday) morning I ran into a fellow who says he's taking a weeks vacation to see some of his old classmates who are coming back (for a class reunion). They're getting excited around here because people are coming home."

The statement below is included to illustrate the extreme racist sentiments that were common in the South in the first half of the 20th century, propelling many African-American citizens to the North.

The door of hope might have remained closed as far as the progress the Negro was to make for himself was concerned. He has never created for himself any civilization. He has never risen above the government of club. He has never written a language. His achievements in architecture are limited to the thatched roof hut or hole in the ground. No monuments have been builded by him to body forth and perpetuate in the memory posterity the virtues of his ancestors. For countless ages he has looked upon the the rolling sea and never dreamed of a sail. In truth, he has never progressed, save and except when under the influence and absolute control of a superior race.

-U.S. Senator for Mississippi, James K. Vardaman, 1910