About 35 people gathered on the steps of City Hall Tuesday to hear a litany of racial discrimination allegations, most directed at Vicksburg and Warren County officials.

The rally, organized and promoted by Vicksburg resident and Jackson Advocate newspaper writer Earnest McBride, ended with a pledge to organize grievances to pass on to elected leaders up to the state level, including the attorney general.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield was the only elected official present. He said some of the complaints may have merit, but urged cooperation.

&#8220You have to look at every issue individually,” Mayfield said. &#8220A lot of the things they’re saying probably have some credibility to them. I’m sorry that it had to come to a rally because many of them felt their cries were not being heard. All I want is for people to come up to the board and be constructive. I do believe the board will listen to you.”

Mayfield is the only black elected official of the three-member city governing board. He took office in July after previous terms on the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

Topics were wide-ranging. McBride called the city’s ongoing $17.5 million urban renewal efforts, begun in 2001, a plan for &#8220black removal.”

Mayor Laurence Leyens was named responsible for other wrongs, including unequal treatment under the law, hikes in gas and water rates and &#8220tampering” with the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau’s search for an executive director.

Residents and business owners voiced complaints about elected officials on all levels, ranging from complaints about the enforcement of zoning ordinances to the handling of city funds to the board’s decision to stop televising the sessions in which general public comments are heard.

McBride and Mary Ruth Galtney, head of the NAACP in Vicksburg, also took specific grievances from residents on note cards. They plan to compile the cards at the Straughter Baptist Memorial Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Galtney said, collect residents’ signatures the rest of the week and notarize the cards Sunday, then send them to the appropriate agencies, depending on the grievance, for response. After a 30-day period for responses, another meeting will be held May 2, Galtney said.

&#8220I stood right up here 40 years ago protesting some of the very same things I see on the schedule today,” said Rev. Robert Miller, chairman of Warren County Baptist Association, who told the crowd he protested at City Hall in 1964. &#8220It disturbs me to know we haven’t accomplished so much in 40 years.”

Another theme was unity: Several speakers urged residents unhappy with elected officials to flex their civic muscles on petitions and at the ballot box.

&#8220I don’t understand why we’re here today,” said Michael Gates, owner of Gates Express Mart, a store that has been embroiled in a zoning dispute with the city over its pool table. &#8220The majority of Warren County is black. You know how to solve your problems – you get people registered to vote. You elect people who share your values, your interests. Race is not the issue.”

Vicksburg has a 60 percent black majority according to the 2000 census. Warren County, however, has a 55 percent white majority.