A Mississippi civil rights museum explores the state’s long, deadly struggle for equality
In the struggle for civil rights, it always came down to Mississippi.
The state was the site of some of the most notorious and violent moments of the movement, including
A Mississippi civil rights museum explores the state’s long, deadly struggle for equality
In the struggle for civil rights, it always came down to Mississippi.
The state was the site of some of the most notorious and violent moments of the movement, including the murder of Emmett Till, the killing of civil rights workers during Freedom Summer, and the imprisonment of the Freedom Riders.
For decades, the state refused to acknowledge this history, but in 2017 it opened an extraordinary complex making it one of the Mississippi civil rights museum one of the best in the country.
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is reason alone to visit the state capital, making an important stop for anyone interested in the US’ struggle for racial equality, and is simply incorporated into a civil rights tour of the South.
Jackson is an easy three-hour drive from Birmingham. And after Jackson, it’s possible to pop up to Oxford to visit Ole Miss, or the Greensboro area to see sites associated with Emmett Till, and from there, you’re in easy range of Memphis’and the Lorraine Motel.
So take time to delve into the museum. Its companion Mississippi History Museum is also worthwhile, and thoughtfully curated. Standout exhibits include an examination of the juke joint, and the state’s surprising multicultural heritage. But you’ll want to devote your time to the Civil Rights Museum.
The museum is shaped has several galleries connecting to a center hub. For many, the its blunt presentations will be shocking.
The introductory gallery explains how enslaved Africans were first brought to the territory by colonialists in the 17th Century and explores the violence they faced. Walking through the galleries, recordings lash out of the darkness with racial taunts: “Boy, get off that sidewalk,” and “Gal, you know you say thank you to me.”
But other traumas were far worse. Six pillars list lynchings dating back hundreds of years.
One alcove, shielded from younger visitors, flashes historical photos of men hanging from trees, listing their names, locations and dates of death. The images are projected at an angle, so viewers unconsciously must tilt their necks, like those of the victims.
Throughout the galleries, small immersive theaters cover key moments from the modern civil rights era, which gained a foothold as African-American soldiers stationed overseas during the Second World War returned to find discrimination and segregation back home.
Exhibit planners use multimedia theaters showing archival footage of trials, protests and funerals, and artifacts like hooded Ku Klux Klan robes, a burned cross and the Enfield rifle that took the life of Jackson civil rights leader Medgar Evers in his home’s carport.
Must-sees include the Emmett Till section, anchored with a theater featuring Oprah Winfrey, a Mississippi native. She narrates a short film about the 1955 killing of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy visiting from Chicago who was accused of flirting with a white grocery store clerk.
A few days later, he was kidnapped, and his barbed wire-wrapped body was soon found in the Tallahatchie River.
After Till’s death, his mother gave him an open-casket funeral, and the shocking images of his maimed body were printed in Jet magazine, launching the modern civil rights movement. The museum displays the original magazine pages, along with the doors of the Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market.
But the museum is hardly a collection of dusty memorabilia. It uses historic footage, interactive displays and innovative exhibits to convey its story.
Another section addresses the assassination of Evers, who was shot in the back by a white supremacist. The father of three staggered to the door of his home, where his family found him bleeding to death.
The museum also celebrates the movement that ultimately eliminated legal segregation.
One gallery, lined with hundreds of mugshots, honors the 1961 Freedom Rides, the bloody crusade to protest segregated transportation facilities in the South. Hundreds arrived in Jackson by bus, train and plane were methodically arrested and sent to the infamous Parchman Farm prison, located on a former plantation. Their mugshots now line museum walls, and an interactive gallery reveals the stories of many, including the late Georgia congressman John Lewis, then a 21-year-old college student.
Nearby, an emotional video presentation explores the murders of 1964’s Freedom Summer campaign to register African-American voters. Black state resident James Chaney and white student volunteers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman disappeared on a June afternoon. Th