The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is a museum in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Its mission is to document, exhibit the history of, and educate the public about the American Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. state of Mississippi between 1945 and 1970.Waibel, Elizabeth. "Museum Needs Civil Rights Stories." Jackson Free Press. January 27, 2012. Accessed 2012-03-03. The museum secured $20 million in funding from the Mississippi Legislature in April 2011 after Governor Haley Barbour testified in favor of its funding.Severson, Kim. "New Museums to Shine a Spotlight on Civil Rights Era." The New York Times. February 19, 2012. Accessed 2012-03-03. Ground was broken in 2013, and the museum opened on December 9, 2017. The museum is administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
According to Mississippi State Senator John Horhn, it is the first state-sponsored civil rights museum in the United States.Mitchell, Jerry. "Bonds OK'd for Civil Rights, History Museums." The Clarion-Ledger. September 20, 2011.
Founding the museum Early efforts The Mississippi State Historical Museum (located in the Old Mississippi State Capitol) opened a civil rights exhibit in the mid-1980s.Schmidt, William E. "Recalling View From the Back of the Bus." New York Times. September 7, 1986. But by 2001, with only two memorials to the civil rights movement in Mississippi, civil rights activists, historians, and tourism officials began planning for a civil rights museum. One of the museum's key promoters was Hattiesburg native Iola Williams.Mees, Reuben. "Inspirational Speaker." Hattiesburg American. March 1, 2007. In 2002, The Clarion-Ledger reported that historic Brownlee Gymnasium on the campus of Tougaloo College (a historically black college north of Jackson) was under consideration as the site of the museum.Kanengiser, Andy. "Tougaloo Plans $2.2M Renovation for Landmark Gym." The Clarion-Ledger. November 11, 2002. In 2003, the Associated Press reported that the abandoned former Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) building near Jackson State University might also be used.Bulkeley, Deborah. "Jackson State's Undertaking Ambitious Campus-Community Plan." Associated Press. August 24, 2003.
Beginning in 2000, state Senator John Horhn (a Democrat) began introducing legislation to fund a state civil rights museum.Stringfellow, Eric. "Big Ideas, Dreams for Museum, Hall of Fame." The Clarion-Ledger. March 2, 2006. The bill located the museum at Tougaloo College, but it died each year he introduced it. In 2004, Democratic state Representative Erik R. Fleming also filed legislation to create a state civil rights museum.Byrd, Sheila Hardwell. "Black Lawmakers Draft Bills Related to Black History." Associated Press. January 19, 2004. By July, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi (a highly influential civil rights institute within the state, named for the former governor) was also backing the project.McKenzie, Kevin. "Races Forge New Bridges Over Old Walls." The Commercial Appeal. July 19, 2004. The bill failed, but Horhn and Fleming reintroduced it in 2005.Kanengiser, Andy. "Legislature 2005." The Clarion-Ledger. January 17, 2005. Although the state House approved $200,000 in planning funds (later reduced to $100,000), the bill did not pass the state Senate.Pender, Geoff. "Barbour: Pork! McCoy: Bull!" Biloxi Sun Herald. May 27, 2005; "A Glance of Projects Listed in House, Senate Bills." Associated Press. July 1, 2005. Another attempt in 2006 also failed.Hipp, Laura. "Scores of Bills Clear 1st Big Hurdle." The Clarion-Ledger. February 1, 2006. Horhn reintroduced his bill later in the session, this time leaving the choice of site up to a commission and seeking only $500,000 for a study committee. State Representative John Reeves (a Republican, supported the measure in the House, although his measure added a black sports hall of fame to the museum. But this second effort failed as well, despite broad support from legislators and citizens.
Study commissions A third and successful effort was made late in the session by state Senator Hillman Frazier. This measure merely established a legislative study commission, rather than an executive branch committee, and required the legislative committee to issue a report by December 31, 2006."Civil Rights: Mississippi Can Shine Brightly." The Clarion-Ledger. April 16, 2006; Stringfellow, Eric. "State Needs Civil Rights Museum For All of Us." The Clarion-Ledger. April 18, 2006. The legislative study ran into problems, however. African Americans in Mississippi, accustomed to exclusion from museum efforts, were wary of backing the proposal for fear of created a white-washed version of the state's difficult civil rights struggle.Goodman, Julie. "Civil Rights Museum May Face Obstacles." The Clarion-Ledger. July 3, 2006.
In November 2006, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour proposed creating a $500,000 state Department of Archives and History commission to develop plans for the civil rights museum."Highlights of Gov. Haley Barbour's Proposed Budget." Associated Press. November 14, 2006. On December 19, the legislative study commission issued its report. It said a $50 million museum should be built in Jackson, and be linked to a "civil rights trail" of historically significant civil rights sites throughout the state.Pettus, Emily Wagster. "Miss. Capital Eyed As Museum Home." Associated Press. December 20, 2006. The joint committee said the museum should be about in size, supported by a private foundation, and that $500,000 should be appropriated to begin planning.Hipp, Laura. "Museum Receives Panel's Support." The Clarion-Ledger. December 20, 2006. Controversy quickly erupted over where the museum should be located.
A month later, on January 16, 2007, Governor Barbour declared in his "State of the State" address that the museum was "overdue, and it needs doing","Barbour Must Now Put Words Into Action." Hattiesburg American. January 17, 2007. Barbour's support for the museum gave many Republicans in the state legislature the political support they needed to overcome conservative voters' opposition and back the bill.Goodman, Julie. "Miss. Closer to Civil Rights Museum." USA Today. June 21, 2007. Although there was widespread support for the governor's $500,000 funding proposal, state legislators battled over whether the building should be located in Jackson or the Mississippi Delta section of the state.Abdullah, Halimah. "Site Fight for Rights Museum." The Commercial Appeal. February 1, 2007. The state House voted to pass a bill to float $48 million in bonds to build a museum in Jackson, and state officials publicly suggested that state take over the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi building once a new courthouse was constructed.Hipp, Laura. "City Could Get $52M." The Clarion-Ledger. February 1, 2007. But the House bill died in the state Senate.Chandler, Natalie. "Bill Offering 2nd Chances for First-Time Drug Pushers Dies." The Clarion-Ledger. February 28, 2007. The Senate supported a bill to appropriate only the $500,000 in planning funds requested by the governor. The Senate bill passed both houses of the state legislature in March 2007 and was signed into law by the governor.Chandler, Natalie and Hipp, Laura. "Barbour's Aim 'Major Tax Cuts'." The Clarion-Ledger. March 14, 2007; Hipp, Laura. "Bond Issue Approved, But Hits Snags on Burn Unit, Fish Plant." The Clarion-Ledger. March 30, 2007.
Site selection
The 2007 legislation turned the selection of a site over to a 39-member commission.Perez, Mary. "Civil Rights Museum Looking for Location." Biloxi Sun Herald. April 29, 2007. State Senator Hillman Frazier and former state Supreme Court of Mississippi Justice Reuben Anderson co-chaired the commission. Sources differ as to whether 10 or 20 sites"Site Committee to Consider 20 Proposals for Miss. Museum." Associated Press. May 29, 2007. were proposed. Among the sites under consideration were: Grenada, where a mob attempted to prevent school integration in 1966; Hattiesburg, a key site in the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration project; Jackson State University in Jackson; Natchez, site of the notorious Forks in the Road slave market as well as the home church of Hiram Rhodes Revels (the first African American to serve in the United States Congress, serving in the Senate from February 23, 1870, until March 3, 1871) Philadelphia, where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led two civil rights marches; and Tougaloo College in Jackson. The committee said it would narrows the list of candidates down to four or five, and the conduct site visits. LaPaglia and Associates, a consulting firm, assisted the committee in its work (although it was paid from private donations and not state funds). When the committee announced its short-list, three of the five sites were in Jackson (including one on Farish Street).Lofton, Lynn. "Optimism About Jackson's Future Underpins New Projects." Mississippi Business Journal. December 24, 2007.
Politically, there seemed little chance of winning funding for any museum in the 2008 legislative session.Pettus, Emily Wagster. "Appointing a Commission an Effective Strategy to Control Issues." Associated Press. February 4, 2008. Nonetheless, backers of the museum submitted legislation authorizing $50 million in bonds to build the facility.Shigo, Shelly. "Mississippi: Bond Bills Aplenty." The Bond Buyer. February 7, 2008.
The consultant to the governor's committee announced on February 13, 2008, that it was recommending that the committee choose a on the Tougaloo College campus as the site for the future museum.Chandler, Natalie. "Tougaloo Choice as Museum Site Triggers Debate." The Clarion-Ledger. February 14, 2008. Vernon Dahmer Park in Hattiesburg was the consultant's second choice, followed by three sites in downtown Jackson (one near the Old State Capital Museum, one near Smith-Wills baseball stadium, and another on Farish Street).Crowell, Katharine. "Civil Rights Museum Tug of War Escalates." The Clarion-Ledger. March 2, 2008; Chandler, Clay. "Controversy Grows, Final Vote Looms for Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi." Mississippi Business Journal. March 3, 2008. The choice of a site was not yet final, as the governor's committee still had to vote to accept the consultant's recommendation. But backers of the museum were already discussing the museum's charter publicly, saying it would be limited to highlighting only Mississippi's civil rights struggle."Civil Rights Museum to Tougaloo." Associated Press. February 14, 2008. Supporters also said that the museum would open in two or three years, once the state legislature approved public funding for the public-private partnership designed to finance its construction.