Places are powerful reminders of the past, few more so than Jackson, Mississippi. Opportunities for Civil Rights education, illumination and enjoyment abound. Here, reenergizing the movement requires somber reflection, but also the celebration of endurance and the spirit of hope.
Few other places have as much potential to teach us about the movement as the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. This state-of-the-art space – the only state-funded such museum in the nation – features eight distinct galleries, guiding visitors from the struggle for freedom through the Jim Crow South and beyond to the present moment.
The Mississippi Freedom Trail takes history out of a building and into the streets. Made up of numerous sites of Civil Rights significance, the Freedom Trail ushers visitors past the home of icon Medgar Evers to the Greyhound Bus station where Freedom Riders were rounded up and arrested. Other sites include the site of a Woolworth Department Store sit-in, the site of the Capitol Rally, the Edwards Hotel, and the Municipal Library where nine students from Tougaloo College protested segregation.
Designated as a National Park Service Monument, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers home still stands today. A WWII veteran and Mississippi’s field secretary for the NAACP, Medgar Evers both lived and died at this site, assassinated in his driveway in 1963 by a Ku Klux Klan member. Medgar’s commitment to desegregating higher education and expanding voting rights and economic opportunity changed Mississippi forever.
Dedicated to the timeless contributions of African Americans, the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center uses art, artifacts, photography, and other cultural treasures to demonstrate the crucial impact of Black voices and Black accomplishments in Mississippi and the world. Stroll permanent exhibits spanning a detailed history of Farish Street District to the contributions of Black doctors, scholars and folk artists.
