Mississippi Civil Rights Museum | Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

MISSISSIPPI CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
222 NORTH STREET
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

HOURS
TUESDAY–SATURDAY 9AM–5PM
SUNDAY 11AM–5PM

Explore the Galleries

Explore the movement that changed the nation. Discover stories of Mississippians like Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Vernon Dahmer, as well as those who traveled many miles to stand beside them, come what may, in the name of equal rights for all.

Explore the Galleries at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

Points of Light

The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi is full of ordinary men and women who refused to sit silently while their brothers and sisters were denied their basic freedoms. A number of these heroes are featured throughout the museum as Points of Light, shining exemplars of dignity, strength, and perseverance in the face of oppression.

Tracy Sugarman

Illustrator Tracy Sugarman returned from the battles of World War II to record the "faces of postwar America." He felt "the mounting urgency of the racial crisis" and volunteered for the Summer Project in 1964. Along with hundreds of students and professionals, he attended the nonviolent training workshop at the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. Sugarman spent the summer working on voter registration in Ruleville, where he became good friends with Fannie Lou Hamer. His Freedom Summer sketches appeared in various news magazines and the CBS news documentary, "How Beautiful on the Mountains." In 1966, Sugarman published Stranger at the Gates, a memoir of his experiences.

Father Nathaniel

In Greenwood, Father Nathaniel Machesky offered the facilities at St. Francis of Assisi Mission to distribute supplies to aid the poor. A native of Detroit, he came to the Delta in 1950 and established the mission to aid poor Black Mississippians. When local banks refused loans to Black people, Father Nathaniel established the St. Francis Federal Credit Union. Father Nathaniel supported the Greenwood Movement but tried to remain behind the scenes to protect the mission’s efforts to aid the poor. But when Northern friends began bringing supplies, Father Nathaniel made his facility available for food distribution. His activism would make him the target of night-rider attacks and death threats in the coming years.

Explore Mississippi

Many of the homes, colleges, and historic sites discussed in this gallery still exist today. Journey beyond the museum walls and explore the places where history happened.