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.

Staughton Lynd

"Education is above all a meeting between people." Spelman College history professor Staughton Lynd likened Freedom Schools to a guerilla army, living within the community. He wanted the heart of curriculum to stem from questions taken from each student’s most immediate experience of housing, employment, and education, and work outward to questions such as: "What is it like for Negroes who go North? What are the myths of our society about the Negro’s past? What in Mississippi keeps us from getting the things we want?" The curriculum emphasized building student self-esteem and included units on "The Power Structure," the history of the Freedom Movement, and nonviolence.

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.

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.