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.

Hazel Brannon Smith - Wilson “Bill” Minor Papers, Manuscripts Division, Mississippi State University Libraries

Hazel Brannon Smith

Hazel Brannon Smith earned a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on race as editor/owner of the Lexington Advertiser. Smith wrote that all races "should have the same protection of the laws and courts." She condemned the Citizens’ Council "Gestapo" tactics. The Holmes County Citizens’ Council boycotted her paper and pressured the local hospital to fire her husband. In 1960, local teens burned a cross on her lawn. In 1961, she criticized the police attack on Tougaloo Nine supporters. She hosted Movement activists and printed their materials. In 1964, her Jackson newspaper office was bombed. Huge debts caused by the boycott forced her to declare bankruptcy. 

John Roy Lynch - Thomas and Joan Gandy Photographic Collection, Mss. 3778, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, LA

Representative John Roy Lynch

The child of a slave mother and Irish plantation manager father in Vidalia, Louisiana, John R. Lynch and his mother were sold to a Natchez planter after his father’s death. A self-educated man, Lynch operated a photography studio and became active in the Republican Party after the Civil War. Governor Adelbert Ames appointed him justice of the peace in 1869. The same year, he won election to the state legislature, later serving as Speaker of the House. In 1873, he won election to the US House of Representatives. In Congress, Lynch argued for the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which banned discrimination in public accommodations. He served three terms, overcoming voter intimidation and vote tampering by his Democratic opponents. In 1913, he published Facts of Reconstruction to refute the Lost Cause narrative of the period.

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.

Holy Family Catholic Church

Holy Family Catholic ChurchFirst Catholic Church in Mississippi River Valley with exclusively African American congregation

16 Orange Avenue
Natchez, Mississippi

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The Piney Woods School

The Piney Woods SchoolFounded by Laurence C. Jones in 1909, it is the largest, independent African American boarding school in the United States.

5096 US Highway 49
Piney Woods, Mississippi

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