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 - Photo by Herbert Randall, Herbert Randall Freedom Summer Photographs, McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi

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.

Fannie Lou Hamer - Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01267

Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer’s nationally televised testimony at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 beamed her message into America’s living rooms. She challenged party leaders to uphold America’s commitment to equality under the law. In plain language, she talked of getting fired and thrown off a Delta plantation for trying to register to vote. She offered gritty details of her vicious beating by police in the Winona jail in 1963. Hamer was an activist for voting rights and school desegregation. Until her death in 1977, she continued to speak for civil rights and advocate for poor people. 

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.

Alcorn State University

Alcorn State UniversityAlcorn State University is the oldest public historically black land-grant institution in the United States and the second-oldest state-supported institution of higher learning in Mississippi. It was founded in 1871 to educate the descendants of formerly enslaved Mississippians.

1000 Alcorn Avenue
Lorman, Mississippi

Visit Website

William Johnson House

William Johnson HouseExplores the lives of free African Americans in the pre-Civil War South

210 State Street
Natchez, Mississippi 

Visit Website