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.

Judge Reuben Anderson - McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi

Judge Reuben V. Anderson

In 1967, Reuben Anderson became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi School of Law, just five years after James Meredith integrated the university. He started his legal career working as a civil rights attorney for the firm Anderson, Banks, Nichols, and Leventhal. He practiced for ten years, serving as an associate council for the Mississippi NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund. He often carried his diploma with him into courtrooms in Mississippi to prove he was an attorney. Governor Bill Allain appointed Anderson to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1985. He was the first Black justice and served until 1991.

Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce

Blanche Kelso Bruce rose from slavery to the US Senate. Born a Virginia slave, Bruce was taught by his young master’s tutor. He left his master at the beginning of the Civil War and moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he taught school briefly before continuing his education at Oberlin College in Ohio. After the war, Bruce worked on a Mississippi steamer for a year before settling in Bolivar County, where he became a successful planter. Active in Republican state politics, Bruce served as sheriff and tax collector (1872-1875), before the state legislature elected him to the US Senate, the first African American to serve a full term (1875-1881).

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.