Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum focuses on the period 1945 to 1976 when Mississippi was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement nationwide.

Benefiting from feedback from statewide community meetings, an advisory scholars group, and the MCRM Advisory Commission, the firm Hilferty & Associates designed the exhibit plan for the nation’s first state-operated civil rights museum. Visitors see a miniature chess set molded from bread by a Freedom Rider at Parchman prison and the front doors of the Bryant store in Money, Mississippi, that Emmett Till walked through in the summer of 1955. They hear the stories and music of activists jailed during the movement and reflect on the consequences African Americans faced when “crossing the line” in Jim Crow Mississippi.

The story of the African American Mississippian’s struggle for freedom and justice is told through seven thematic galleries and mini theaters encircling a central gallery entitled “This Little Light of Mine.”  This inspirational space carries the theme of the entire museum—that throughout Mississippi, ordinary people engaged in an extraordinary struggle to make real America’s promise of equal rights for all. A stunning sculpture and music honoring civil rights veterans is the focus of this dramatic light-filled central space.

For tickets, hours of operation and other information, please click here. For directions to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, please click here.