This is a big week for our state. On Saturday, December 9th, we will be celebrating our bicentennial with the opening of two new state history museums: The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. While the 2 Museums are not an initiative of the Mississippi Humanities Council, I have had a close relationship with the project, working with the dedicated and talented staff of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Four years ago after starting my tenure as executive director of the MHC, among the first public events that I attended was the groundbreaking for the museums. It was amazing to see former governors, elected officials, and civil rights veterans standing side by side with ceremonial shovels to mark the start of construction. I've had the honor to serve on the community advisory board for the Museum of Mississippi History and on the scholarly review panels for both museums. By virtue of my position, I've been able to attend several sneak previews of the museums and can attest to their power. You will want to see them. While tickets to the opening weekend are long since sold out, the museums will be here for years to come.

They are not just two new buildings with artifacts and interactive displays --they are landmarks in the retelling of Mississippi's story.

Having read drafts of all of the text and seeing the visual exhibits, I understand the significance of these new institutions. They are not just two new buildings with artifacts and interactive displays - they are landmarks in the retelling of Mississippi's story. For a long time, the narrative of Mississippi history has been lacking, offering a version of the past that was at best incomplete, and too often based on myth. In our public discussion of Confederate monuments last month, Dr. Anne Marshall of Mississippi State University made the salient point that these monuments only tell a part of our state's history and asked us to consider whose stories have been excluded. In building the Museum of Mississippi History, MDAH has worked tirelessly to include the diverse stories of Mississippi. And when those stories are not easy to face, the museum doesn't turn away or hide them.

The history of racism and the civil rights movement in Mississippi is both a difficult and inspiring story. For a state-funded institution to tackle this complicated history is noteworthy; to do it in a way that is bracingly honest and insightful is nothing short of extraordinary. Instead of a triumphalist narrative, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will present a story of redemption, examining how we can face the worst of our past, honor and celebrate those who devoted and sacrificed their lives to move our state out of the darkness of racial oppression, and contemplate how best we can honor this legacy in facing the challenges of today. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum tells a story that belongs to all of us.

We will be devoting our next "Ideas on Tap" in Jackson to the significance of these museums in retelling our state's history. Please join us at Hal & Mal's December 12th at 5:30 p.m. for a discussion of the future of Mississippi's history.

Perhaps it's the historian in me, but I've long felt Mississippi will not truly thrive as a united community until we have a unified story of who we are and where we've been. For too long Mississippi has had two versions of its history. In recent decades, scholars, MDAH, the MHC, and other institutions have worked to present a more accurate version of our history. These two new museums give us a remarkable opportunity to come to terms with our past and chart a better future for all Mississippians.

In 2017, the Mississippi Humanities Council has culturally enriched c ommunities across our state.

• Working with Visit Mississippi, we administered a statewide bicentennial grant programthat funded 88 projects celebrating and exploring Mississippi's history and culture. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we funded 24 projects that examined the legacy of racism in Mississippi.
• We presented 14 "Ideas on Tap" conversations in four different communities, helping foster civil discussion about important issues facing us today.
• We supported several special initiatives, including humanities-based education programs at Parchman Penitentiary and Central Mississippi Correctional Facility.
• We brought the National Archives' "pop-up" exhibit about our Bill of Rights to 75 public libraries in the state.
• We offered 146 different humanities topics to organizations for free through our Speakers Bureau, which features our state's finest scholars, writers, and storytellers.
• We made reading come alive for underserved families through our family reading program.

By Timothy Lampkin, Outreach Coordinator

With support from a Mississippi Humanities Council racial equity grant, the Jackson Interfaith Civil Rights Committee is hosting a series of free events entitled The Kneel-Ins: The Voices and the Vision Forward to commemorate the church visit campaign of 1963 and 1964.

The Jackson Kneel-In

 movement was an attempt by an interracial group of students, parishioners, and civil rights activists to integrate Protestant and Catholic churches in downtown Jackson. Organizers used direct-action protest to urge the church-goers and ministers at segregated churches to open their sanctuaries to African-American worshipers.

"Studying the Jackson Kneel-In movement and honoring the lessons of its legacy offers a powerful opportunity to ask questions about the systemic ways that our community and culture still support inequality today," said St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral member and producer of the documentary "Eyes on Mississippi," Ellen Ann Fentress. "The goal of this programming is to foster a dialogue about the continuing legacy of racism, informed by this important chapter of the Mississippi civil rights movement."

Events included public discussions about the impact of the kneel-ins and about what citizens can do today to encourage inclusivity. The events were inspired by Carter Dalton Lyon's book,  Sanctuaries of Segregation , published in July by the Mississippi University Press, presenting the first comprehensive analysis of the Jackson, Mississippi, church visit campaign of 1963-1964 and the efforts by segregationists to protect one of their last refuges.

When administrators of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., learned of the efforts of a group of Mississippi history professors to offer college-level Southern history courses for women imprisoned at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, they packed up and  had delivered a traveling exhibit entitled "A Place for All People." The commemorative poster exhibition was created to celebrate the grand opening of the NMAAHC on September 24, 2017. Based on the inaugural exhibitions of the museum, the posters highlight key artifacts that tell the rich and diverse story of the African American experience. With a small grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, the posters will be framed and mounted for exhibit at the CMCF, opening Dec. 7 with remarks by    Deborah Mack, associate director of the NMAAHC, and  Jon Peede, acting chairman of the Council's chief funder, the National Endowment for the Humanities. A Mississippi native, Peede's father once served as staff physician at the CMCF .

The Council is a financial sponsor of the Prison-to-College Pipeline at the CMCF, a college-level course for prisoners who hold high school diplomas or GEDs, with course content designed around inmates' interests. Prisoners who participate in the course have the opportunity to earn college credit. Professor Patrick Alexander launched the Prison-to-College Pipeline Program at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman in June 2014 with a grant from the University of Mississippi's College of Liberal Arts. After two successful summers at Parchman, history professors Otis Pickett (Mississippi College) and Stephanie Rolph (Millsaps College) brought the program to women incarcerated at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council and Mississippi College.

"The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to support this exhibit, which relates perfectly to the material taught in several of the courses offered through the Prison-to-College Pipeline program," said Carol Andersen, assistant director of the Mississippi Humanities Council.

The exhibit will be on display at the CMFC for two weeks, and will then travel to the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman and then to the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University where it will be made available to any public library, museum, cultural institution, college campus and prison in the state of Mississippi.

Learn more

For a full list of bicentennial events and program details, visit our website for an online calendar of events  http://mshumanities.org/events/ . 

Learn more