Plan for Miss. civil rights museum gains supporters

Emily Wagster Pettus

JACKSON, Miss. — Two generations ago, or maybe even one, this would’ve been unthinkable in Mississippi politics.

In a state long defined by strident racial divisions, there’s serious discussion about building a civil rights museum — a place where scholars and tourists could learn about lynchings, segregation and voting rights struggles that some folks have long considered too controversial or too unpleasant to discuss in polite company.

“I never thought I’d see the day in Mississippi where people are stumbling all over themselves to build a civil rights museum,” said Rep. John Reeves, R-Jackson. “Times have changed around here.”

Times have changed so much, apparently, that the discussion among elected officials is not about whether a museum should be built — that seems to be almost a given by now — but rather about where the potential tourist magnet could go.

Civil rights museums are attracting thousands of visitors each year in Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., and officials in Mississippi see the potential for revenue.

During this state election year, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and most legislators — black and white, Democrat and Republican — are trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters. And the politicians are saying, in public at least, that they support building a museum.

It’s not clear, though, how far the project will move this year.

A bill that recently cleared the Mississippi House 117-3 would authorize the state to issue $50 million in bonds to develop a museum.

Barbour proposes setting aside a significantly smaller amount of state money this year. He wants $500,000 for planning, to match another $500,000 already raised by private donors. He said more money could be raised later, and he wants to rely heavily on donations from companies, foundations and private citizens.

Either way, a museum could be years in the making.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Robertson, R-Moss Point, told The Associated Press that he’s not prepared to consider putting $50 million into the proposed museum now. His opinion matters because as chairman, he decides whether to bring the House bill up for a vote.

“The governor’s plan, $500,000, that’s what I’m willing to do this year,” Robertson said.

The $500,000 would be cash rather than borrowed money, and that would put the spending request through the Appropriations Committee rather than through Finance.

Robertson also said of the museum: “We don’t need to do this on a whim.”

Many lawmakers argue the project isn’t a whim.

The Mississippi Legislature created a committee nearly a year ago to study the feasibility of building a civil rights museum somewhere in the state. After the committee started its work, Barbour appointed a separate commission of business leaders to examine the same subject.

Members of the legislative committee traveled to Alabama, Tennessee and other places to gather information. In December, the committee, which was dominated by Jackson lawmakers, recommended that a museum be built in the capital city. One argument they made was that Jackson, as Mississippi’s largest city, would best be able to attract enough visitors to make the museum successful.

Also, several committee members pointed to the city’s prominent role in the civil rights movement, including efforts by Tougaloo College students in 1961 to integrate the whites-only public library system. Medgar Evers, the Mississippi NAACP leader at an important time for the civil rights push during the early 1960s, lived in Jackson and was assassinated outside his home there in June 1963.

Sectionalism, as much as race, is a strong dividing line in Mississippi politics, and it was predictable that lawmakers from other parts of the state would challenge the recommendation of putting the museum in Jackson.

Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said his part of the state also could make a strong historical claim. He points to the 1955 slaying of Chicago teenager Emmett Till in Money, Miss., just up the road from Greenwood. Though the 14-year-old was simply a young man on vacation, his mother helped galvanize the civil rights movement with her decision to have an open casket so the public could see her son’s mutilated body.

Jordan says that in 1963, Greenwood was the first place dogs were let loose on black people as they tried to register to vote.

“Why shouldn’t the museum be put there?” Jordan said of his hometown. “This is where the movement actually took off, had its origin.”

A recent state House debate quickly turned testy when a Jackson lawmaker tried to strip the bill of provisions that the museum could be built somewhere in the Delta.

The amendment by Democratic Rep. Mary Coleman would’ve left the capital city as the only potential site for the project. Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, quickly offered a substitute amendment to take Jackson out of consideration and leave only the Delta.

Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, quoted civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer, saying he was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

“That’s the way we feel right now in the Mississippi Delta,” Hines said. “Every time you turn around, EVERY time you turn around, you see people trying to take stuff away from the Mississippi Delta. We have been last, last and last. And I am appalled by my good friend’s amendment to strip the Delta once again.”

Coleman and Mayo both withdrew their amendments, but only after several minutes’ debate that divided lawmakers who normally are political allies. Lawmakers who might oppose the museum — for financial reasons or otherwise — barely had to utter a word. The only questions came from Rep. Steve Horne, R-Meridian, who said he doesn’t want to increase the state’s bond debt.

As the bill moves to the Senate, both Jackson and the Delta remain possibilities, and other sites could be added. And still, a bill may not reach the governor’s desk this year.

Reeves was co-chairman of the legislative group that studied the feasibility of a museum. He said he has been in touch with U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., about the possibility that the James O. Eastland federal courthouse in downtown Jackson could be sold or given to the state for use in the project.

A new federal courthouse is being built several blocks away, and construction is expected to take years.

Leslie B. McLemore, a Jackson State University political scientist and Jackson City Council member, said he believes a Mississippi civil rights museum could deal honestly and openly with a complex, difficult topic.

“I think we have scholars in this state and scholars external to this state who have studied this history, who know this history and will share the unvarnished history in our state and with our own people,” McLemore said.

(Associated Press)