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HISTORY
INI EWSLETTER
imUCATlON OFraE MISSISSI^PlIBEt>ARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY ^ ^
Winter 2013
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Volume 55, No. 4
Groundbreaking Draws Broad Support
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More than six hundred people, including civil rights leaders, school children, and four Mississippi governors, gathered on Thursday, October 24, to break ground on the landmark Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
“Mississippi has a rich history. Thanks to these two museums, generations to follow will see and hear those stories,” said Mississippi governor Phil Bryant, adding, “They will see that Mississippi is much more about the future than the past.”
Myrlie Evers, former chair of the NAACP and widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, said, “1 could not help but think
about how far we have come to this point. And how proud I am of Mississippi and how proud I am that these two buildings are going to show the world—not only the state of Mississippi, not only other states, but the world—who we are, where we have been, where we are today and where we are going.”
The two museums, which will share public spaces and classrooms, are scheduled to open in the fall of 2017 as the centerpiece of the state’s bicentennial celebrations.
The legislation approving construction of the museums required MDAH to match private donations with public funding for exhibits. MDAH Trustee
Reuben Anderson announced that $5 million in private money—half the $10 million goal for private exhibit contributions—has been raised from two hundred donors, including major gifts by Entergy, Donna K. and James L. Barksdale, Trustmark, and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi. The fundraising campaign will continue.
Thrash Commercial Contractors, Inc. in Brandon was awarded the construction contract for the 2 Mississippi Museums. Work is expected to begin in December. The eighteen-month construction of the building shell will impact visitors at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building. When
construction begins, the Winter Building parking lot will be closed. Eleven spaces behind the War Memorial will be designated for patrons and marked Winter Building Visitor. Street parking will still be available.
In addition to thousands of artifacts, the museums will showcase the heroic stories of Mississippians—both the famous and the unsung. The Museum of Mississippi History will explore the sweep of the state’s history from earliest times to the present.
The adjacent Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the nation’s first state-operated civil rights museum, will examine CONTINUED ON PAGE 2