The Two Mississippi Museums are offering free admission through tomorrow.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the third annual National Day of Racial Healing, FedEx and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation are supporting free admission to the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
“We are grateful to FedEx Corporation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for enabling hundreds to visit these museums and reflect on King’s contribution to Mississippi and the nation,” said Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
According to the museum, King’s involvement in Mississippi includes his attendance at the funeral of NAACP state field secretary Medgar Evers in 1963. In 1964, he visited Greenwood during Mississippi Freedom Summer to support the project. King made a statement before the credentials committee at the 1964 Democratic National Convention expressing support for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
When James Meredith was shot during his March Against Fear in 1966, King and his wife, Coretta, went to Mississippi to continue the march. In 1968, King teamed with Fannie Lou Hamer and the MFDP to launch the Poor People’s Campaign, which began in Marks, Mississippi, and ended in Washington, D.C.
“FedEx is honored to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through our continued support of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History,” said Shannon A. Brown, senior vice president of Air Ground and Freight Services and Chief Diversity Officer at FedEx Express. “It is a privilege for us to offer more museum-goers the opportunity to reflect on his extraordinary legacy.”
“The Two Mississippi museums honor the deep and painful stories of the state’s past and offer a space for all of Mississippians in search of racial healing a place to begin that journey,” said Rhea Williams Bishop, director of programming for Mississippi and New Orleans for the Kellogg Foundation.
The Museums aren’t typically open on Mondays, but today, the doors will be open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., which are their normal hours on operating days.
Tonight, the Civil Rights Museum will host “MLK Poetry Night: ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’” Museum director Pamela Junior, artist Thabi Moyo, and musician 5th Child will co-host the evening of free performances in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium.
The Museum of Mississippi History explores the entire sweep of the state’s history. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the first state-operated civil rights museum in the country, explores the period from 1945 to 1976, when Mississippi was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement nationally.
