The director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History gave McComb Lions Club members updates Tuesday on Mississippi’s Civil Rights Museum, which is set to open in 2017.
The museum is one of two going up simultaneously in the capital city. The other is dedicated to state history.
Archives and History director H.T. Holmes said McComb was one of nine cities that held meetings to gather suggestions from the community on the museums, and many of those at the meetings were involved in the civil rights movement.
Historians, architects and artists have been developing the project since former Gov. Haley Barbour signed legislation in 2011 to provide it with $40 million in bond funding.
The total cost of the two museums is expected to be $70 million.
The construction schedule is set to begin in 2013. Holmes said officials hope to have a grand opening in 2017, Mississippi’s bicentennial.
Holmes showed floor plans for the exhibits in the civil rights museum and said developers want to create a visceral experience for visitors.
“The sound of Mississippians telling their stories will be heard,” he said. “Music played an important role in the civil rights movement and it plays a role in the museum as well. Music is an uplifting force.”
Holmes said there will be archival film footage, historical memorabilia and oral histories.
“We are telling the history of Mississippi and we are using the voices of her people to do it,” Holmes said.
He explained how exhibits will have the voices of Mississippians talking about historical events from a local perspective.
“We want to pay homage to those who lived through it,” he said, adding that officials have been recording oral histories with Mississippians.
Part of the reality that developers have designed in some exhibits is the differences between black and white worlds.
“The gallery of segregation will show a split Jim Crow world,” he said. “Visitors will experience the disparity between black and white.”
He showed illustrations of segregated scenes such as a school and a public bathroom. He warned that some exhibits may not be for children or for the timid.
“We intend for these exhibits to tell a Mississippi story,” Holmes said. “They will celebrate local people, local heroes, but if we want to tell Mississippi’s story we have to hear all of it. There were terrible things that happened, and we can’t sugar-coat it.”
