Civil Rights in Mississippi

In preparation for an August 2027 temporary exhibit, curators with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History are calling on the public to share their artifacts from Rosenwald Schools that opened a century ago to serve Black students.

Rosenwald Schools are named for Julius Rosenwald, a millionaire philanthropist who was president and part owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company. He was inspired by and partnered with Booker T. Washington to fund schools for Black children across the South, beginning with six in Alabama that opened in or between 1913-1914. There were 4,978 total Rosenwald schools. In Mississippi, there were more than 500 schools, second in number to North Carolina.

MDAH is calling on residents to search through their attics, closets and trunks for precious objects associated with the Rosenwald schools in Mississippi. The artifacts could take any form – a teacher’s log, teaching license, photos, desks, chalkboards, textbooks or even cafeteria trays.

“Behind every artifact is a human story. Through these everyday school objects, we hope to bring to life the experiences of the students, teachers and communities whose lives were transformed by Rosenwald Schools,” said Ivette Ray, director of curatorial services within the MDAH Museum Division.

These items will be considered for an MDAH exhibit that will open in August alongside the traveling photography exhibit, “A Better Life for Their Children: Photographs and Stories by Andrew Feiler.”

People are asked to send a description and photo of their objects to info@mdah.ms.gov.

Background on Schools in Mississippi 
According to a “Mississippi History Now” article by former MDAH architectural historian Jennifer Baughn, public schooling in Mississippi did not become commonplace until after the Civil War. 

When the United States Supreme Court decided in its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that states could require separate public facilities for Black and White people as long as they were equal (the so-called “separate but equal” doctrine), White-dominated school boards began concentrating on funding schools for White children, rather than for Black. By the early 1900s, while many White children studied their textbooks in new functional buildings, Black students were often left to make do in churches, lodges, and poorly constructed buildings.

Beginning in the 1910s, however, new school buildings for Black students began to spring up on the Mississippi landscape as Rosenwald partnered with mostly Black communities. The last school was built in 1937.

In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Rosenwald Schools on its 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list, and in 2011 the Trust included the schools in its portfolio of National Treasures – nationally significant but threatened historic treasures.

In February 2026, the Terry Rosenwald School in Hinds County, which was established as the "Colored Public School of Terry," was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The school building on this site is documented as “Terry School” on a school card in the records of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Collection at Fisk University.

Mississippi is believed to be among only a few states to have completed as comprehensive a survey of Rosenwald schools or historic schools in general.

Only a few Rosenwald buildings are known to survive in Mississippi: Bay Springs School, Forrest County (1925); Brushy Creek School, Copiah County (ca. 1930); Bynum School, Panola County (1926); Coahoma Agricultural High School (ca. 1930; now Coahoma Community College); Drew School, Sunflower County (1929); Hollandale School, Washington County (1924; only a section survives, and it has been extensively altered); Marks School, Quitman County (1922); Moorhead Schoolteacher’s House, Sunflower County (1932); Nichols Elementary School, Canton, Madison County (1927); Oak Park Principal’s Home and Girls’ Dormitory, Laurel, Jones County (1928); Pantherburn School, Sharkey County (1927; altered, now serves as a church); Pass Christian (Randolph) School, Pass Christian, Harrison County (1928); Prentiss Institute, Prentiss, Jefferson Davis County (1926); Rose Hill School, Sharkey County (1922; badly deteriorated); Sherman Line School, Amite County (1928); Swiftown School, Leflore County (1921; may not be a Rosenwald School); Walthall County Training (Ginntown) School, Walthall County (1920); John White Schoolteacher’s House, Forrest County (1925).
 

Zachary Clary, the 2026 Religion in Mississippi History Research Fellow, has completed his summer research at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and his work will be included in his doctoral dissertation.

Clary, a doctoral candidate at Vanderbilt University, recently presented “Slaying the Dreamer: Violence, Death, and Martyrdom in the American Civil Rights Movement,” a project that examines the sacrifice of civil rights leaders in the South.

His research in Jackson focused on Medgar Evers, who is one of the dissertation’s case studies.

“For me, [Evers] was the emotional core that brought me to doing this project in the first place,” Clary said.

He investigated how Evers was viewed before and after his death as a hero and “martyr.” Clary focused on the idea of sacrifice in the context of religion and the South.

Clary spent most of his time combing through the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers, which he said were of “monumental importance” to his research. The primary source correspondence offers a unique look into the mindset of the authors. For instance, Myrlie Evers’ perspective of her husband’s death, as well as the public reception, is detailed in the collection.

Clary encouraged the public to utilize the archives housed at the William F. Winter Building. He noted the ample, well-organized resources that make research easy.

Clary is currently working toward his doctoral degree in History from Vanderbilt University, where he also earned a Master of Arts in History. He also received a Master of Arts in History from the University of South Carolina. Clary previously attended the College of William & Mary for his Bachelor of Arts in History.

The Religion in Mississippi History Research Fellowship seeks to nurture scholars at the beginning of their academic careers to increase their lifelong interest in history and to promote continued academic and public appreciation of the study of religious history in Mississippi. The fellowship is made possible by a grant through Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.

A large audience of history buffs attended a special screening of the second episode of The Fisher People, a four-part documentary series by Mississippi State University Television Director David Garraway. The screening was part of the History Is Lunch series at the Two Mississippi Museums and it comes ahead of the documentary’s premiere next month on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

Panelists Emma To, certified registered nurse anesthetist and assistant professor at the University of Southern Mississippi; Deanne Stephens, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Gulf South and professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi; and Garraway fielded audience questions at the conclusion of the screening.

As the Vietnam War entered its final days in 1975, many South Vietnamese citizens looked for a path to a better life. For some, that path ended in Mississippi.

“The commercial seafood industry made the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” said Stephens, who appeared in the film. “In the beginning of the seafood industry, you did have locals who worked in the industry. But there were not enough locals, and the labor demands, once you began the processing plants, were so great that there had to be a different labor source.” 

The documentary explores the immigration experiences of Vietnamese refugees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that have defined life along the shore for the past fifty years. 

The film’s second episode gave a glimpse of a rocky start for refugee fisherman and how change didn’t come quickly.

“My dad would bring his boat by (locals’ boats), and then they would have their shotguns out on their shoulders,” said To, who also appeared in the film. “And it's almost like they didn't say anything, but it was almost like, know your place. It was almost like a silent threat, if that makes sense.”

To also reflected on the resilience and gratitude shared by many first-generation Vietnamese families. 

“I feel like our parents kind of want to be unseen, not making a commotion. They just are grateful that they're in America, and they don't want to complain too much,” To said. “(Our parents) feel like this is already a blessing that we are here.”

Stephens noted that many Vietnamese refugees arrived in Mississippi seeking peace and stability. 

“I am not surprised that it is not talked about,” Stephens said. “They came here with all good intentions. They meant no harm. They wanted to just have a quiet life for their families.”

“And that was not what greeted them at the beginning.”

Produced by MSU TV, The Fisher People offers an in-depth look at the history, culture, and lasting impact of Vietnamese communities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The four-part documentary series premieres on Mississippi Public Broadcasting on Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m., with new episodes airing weekly through Oct. 23

MDAH’s History Is Lunch series is presented Wednesdays at noon in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson and is free to the public. These programs explore Mississippi history and culture through presentations by scholars, authors, and experts from across the state and nation.
 

Andrew Young – a veteran civil rights activist who served as a Georgia congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a former mayor of Atlanta – will deliver the Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Two Mississippi Museums.

Young will reflect on his life in public service and his longstanding ties to Mississippi in a conversation with Ebony Lumumba, a Foundation for Mississippi History board member and the department chair and associate professor of English at Jackson State University. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also feature a special performance by singer and dramatist Ayanna Gregory, daughter of the late comic and civil rights icon Dick Gregory.

“We’re honored to welcome Ambassador Young back to Mississippi,” Two Mississippi Museums Director Michael Morris said. “We’re looking forward to hearing him reminisce on his time here with Evers and other figures of the movement.”

In 1961, Young was named director of the Citizenship School Program housed at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, when Martin Luther King Jr. was president. He first met Medgar Evers through his work with the SCLC. 

His involvement in the Civil Rights Movement included being a key strategist in campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In Mississippi, Young participated in James Meredith’s March Against Fear in 1966. That same year, he accompanied Black students as they entered previously segregated schools in Grenada, Mississippi, alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In 1968, Young helped launch the Poor People’s Campaign, a national movement focused on economic justice and the needs of Americans living in poverty.

Young was elected to Congress in 1972, the first African American from the Deep South since Reconstruction. In 1977, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by President Jimmy Carter. He was elected Atlanta’s mayor in 1981 and re-elected in 1985.

“It is a rare opportunity to hear directly from a civil rights veteran who played such a significant role in ensuring all Americans have access to their constitutional rights,” Morris said.

Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad and has received various awards, including an Emmy Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and the Dan Sweat Award in 2017. His portrait also became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

The Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture Series was established in 2003 to honor the legacy of Evers, a civil rights activist who was the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi. His widow Myrlie Evers presented the Medgar and Myrlie Evers papers to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 2002. 

Previous Evers lecturers include Joy Reid, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Lonnie Bunch, Henry Louis Gates, Robert P. Moses, and Manning Marable.

The event is sponsored by MDAH, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.

In 2014, the Kellogg Foundation awarded $2.3 million to MDAH to support programming at the Two Mississippi Museums and fund a partnership between MDAH and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.

The Two Mississippi Museums—the interconnected Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum—opened December 9, 2017, in honor of the state’s bicentennial. The museums take visitors through the sweep of Mississippi history and the state’s role as ground zero in the nation’s Civil Rights Movement.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the people who volunteered to participate in Freedom Summer 1964?

Christina J. Thomas, a post doctorate fellow at the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, is in the final stages of a project that will make that information more accessible.

Thomas is the first recipient of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Robert “Bob” Moses Research Fellowship. The fellowship afforded Thomas the opportunity to use the MDAH archives this summer to conduct research for her project, “Digitizing Freedom Summer.” 

Her database will be a resource for researchers, students, and even surviving Freedom Summer volunteers who would like to connect with others they worked alongside in the summer of 1964.

“The goal of my digital project is twofold. First, I seek to geolocate each volunteer on a map providing viewers with a profile of each volunteer who came that summer, which comes from a database I'm compiling,” Thomas said. “Perhaps a short bio, but at the very least, links to other primary sources, where it has individuals share their stories, experience, memories, or old histories that already exist.” 

The Robert Moses Civil Rights Research Fellowship Program was created by MDAH to support young academic scholars and promote the study of the Civil Rights Movement. The program is named in honor of Moses because of his deep interest in developing Indigenous leadership and research, encouraging the study of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

Thomas received a doctoral degree in history from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Art in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Bachelor of Art in History from Messiah University. 

In addition to her work at the Center for Civil Rights History, Thomas previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Visiting scholar at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. Thomas also was a historian for the History Department of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. 

This summer, Thomas mined MDAH collections, like the Freedom Song Collection, to uncover different kinds of stories and learn more about the volunteers of Freedom Summer. 

At the end of her presentation on July 23, Thomas showed a prototype of the future database.  The visual showed an interactive map that will showcase several different profiles and stories of Freedom Summer volunteers. She said she hopes to share the database with the public soon.

Learn more about MDAH fellowship opportunities here. 

As the daughter of civil rights leaders Medgar and Myrlie Evers listened, MDAH fellow Chelsea D. McNutt, Ph.D., recently presented her preliminary findings on the networks of care led by Black women during the Civil Rights Movement.

McNutt is the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s 2026 Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellow.

For two weeks this summer, McNutt pored over the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers housed at MDAH to pursue her research. She spent most of her time analyzing how Myrlie Evers was a part of the collective care of Black women in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.

“Following his assassination in June 1963, the Movement confronted not only the loss of one of its most influential leaders, but also the immediate question of how families, communities, and organizations would respond in the aftermath. At the center of that moment stood Myrlie Evers,” McNutt said.

The recent presentation at the Two Mississippi Museums was the culmination of the fellowship for McNutt, who earned her Ph.D. in History from Cornell University and was recently appointed an Assistant Professor of History at Grambling State University.

McNutt researched how Myrlie Evers navigated widowhood, motherhood, national public attention, and the responsibility of preserving the work Medgar Evers had done. Through this, she found a broader historical question: "How did Black women organize care in moments like this and how did forms of care emerge around Myrlie Evers?”

Reena Evers-Everette also attended the fellow's presentation and gave her thanks to McNutt, praising her work for the focus of the role of care in her research.
“Thank you very much for your presentation and for your research and for hearing that you’re going to continue with it,” Evers-Everette said.

McNutt described her research as both challenging and rewarding.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of historical research is that every answer often leads to new questions,” McNutt said. “This fellowship has challenged me to think differently about Black women's political work, collective care, and the intellectual labor that sustains the modern civil rights movement.”

To learn more about MDAH Fellowships visit, https://www.mdah.ms.gov/careers-volunteering/fellowship-opportunities

Betty Bobo Pearson, whose life is highlighted as a Point of Light in the Two Mississippi Museums, is remembered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for her lifelong civic engagement, including advocacy for civil rights and voting rights.

Pearson died May 26, 2026, at the age of 104.

Pearson joined the United States Marines in the fall of 1943, eventually earning the rank of Second Lieutenant. She spent the war years at the San Diego Naval Base.

MDAH recognizes Pearson as a Point of Light in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

In 2016, her life was the subject of a History Is Lunch program based on Sally Palmer Thomason's biography, Delta Rainbow: The Irrepressible Betty Bobo Pearson.  

According to the book, a defining moment in Pearson's life came in 1955, when she attended the trial for Emmett Till alongside her close friend, Florence Mars. Witnessing firsthand the blatant injustice and deep-seated racism on display transformed Pearson's perspective and strengthened her resolve to fight for equality.

"Betty Bobo Pearson's courage, compassion, and unwavering moral conviction continue to inspire generations of Mississippians," said Two Mississippi Museums Director Michael Morris.

The late Mississippi Governor William Winter once reflected on the book and Pearson's enduring impact: "This is the intimate, tell-it-all account of the life and career of one of the most remarkable women whom I have ever known. If Mississippi had had more people of conscience and courage like Betty Bobo Pearson and her friend, Florence Mars, we would have spared ourselves much unnecessary grief in the past, as we struggled with the issue of race. But this intriguing book is not just about race. It is an enlightening and inspiring insight into the character and values of one who was always true to herself and, as a result, to everyone else."