JACKSON, miss. – In 1963 Margaret Walker’s neighbor, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist, in Jackson, Mississippi.
Then, 150 miles north of Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.
There were still Confederate monuments that fueled the white supremacist ideas that killed, brutalized, or discriminated against Evers, King, and countless other blacks.
In Mississippi alone, these monuments are in 131 public spaces.
When Walker, poet and author of the neo-slave short story “Jubilee”, founded the Institute for the Study of Black History, Life and Culture in 1968, she made sure that black truths like Evers and King were not rolled into one Sea of Confederate myths drowned. Known today as Margaret Walker Center, it is a museum and archive center at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
“Margaret lived on the same street as Medgar Evers in Jackson,” said Robert Luckett, associate professor of history at Jackson State and director of the center.
“Margaret founded us in 1968, and doing so in Mississippi was an activist statement. For her it is a remarkable testimony to her and to the strength of the idea, having the courage and what is necessary to make it a vital role who these museums have played in preserving and promoting African American history and culture. “
Other black history museums, such as the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson and the Emmett Till Museum Interpretive Center in Sumner, also display the brutal truths of racism and Jim Crow, as well as the triumphs and resilience of Mississippi blacks.
Alabama museums like the Birmingham Civil Rights Center, the Civil Rights Memorial in the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery – as well as the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
RECKONING WITH CONFEDERATE PAST
And at a time when the nation is challenged to reckon with its Confederate past, civil rights museums and archive centers are likely to play an even bigger role in improving the breed record, said Terri Lee Freeman, president of the NCRM.
“I think the role of the museum has always been to educate and truthfully inform about the subject and the subject,” Freeman said. “Just because you’re dismantling the Confederate statue doesn’t mean the story didn’t take place. So the role there is to be accurate and authentic in our interpretation of the story.
“I don’t think our role has changed. The questions may be more common than before, but the answers are still the same.”
The movement to overthrow Confederate statues, plus a summer of protests against unarmed blacks killed by police officers, and the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blacks have likely raised more questions than civil rights monuments and museums Tafeni English, Director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery said it was uniquely positioned to provide context.
The memorial, which is part of the Southern Poverty Law Center, was unveiled in 1989 and designed by Maya Lin, the architect of the Vietnam War Memorial. Inscribed on granite are the names of 40 civil rights martyrs who were killed from 1955 – the year Till was murdered – to 1968, when King was killed.
This memorial, as well as the Legacy Museum and the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in 2018, pay homage to victims of slavery, lynching and racial terrorism.
“The Interpretation Center is a comprehensive experience where we not only share the stories of the martyrs on the wall, but also talk about the work of SPLC, particularly on a wall labeled ‘The March Continues’ that speaks to the injustices of today, “said English.
“The Emmanuel Nine (black parishioners murdered in 2015 in a Charleston church by white supremacist Dylann Roof) are hanging on the wall … white supremacy and terrorism still have strong boundaries in our country, and we don’t talk nearly enough about them . “
EDUCATION ON THE HISTORY OF RACISM
English said civil rights museums also play a role in educating people about the history of racism and white supremacy by showcasing material and exhibits that add historical context to current issues.
“Overall, I think people think of museums as pretty static, we tell a story and that’s it,” she said.
“Well, no, it doesn’t work that way. When our communities change and social justice issues arise, museums can tell the full story about it …”
Margaret Walker Center’s Luckett agrees.
For example, next year Luckett said the center would host an exhibition based on Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Eviction: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” This topic includes the effects of racism and inequality.
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which opened in 2017, also features a space titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” Where visitors can reflect on their experiences and share ideas on how to further improve society.
This museum, Luckett said, is also testament to the determination of blacks to tell the Mississippi civil rights history.
“I would argue that the museum, in the context of monuments and memorials, reflects a community-focused effort to reflect the kind of memorial that we should all be proud of because this museum is a $ 90 million project that is testing will stand the test of time, “said Luckett, who was on the team of scholars who helped plan it.
“Legislation has stayed away from that for the most part except for funding, which has been good,” he said. “It allowed us to have a more honest display of civil rights in Mississippi. There were community meetings all over the state and the most important thing they wanted was the truth told.
“A deep honesty is reflected in the civil rights museum.”
FIELD TRIPS OFFERED, LEARNING PLAN
But how do civil rights museums bring new and contextualized experiences to people?
For one thing, practically all of them offer field trips and complement the school social science curriculum, which is taught to varying degrees in the school systems of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Efforts like the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance provide study plans and other resources, while the NCRM’s Museum Educator Dory Lerner frequently gives presentations at Shelby County schools.
Often times, students learn something that will help them teach their parents about civil rights history, English said.
“We had a fourth grader who was very attentive and we are going to the hall before they can write their name on this wall where they will make a promise that they will stand on right and that they will fight for everyone” , she said.
“Well, that fourth grader said in all his innocence, ‘My father told me that the Klan is responsible for keeping people straight, keeping people in line.’
“There was so much authenticity there that he saw the Ku Klux Klan as law and order and they only attacked people when they were bad. But for a fourth grader who went away with a different perspective and said, ‘My father got himself wrong, that was something.
Many adults often learn more than they expect, Freeman said.
“There are people who come to this museum and often think they’re going to just see the King Room,” she said.
“You are often surprised to learn that this museum is not just a memorial to the King and the tragic event of April 4, 1968, but that it takes people on a journey by Africans who are stolen from their homeland and brought to this country and spread to the diaspora and then what happened after enslavement and beyond.
“There are people who are aware and learn a lot, but those who want to come and learn do so because they don’t have all the information.”
Dave Tell, professor of communications at the University of Kansas and author of Remembering Emmett Till, has worked with the Emmett Till Memorial Project since 2014.
He has secured scholarships and created an app for the project to protect himself from the constant destruction of Till’s memorial plaque.
And Tell said he believes civil rights museums play an important role in clarifying the past and contextualizing this political moment.
“Museums have become the new lunch counters,” said Tell. “When people want to protest or think about issues of race, don’t you think they are visiting monuments, memorials or museums?”
“The theme in 2020 is which stories are told in public and which stories are worthy of the public. Museums and monuments play a big role in which stories are worthy and which are not.”
“You will see what happened to George Floyd, as an isolated problem, if you don’t know your story … Museums are at the forefront of a competition that is in progress to see which stories are worthy of public space.”
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