JACKSON — The new U.S. Civil Rights Trail spotlights a dozen historic civil rights sites in Mississippi alongside other noted landmarks of the movement across 14 states.
“Mississippi’s role in the civil rights movement not only shaped our state, but also changed the world,” said Visit Mississippi Director Craig Ray. “The U.S. Civil Rights Trail provides a new opportunity to share the stories detailed on the Mississippi Freedom Trail and in the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”
The U.S. Civil Rights Trail traces the events of the civil rights movement through churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks across the southern and mid-Atlantic regions of America.
In Mississippi, the U.S. Civil Rights Trail recognizes the work of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville, where statues and Mississippi Freedom Trail markers serve as monuments to their lives. The home of Medgar Evers in Jackson, also included in the state’s system of civil rights markers, is another highlight.
Multiple sites important to the Emmett Till legacy are also featured on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, including the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center in Glendora and a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker outside the former Bryant’s Grocery.
Additional sites include the Canton Freedom House Civil Rights Museum, Tougaloo College in Jackson commemorating the Tougaloo Nine and sites related to the Freedom Summer in Philadelphia.
The U.S. Civil Rights Trail houses a virtual road map of history online at CivilRightsTrail.com, with an interactive map, timelines, image galleries and a video collection featuring civil rights leaders such as Leslie Burl-McLemore, chairman of the Mississippi Freedom Trail Task Force.
The Mississippi Freedom Trail was launched in 2011 and commemorates the people, places and events of the civil rights movement. For additional information, visit visitmississippi.org.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.