NPS Holding Forums on State Sites
The National Park Service is conducting a study of nationally significant civil rights sites in Mississippi to determine the potential for the designation of a new national park unit in the state. Six open house forums are scheduled May 7–10 to gather public input about civil rights-related sites in the Mississippi Delta, Jackson, Philadelphia, and Biloxi. MDAH will host one of six open house forums on Tuesday, May 8, at 11:30 a.m. in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
Open houses are scheduled for:
Monday, May 7, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. at the Delta Center for Culture and Learning / Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, Delta State University, Jacob Conference Center, Ewing Hall, Highway 8 West, Cleveland, Mississippi 38733.
Monday, May 7, 5–7 p.m. at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse and Emmett Till Interpretive Center, 120 North Court Street, Sumner, Mississippi 38957.
Tuesday, May 8, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., Two Mississippi Museums Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium, 222 North Street, Jackson, Mississippi 39201.
Tuesday, May 8, 5–7 p.m., Medgar Evers Library, 4215 Medgar Evers Blvd, Jackson, Mississippi 39213.
Wednesday, May 9, 5–7 p.m., Depot, 256 West Beacon Street, Philadelphia, Mississippi 39350.
Thursday, May 10, 5–7 p.m., Depot, 1050 Beach Boulevard Biloxi, Mississippi 39530.
In 2017, the U.S. Congress passed a law directing NPS to conduct a special resource study of Mississippi’s nationally significant civil rights sites, such as the Medgar and Myrlie Evers House in Jackson where civil rights activist Medgar Evers resided with his family and was killed in 1963 and sites in the Mississippi Delta related to the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till on August 28, 1955, including the Bryant Store and Tallahatchie County Courthouse.
Additional sites include the Old Neshoba County Jail in Philadelphia, where civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were held for a speeding violation prior to being released and murdered by a mob for registering black voters in 1964, and the Biloxi office of Dr. Gilbert Mason, Sr. who was a principal organizer of “wade-ins” beginning in 1959 to desegregate Biloxi’s public beaches.
“The stories connected to these Mississippi sites have a national significance,” said Jennifer Baughn, MDAH chief architectural historian. “The Evers House has been preserved by Tougaloo College and repaired with assistance from MDAH, and the Tallahatchie Courthouse restoration is nearing completion with guidance from the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. But other sites, such as the Bryant Store at Money, are in danger of being lost."
All forums are free and open to the public. For more information visit parkplanning.nps.gov/MSCR_SRS or contact NPS project manager Justin Henderson at 303-969-2540.