News Releases

In observance of the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Medgar Wiley Evers, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) will commemorate the life and legacy of the slain civil rights leader during the month of June. This is Home: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement will be open June 1–30 at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. This special exhibit examines the life, death, and legacy of Evers, who participated in every major civil rights action in the state as Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP from 1954 to 1963.

Kymara Sneed, a doctoral candidate in history at Mississippi State University, has been named the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellow for 2023.

On June 1, 2023, the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) will unveil a new permanent exhibit honoring slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers in response to the sixtieth anniversary of his assassination on June 12, 1963, outside his Jackson, Mississippi, home.  

A new subseries of the Welty Family Papers is now available for study at the William F. Winter building of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH).

Jackson, Miss.—Faith-affiliated communities in Mississippi—groups who attend churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, house churches, and more—may now visit the Two Mississippi Museums for free with groups of 10 or more persons. These free group visits are made possible thanks to a $2.5 million grant awarded by Lilly Endowment Inc.

Justice Fred Banks announced that he is stepping down as chair of the board of directors of the Foundation for Mississippi History (FMH), a post he has held since 2020. The board elected P. Ryan Beckett as chair and Jonathan Lee as vice-chair at its March meeting.

Pamela D. C. Junior, director of the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, has announced her retirement. In 2017, Junior was named the inaugural director of the first state-sponsored civil rights museum in the nation, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

Haley Crigger, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati, has been named the Eudora Welty Research Fellow for 2023. Haley will use archival holdings in the Eudora Welty Collection housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) to research the life and works of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty.

Registration is open for the summer 2023 History Exploration and Freedom School camps at the Two Mississippi Museums.  Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, the Two Mississippi Museums added an additional camp session and kept registration fees affordable for families at $75 per student.