Jackson, MS: The City with Soul!

Recently, I told you about Brendan graduating from Ranger school.  Well, there was more to that trip.

We drove to Columbus, Georgia and since we were going all that way, once again, in keeping with our "stop in towns along the way" theme, we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi.

If you like history like I like history, this is a cool town to visit. First, Jackson is the capital of Mississippi, which is another bucket list item (there are so many!).  

This is the original capitol building. It was built in 1839 and is at the top of the main street through downtown. It's a gorgeous building. It's now the "Old Capitol Museum" and it's open Weds - Fri from 10:30 - 2pm. And, it's free!  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in as we were only there for one day. 

In 1903, they built a new capitol building. We've been to a few capitols but we must have gone when congress was not in session because they were fairly empty. This one was a hive of activity.  We didn't stay long for a couple of reasons. First, this one didn't seem to have much by way of art of exhibits. I guess all those are in the old capitol museum. Second, it was awkward like if I went to visit you at work and you were extremely busy and I was really just in the way.

The Governor's Mansion is right in the middle of downtown and it's surrounded by an iron fence. They don't want salespeople just walking up to the door and ringing the bell. Construction began in 1839 and the first governor moved in in 1842. You can tour the mansion on Tues or Thurs at 9:30, 10 or 10:30 but you must call in advance...which we did not. Next time!

The state of Mississippi was admitted to the union in 1817 and by 1860, was the top cotton producing state in the union. Enslaved people made up 55% of the population.  How did I know that? 

One of the reasons we didn't have time for much else was because we went to this museum: Two Mississippi Museums. It's one building and one price ($15) for Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

The Museum of Mississippi History was good. It's starts with a film narrated by Morgan Freeman and there are a lot of cool factoids that I learned. For example, the Choctaw Indians that control the casinos in Oklahoma? They're from Mississippi. They were "removed" to Oklahoma. There were other cool films and exhibits as you progress through time. This is an exhibit that shows an example of the quarters for enslaved people. It's not exactly like a Hilton.

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum...holy moly! It was very well done. John thought both museums rivaled anything that you'd see in Washington DC and I would agree. After the Civil War, folks in the South had Jim Crow laws that were not favorable to people of color. (I know that's putting it mildly as shown by the Civil Rights Museum). This is an exhibit about Emmitt Till, a 14 year old boy from Chicago killed in Money, Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Justice was not served here on earth. We can only hope it's being served eternally. The short film, narrated by Oprah, left me disturbed.

This exhibit is about three Civil Rights workers that were in Philadelphia, Mississippi that "went missing". Did you ever see the movie Mississippi Burning? It's about these guys. Forty-one years after these men were killed, their killer was convicted.

When we got there, the museum was super busy with students there on a field trip. That was so cool! I didn't realize that students still did field trips and how lucky for them to come here. 

The museum was very powerful and I walked out of there thinking that I could never be as brave as the people that fought for Civil Rights. If you are interested in this type of history, I highly recommend this museum. Plan to spend the day because there's a lot of stuff.

One last little museum that we didn't get to go into but will have to check out next time is Medgar & Myrlie Evers house. Medgar Evers was a Civil Rights Activist and the man received tons of death threats, so much so that their house does not have a door on the front. You have to go in through the carport, which they thought would be safer. He was shot and killed in his driveway in 1963. His killer was finally convicted in 1994.

This house is in the middle of a neighborhood. That has to be a little weird for the neighbors to have a museum across the street.

A few little interesting factoids about Jackson. It was named for Andrew Jackson. There's 153,000 people that live in Jackson and it's the largest city in Mississippi. It's also the only city that has more than 100,000 people. There are seven colleges in Jackson with Jackson State University being the largest. The three largest employers in Jackson are The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson Public Schools and Nissan NorthAmerica.

It's called the city with soul because of all the historical landmarks in the city and how they've helped shape the our country's history.

Our visit to Mississippi was certainly moving and informative. I'm hoping that we go back so I can check out the other museums.