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During the Jim Crow era, Mississippi became the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement, where some of the most significant—and most tragic—events unfolded. Many of those are now memorialized on the US Civil Rights Trail, a collection of important places from churches and courthouses to schools and museums spanning 14 states and Washington, D.C. In Mississippi alone, the Freedom Trail marks more than 30 sites, each with profound impact.
While a reminder of past tragedies, visiting these landmarks across the Magnolia State is an important way to learn more about the sacrifices of individuals we now read about in history books.
Here are seven places to visit on the Mississippi Civil Rights Trail.
North
Oxford
The University of Mississippi in Oxford was an important site in the Civil Rights Movement when James Meredith became the first African American student to attend in 1962, after being denied admission twice. He faced opposition from Governor Ross Barnett and fellow students, and had to walk to class flanked by Army and National Guard soldiers. A monument in his honor now stands behind the Lyceum building, showing him walking through a doorway, changing history with his steps.
In 1966, Meredith began his “March Against Fear”, a 200-mile walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in protest of voter suppression and racial violence against African Americans. Along the way, he was shot by a white gunman, but several civil rights leaders and organizations, including Martin Luther King, Jr. with the SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and others, continued in his stead. By the end of the march, around 15,000 people had participated.
Holly Springs
College campuses became catalysts for the movement, including Rust College in Holly Springs, founded in 1866 as the first historically black college founded in Mississippi. Here, students worked alongside President E.A. Smith to establish a local NAACP chapter, to launch the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and to integrate spaces like a nearby movie theater.
Benton County
Benton County was founded in a rural area with a tradition of Black land ownership in the 1800s. During the Jim Crow era, local farmer Henry Reaves traveled to Mound Bayou, in nearby Bolivar County, to attend NAACP meetings. He later founded the county’s first chapter, embarking on voter registration and school desegregation.
The home of Amzie Moore, a NAACP member and businessman from Cleveland, Mississippi, served as a meeting place for local organizers in the Mississippi Delta. Now a museum and interpretive center, it welcomed the likes of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King Jr., and is now operated by Delta State University.
One of the most tragic events in Mississippi’s history is the 1955 murder of Emmett Till in the small town of Money in the Mississippi Delta. He was accused of whistling at a white woman at Bryant’s Grocery, which now stands in ruins covered in vines, before being kidnapped, murdered, and tossed into the Tallahatchie River. The site now has a historic marker on what sparked the Civil Rights Movement.
Central
Jackson
The capital became the hub for the state’s Civil Rights activity. The campus of Tougaloo College was where students planned rallies and sit-ins, often at risk of personal threat. The “Tougaloo Nine” are nine students who were arrested after attempting to desegregate the Jackson Public Library’s main branch.
On the campus of Jackson State University, two students are memorialized following their tragic deaths during the 1970 protests. Police and highway patrolmen fired into the crowd, and you can still see bullet holes pocking the exterior of Alexander Hall, one of the dormitories.
The Woolworth’s Department Store was another site of a sit-in where, in 1963, three Black Tougaloo students were refused service at the segregated lunch counter. They were joined by fellow students and a mob of segregationists. A historic marker now memorializes the event.
Several figures also called Jackson home. Medgar Evers was the first NAACP field secretary and a local organizer. He was assassinated at his home in 1963. The home looks very much as it did then, and now operates as a national monument honoring him. You can tour the home with a National Park Service ranger—reservations are required and available through the NPS website.
Fannie Lou Hamer joined the movement when she was denied access to voter registration and subsequently fired from her job. She later became known for her singing talents. A statue of her likeness sits alongside her grave at theFannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden.
Hamer’s colleague Annie Devine lived most of her life in Canton, just north of Jackson, and served as a delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
But it wasn’t just the Black community terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1967, Beth Israel Congregation’s new synagogue was bombed by the hate group after Rabbi Perry Nussbaum spoke out against segregation.
The murders of three voter registration volunteers, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman, also made national headlines in Neshoba County in the “Freedom Summer” of 1964. The trio was found murdered, and the FBI uncovered connections between the Ku Klux Klan and local police.
Southern
Gulf Coast
The beaches of the Mississippi Gulf Coast played host to an unusual protest: the wade-in. Volunteers flocked to the then-segregated coastline for a series of what became known as the “Biloxi Beach Wade-In,” in which participants entered the water to reclaim the space, with three planned events between 1959 and 1963. Beachgoers bravely faced angry white mobs. Today, the beaches are open to everyone—a hard-won freedom worth remembering when you visit.
Lawrence Guyot of Pass Christian was a Civil Rights leader in this area who joined the movement after hearing Medgar Evers speak. He later moved to Jackson to attend Tougaloo College and worked as a field secretary for SNCC in the Delta and Hattiesburg.
McComb
During a particularly terrifying period in the summer of 1964, the town of McComb was called the “bombing capital of America” for the fire brought about in the Black community by the local KKK. Located near the Louisiana border, the town had a legacy of Black land ownership and a thriving presence of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Eventually, change came, but it certainly wasn’t free. Visiting these landmarks makes sure we never forget that.
Find more Southern travel inspiration here.
| This article is presented in partnership with Visit Mississippi, a Modern South Founding Partner.
