Celebration raises $30K for Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

JACKSON, Miss. – A $30,000 donation to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will help pay admission costs for students, poor people and older people.

A group called Friends of Mississippi Civil Rights Inc. presented a check to museum leaders Wednesday. The money was raised by a Feb. 22 gala in Jackson that celebrated the museum.

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and its companion, the Museum of Mississippi History, opened in December to mark the bicentennial of statehood. Many civil rights veterans boycotted the state-sponsored dedication of the museums because Republican Gov. Phil Bryant invited President Donald Trump to attend.

The February gala honoured five civil rights activists, including Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who worked on voter registration and other activities in Mississippi and across the South in the 1960s.