Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Mississippi – Building on its more than 40-year legacy in the state of Mississippi, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation today announced an endowment to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) in support of developing educational programs that will be operated by the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

The $2.3 million endowment from the Kellogg Foundation will fund a partnership between MDAH, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation and the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will educate Mississippians about the struggle for civil rights and provide a venue where visitors may come together to engage in meaningful public dialogue and programs that foster reconciliation and promote healing.

The museum endowment will fund numerous educational initiatives in the lead-up to and after the opening of the museum, including: · Summer teacher training programs and school workshops to prepare educators to teach an expanded civil rights curriculum and utilize the resources of the museum. · Digitizing important historical documents from the Evers collection to be housed at the museum for use by scholars, teachers and students. · Supporting the Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture Series throughout the state to engage communities in the museum’s programs.

“We’ve come to understand that racial equity and healing are essential if we are going to accomplish our mission to support children, families and communities in Mississippi,” said WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron. “The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will help us all take an honest look at the past in a state that was, in so many ways, the epicenter of this struggle in our county. It’s important to heal the wounds of the past, so that we can move forward together and put racism behind us for good.”

“We are thrilled that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation made this grant in honor of Myrlie Evers and Gov. William Winter, two leaders who have been instrumental in making the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum a reality,” said H.T. Holmes, director, MDAH. “We thank the Kellogg Foundation for making this extraordinary investment in Mississippi’s future and connecting the collections of MDAH with the people of Mississippi.”

Myrlie Evers said, “I can’t wait for the day that the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opens its doors to people from Mississippi and throughout the country and the world.” Gov. William F. Winter added that young people visiting the Civil Rights Museum will learn lessons of sacrifice, courage and determination that will help them make a difference in Mississippi and the world.

Mississippi is one of four priority places in the United States for the foundation – along with the city of New Orleans and the states of Michigan and New Mexico. The foundation’s endowment to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum comes one year after the foundation committed grants to 25 organizations across the state whose work focuses on setting Mississippi’s young men of color on a path to success. That $3.8 million initiative is designed to help young men of color in Mississippi by building a comprehensive network of support from birth into adulthood, developing their educational, emotional, physical and economic potential.

“It will take a combination of efforts to ensure that all children and communities in Mississippi have the resources to succeed,” said William Buster, director of Mississippi and New Orleans programs for WKKF. “Our grantmaking in Mississippi is oriented to this purpose, with a concrete focus on racial equity.”