Smith Robertson Museum

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About the Museum

A once in a lifetime opportunity awaits you inside the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center. Located a stone's throw from the State Capitol building, it's just within walking distance of principal businesses and attractions in downtown Jackson.

Through art, artifacts, and photography, the work, lifestyle, and artistic contributions of African Americans are celebrated, evoking a greater understanding of the African-American experience in the deep south.

The Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center is dedicated to increasing public understanding and awareness of the historical experience and cultural expressions of people of African descent.

Artifacts highlight the contributions of black Mississippians through struggle and achievement, as seen in exhibits such as From Slavery to America, 1670-1864 and in the Hall of Fame, which includes personalities from the state who are pioneers in their respective positions.

Permanent Exhibits 

The museum also houses on a permanent basis the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Services organized exhibition, Field to Factory: The Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940. This exhibition interprets African- Americans moving in great numbers from the rural South to the urban North. The larger version of this exhibition is housed at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. Other permanent exhibitions include:

  • The History of Smith Robertson School
  • Works from the Visual Collection
  • Works from the Master Collection
  • Treasures of Africa
  • Historic Farish Street District (1910-1970)
  • African-American Lifestyle in Mississippi
  • Mississippi Negro Scholars
  • Mississippi Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  • Mississippi African-American Folk Art
  • Civil Rights Gallery (Jackson, Mississippi, Movement)
  • Mississippi Black Doctors Gallery

 

Significant Events

  • A distinguished pioneer, Robert Clark who was elected in 1967, was the first African-American elected to serve in the Mississippi Legislature since 1894.
  • Unita Blackwell was the first African-American woman elected as mayor of a city in the State of Mississippi.
  • Reuben Anderson became the first African American to serve on the Mississippi Supreme Court.
  • The Honorable Harvey Johnson, Jr. was elected in 1997 as the first African-American Mayor of Jackson which is the state's capital and largest city.