Alcorn Visits Mississippi Civil Rights Museum

JACKSON, Miss. – On Sunday, Feb. 22, a group of approximately 46 Alcorn student-athletes made the journey to the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi, for an immersive visit to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History – two world-class institutions that together tell the complete story of a state defined by history in many ways. For many of the Braves who walked the exhibits, it was more than a field trip. It was a window into their own identity, and more so for the ones from the "Magnolia State" that never knew about some of the history that shaped their home state.
 
The twin museums, which sit side by side, opened in 2017, and represent a landmark investment in preserving and presenting the full sweep of the state's past. It is a past that includes Indigenous peoples and tribes still thriving to this day, early European settlement, and to the cotton fields that shaped its economy, the chains of slavery that defined its darkest chapter, and the courageous men and women who stood against injustice and changed the state and nation forever.
 
In the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, several student-athletes were still and contemplative. Interactive galleries, powerful photographs, and personal artifacts told the stories of ordinary Mississippians who did extraordinary things. Those who registered to vote at the risk of their lives; who marched in the face of fire hoses and nightsticks; who sat at lunch counters and stood before courtrooms demanding equal protection under the law. The museum pulls no punches in documenting both the horror of racial oppression and the extraordinary bravery of those who resisted it.
 
"Walking through these exhibits, you start to understand that the history of Mississippi is complicated and painful, but it's also incredibly inspiring," said Nick Woodard, a men's basketball student-athlete from Macon, Georgia. "These people went through so much, and they did it so we could be here today."
 
For the Alcorn student-athletes, the museums carried a particularly personal resonance. Alcorn State University is not simply a university located in Mississippi, but rather a university forged by Mississippi's history, born directly from the Reconstruction era's promise of equality in education.
 
Founded in 1871, Alcorn State University is the oldest public historically black university (HBCU) in the state, and was the first black land grant college/university in the United States.
 
For many of the Braves in attendance, the visit to the Civil Rights Museum brought Alcorn's own legacy into sharp focus because the names on the museum's walls are not strangers. They are Alcorn men and women, affectionately known as Alcornites.
 
Perhaps none looms larger in that story than Medgar Evers, one of Alcorn's most celebrated alumni. Evers, who graduated from Alcorn in 1952, went on to become one of the most courageous and consequential civil rights leaders in American history. As the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, he organized voter registration drives, investigated racial murders, and worked tirelessly to break down the barriers of segregation – all while living under constant threat. On June 12, 1963, he was assassinated in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. His death shocked the nation and accelerated momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
 
Evers' name appears prominently within the Civil Rights Museum, a recognition of his sacrifice and the indelible mark he left on Mississippi and America. For Alcorn State student-athletes standing before his portrait, the moment carried weight that no textbook could fully convey.
 
"When we see the statue of Medgar Evers on campus every day, I think that we sometimes take it for granted," said Courtney Carter, a member of the Alcorn Volleyball team. "I don't think we truly appreciate the powerful imagery that one statue holds, and what he meant not only to Alcorn, but the nation. It is amazing to see someone you hear about on campus a lot truly be an inspiration for the change that occurred in this country so we can be here today in the position we are in as citizens, not just athletes."
 
The student-athletes returned to their Lorman campus with more than memories. They returned with a sharpened sense of identity of what it means to wear the purple and gold of Alcorn State University, and of the history that gives those colors their true weight. And the meaning behind the Braves moniker and the title it holds so deeply to fans and alumni alike.
 
"We want our student-athletes to know the full story of this state and this university," commented Angel Brooks-Thomas, an athletic academic advisor at Alcorn and one of the directors of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). "Alcorn stands on the shoulders of giants and people who sacrificed everything so that we could have the opportunities we have today. Our student-athletes need to know those names, know those stories, and carry that legacy forward in everything they do, on the field and off."
 
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