September 21, 2006

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR AT THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE GOVERNOR'S

COMMISSION TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM IN MISSISSIPPI

                                                                        Jackson, Mississippi

I want to share some points with you today about why I created the Governor’s Commission to Establish a National Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi.

In my own mind, it is past time to have done this.  It is surprising to me that a National Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi was not established earlier.  Candidly, I was talking to certain individuals about trying to start doing this last year before Hurricane Katrina. 

One of the reasons this is so very important is that Mississippi was central to what was going on nationally. I look around the room at Charles Evers, John Peoples, and others who were directly involved in the national civil rights movement. You are going to see as we go through this process that, as I see it in my own mind, the museum should end up being the National Civil Rights Museum.  That’s why I am not calling it the “Mississippi Civil Rights Museum,” but the “National Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi.” 

There currently is really not, in a true sense, a National Civil Rights Museum.  To me, that means Mississippi needs to do something world class. 

I have no pre-conceived notions about where the museum ought to be or what it ought to look like.  The Commission and the people you get to help should determine that.  But I think the museum should meet the test of doing justice to the subject of the civil rights movement.  That’s what this really ought to be about – doing justice to the subject.

How do we present this story in a way that does justice to the subject?  I don’t know.  But, I do know this: We ought to get the best people we can get to help us.  And I have tried to pick a Commission that represents the best people in our state who know something about this subject, who have experience and an interest in creating a world class museum, and who can help us fund the museum. 

I have invited all of the legislators who are on the legislative task force already meeting about the feasibility of creating a Civil Rights Museum in Jackson to join us.  Senator Hillman Frazier and Representative John Reeves are the co-chairs of that task force. Senator Terry Burton and Representative George Flaggs are with us today. I want you to know that the Commission’s work is not to supplant or compete with the legislative task force.  It is just that I think the project overall has got to be bigger than state government if it is going to succeed. 

I am convinced there are people who want to participate.  I am convinced there are foundations and institutions that want to contribute financially and that they will want to be part of making it a success.  And I think it is necessary for us to have a Commission that encompasses the entire state.  To this end, there are people from the business community involved and political officials of all stripes.  This is because the Commission needs to be reflective of the state.  It needs to be bigger than state government because that’s necessary to do justice to the subject.  It is my idea that if we just let the state government pay for this, it will be much less successful than if the private sector, foundations and individuals are participating.  I really do think it will have more success if it is participatory. 

I am grateful that Justice Reuben Anderson and Judge Charles Pickering have agreed to co-chair the Museum Commission.  They both have been involved in different ways in a lot of the story itself and also they have been involved in this subject for years since the peak of the civil rights struggle. So, I am proud of their leadership, and I am proud of you Commissioners because you are the leaders who will decide where we go. 

I will give you one piece of advice that I feel pretty strongly about.  There are a lot of museums in the world and in America, and there are some smart people that have a huge head start about how you put together a great museum.  I would urge you to get some professional assistance for this project.  We don’t want to think “small ball” here. We want to think about what we are going to have in Mississippi.  We appropriately should have the National Civil Rights Museum of the United States of America.  And, if that is our goal, then we want to do it right.  We want to do justice to the subject.  We want to meet that standard. 

John Palmer has agreed to co-chair the Finance Committee and raising the money in the private sector is an important part of this.  It is important because there are people who want to support our efforts.  I think private support for the Museum is important because, as I said earlier, it will be better if it is not just government money.  I think that is part of your challenge in not only trying to determine feasibility and propriety, but also how to do this and the location of where it ought to be.  We also need to be thinking about how we raise the money.  I see us raising money from the Rockefeller Foundation.  I see us raising money from the school children in Yazoo City, and everywhere in between.  I think it will be more successful if we do that. 

We also have to realize something has got to be built, it has to be designed, and it has to have all of the displays constructed, put forward and presented in the right way.  And then, it has to be operated in perpetuity.  Don’t have the idea that we are going to build this Museum, and then we are through. It is not good enough for us to do it that way. I think this is something that is better done right than done hurriedly.  This is forever.

That is my vision about establishing a National Civil Rights Museum in Mississippi.  We are trying to build something that is a national institution whose shelf life is forever, and I am going to let the Commission be the judge of how to achieve that goal. 

I am asking that we have an initial report in the middle of December to know where we are and to be fair to the legislative committee, which is due to report to the full Mississippi Legislature by the end of December.

I am excited about the Commission and its work.  I was excited when I learned you had accepted my invitation to serve on this Commission.  I appreciate all of you because it is going to be a lot of work in a relatively short period of time, and your work is going to have to be taken seriously.  Justice Anderson and Judge Pickering are going to manage that work, not me.  This work is important, and I am glad you are part of it.