I know that I do bad mouth my state of Mississippi from time to time….but the politics just makes it too easy.  But recently the state approved the building of a Civil Rights Museum….cool right?

From an article written in AJE…….Mississippi to build nation’s first civil rights museum…….

JACKSON, Miss. – It’s an unremarkable plot of land, nestled between the state’s archives, fairgrounds and Capitol building, but history will be made there Thursday when state officials and civil rights leaders gather to break ground for the country’s first state-funded civil rights museum.

Built in conjunction with a new state history museum erected on the same site, both are scheduled to open in 2017 in time for the state’s bicentennial. The two museums will be built “side-by-side” as the locals say, and will be connected to one another by a common entryway, sharing classroom space, an auditorium and resources.

With its violent history of hate crimes and staunch resistance to the civil rights movement, it might surprise some that Mississippi would be the first state to fund the building of a civil rights museum, signaling the beginning of a major change in race relations in one of the most historically segregated states in the country.

The project will cost Mississippi close to $90 million and gives the state an opportunity to start an open discussion, albeit a painful one, about the atrocities that took place there during the civil rights movement, such as the assassination of Medgar Evers in June 1963 or the murders of three civil rights workers a year later, which led to an investigation the FBI called “Mississippi Burning.”

It’s also an opportunity for the poorest state in the nation to join the growing boom in heritage tourism and to attract visitors from around the world.

Now comes a statement from a previous governor…….

“This is going to make a powerful statement I think, not only to the state but to the country,” said William Winter, a Democrat and governor from 1980 to 1984. “That in Mississippi, we now understand the importance of the participation of both races of black folks and white folks working together, to build a state, and out of that come the mutual respect and understanding of our common humanity at the same time that we understand the differences of the history that go into our respective backgrounds.”

Okay here I go…..black folk and white folk?  Who the Hell talks like that?  Not since the 50’s anyway.  I am sorry….they mean well but I think it reeks of racist undertones to me…..Does anyone else see it?  This in a state that still looks down on blacks as some not all that equal…..to be fair not ALl but a lot of the older Mississippians are still living in 1950.

I live of the Coast and I joke about the rest of the state….I say once you get 30 miles inland they should erect a sign that says…”Welcome now set your clock back 150 years”!

Your thoughts please……