The Jim Crow Museum has been at Ferris State University for many years now. However, the museum is mov­ing from its pre­vi­ous loca­tion in an old class­room on the third floor of the Starr Building to the base­ment of FLITE library and in the process greatly expand­ing itself into a much larger display.

“We were stuck in a con­verted class­room,” said Dr. David Pilgrim, chief diver­sity offi­cer at the Office of Multicultural Student Services and founder of the the museum. “There was no room for the dis­plays there.”

The new facil­ity cer­tainly gives much more room and expands the museum greatly, Pilgrim said.

The new facil­ity is com­par­a­tively huge, cost­ing 1.3 mil­lion dol­lars to put together. It con­tains many dif­fer­ent dis­plays, the major­ity of which are racist in nature. Among these dis­plays is a col­lec­tion of racist post­cards from Michigan.

One thing vis­i­tors will cer­tainly notice is a large lynch­ing tree with a noose hang­ing from it. This rein­forces the chill­ing vio­lent nature of racism.

Dr. Pilgrim said, “The sys­tem Jim Crow could not exist with­out vio­lence to enforce it.”

Other exhibits range from old items stereo­typ­ing and mock­ing African-Americans as idiots, ser­vants and whores to more mod­ern dis­plays of racism. One par­tic­u­larly dis­turb­ing exhibit is a car­ni­val attrac­tion where African-Americans would have their heads locked into place while peo­ple would throw objects at them for entertainment.

While the Jim Crow Museum rightly cap­tures the dark and vio­lent nature of racism, it is not all neg­a­tive. The new museum shows the pos­i­tive African-American response to racism and achieve­ment and show­cases promi­nent thinkers, politi­cians, lead­ers, mil­i­tary mem­bers and enter­tain­ers. The museum is also home to the pen that President Lyndon B. Johnson used to sign the Civil Rights Act.

At the end of the tour is a mural painted by FSU fac­ulty called “Cloud of Witnesses,” which hon­ors those who died dur­ing the Civil Rights Movement.

“The Jim Crow Museum is hands-on edu­ca­tion; Ferris is all about that same prin­ci­ple,” Dr. Pilgrim said. “We see this as an incred­i­ble aca­d­e­mic resource for our stu­dents and the rest of the world. We want our stu­dents grad­u­at­ing with a good under­stand­ing of diver­sity as you can get at any insti­tu­tion in this country,”

Dr. Pilgrim added, “We want to get entire classes in here and keep them here for dia­logue. We have open hours from noon to five and free admis­sion for everyone.”

The grand open­ing cer­e­mony will be tak­ing place at 11 a.m. April 26 at Williams Auditorium. All are invited to attend.

Related Posts

1. Jim Crow Museum Opening
2. Jim Crow Museum Relocates
3. Plans for MLK Week
4. Torch News Briefs
5. Domestic Violence Awareness