fabulous dining. There’s a monthly block party when weather permits.

Greenwood

• Go to Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church and view the grave site and monument of Robert Johnson.

• Visit the Blues Heritage Museum & Gallery.

Hernando

• Tour the DeSoto County Museum for a glimpse into the Civil Rights Movement and the 1966 Freedom March of James Meredith and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indianola

• Visit the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. State-of-the-art films, interactive exhibits, artifacts and activities tell of the rich cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta and the life of bluesman B.B. King.

• The post office and park are name for Minnie Cox, the first African-American postmistress, appointed in 1891. Minnie and Wayne Cox established Delta Penny Savings Bank, the first African-American- owned bank in Mississippi.

Jackson

• Visit the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, which celebrates African- American history and arts.

• Reserve an afternoon tour of Medgar Evers’ home, the site of the civil rights leader’s assassination in 1963. The nearby Medgar Evers Boulevard Library features a life-size bronze statue of Evers.

• Tour Jackson State University, the leading predominantly African-American university in Mississippi.

• Visit Tougaloo College, which became the cornerstone of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

• Visit Piney Woods Country Life School, just southeast of Jackson, where founder Professor Laurence C. Jones created hope and education for the forgotten African-American communities of Mississippi in the early 20th century.

Leland

• Located in the old Montgomery Hotel, the Highway 61 Blues Museum honors the mid-Mississippi Delta bluesmen and their many contributions to music. In the heyday of the blues, over 150 bluesmen lived within a 100-mile radius of Leland.

• Painted by artist Cristen Craven Barnard, musician and artist Jay Kirgis, and others, starting in 2000, the Leland Blues Murals depict musicians from the Leland area, including Jimmy Reed, Little Milton, Eddie Cusic, Willie Foster and James “Son” Thomas.

Lorman

• Visit Alcorn State University, the first land-grant college for African-Americans in the nation.

Meridian

• Visit Wechsler School (1894), a pioneering public school for African-Americans.

• See the E.F. Young, Jr. Manufacturing Co., the oldest African-American-owned manufacturing company in the United States.

• Tour the James Chaney Memorial and the Downtown Historic District.

Natchez

• Visit the Natchez Museum of African Art and Heritage.

• Visit the site of a large 19th-century slave market at the “Forks of the Road” near the old Natchez Trace.

• A nearby marker commemorates the Rhythm Club and the lives lost during its tragic 1940 fire.

• Tour the Zion Chapel AME Church, which the Reverend Hiram Revels left in 1870 to become a U.S. senator and the first African-American member of either house of Congress.

Nesbit

• Visit the grave sites of blues legends Joe Callicott and Gus Cannon.

Oxford

• Tour the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the university’s blues music archive.

• Drive through the picturesque campus of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), from which James Meredith, the first African- American to attend the university, graduated in 1963. See the monument erected in his honor.

Philadelphia

• Visit the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church and memorial to civil rights activists James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

• Take the African-American Heritage Driving Tour.

Port Gibson

• Visit the workshop of award-winning African-American quilt makers at the Mississippi Cultural Crossroads.

• Visit No Easy Journey, a permanent exhibit and tribute to the courage and dedication that drove the Civil Rights Movement in historic Claiborne County.

Vicksburg

• Visit the monument dedicated to African-Americans who served in the Civil War.

Walls

• Visit the grave site of blues legend Memphis Minnie.

Yazoo City

• Visit the Oakes African-American Cultural Center.

1) Multicultural Center and Museum, Canton

African-American Heritage « Themed Travel

Themed Travel