Mississippi Freedom Houses Project

An initiative of The Mississippi Heritage Trust


IN AN EFFORT

to raise awareness about the disappearing physical landscape of Mississippi’s fight for civil rights, Mississippi Heritage Trust listed Mississippi’s Freedom Houses as one of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2019. Since that time, the Unita Blackwell House and Cabin in Mayersville, Knoxo Freedom Schools and the Alyene Quin House in McComb, all places where the movement happened, have been added to the 10 Most list.

The houses where civil rights workers stayed and leaders of the movement convened to strategize about voter registration drives such as Freedom Summer of 1964 are often in poor condition today and will soon be lost if immediate action to stabilize them is not taken. Additionally, the stories about this seminal time in Mississippi’s history are being lost as the people who committed themselves to the cause of freedom pass away.


IN 2021,

the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant Program awarded Mississippi Heritage Trust $50,000 in funding to identify and document Mississippi’s extant Freedom Houses. Each interview to locate houses in communities around the state has led to the next, as people share the connection of their town’s fight for civil rights to place. The survey will be completed this fall.

The next year, Mississippi Heritage Trust was invited to submit an Expression of Interest to the Mellon Foundation Monuments Project, a $500 million dollar initiative launched in 2020 to support efforts to express, elevate, and preserve the stories of those who have often been denied historical recognition, and foster a more complete telling of who we are as a nation. Mississippi Heritage Trust was awarded a $576,000 grant to fund the Mississippi Freedom Houses Project. This initiative will include a workshop and educational sessions for Freedom House owners, stabilization of the Unita Blackwell House and Cabin in Mayersville and the C.C. & Emogene Bryant House in McComb and a documentary film on efforts to save and repurpose Mississippi’s Freedom Houses, which will premier in 2026. Partnering with MHT in this effort are the Alluvial Collective, Blue Magnolia Films, the Mississippi Alliance for Nonprofits and Philanthropy, Rise Roofing and Construction, and The Tell Agency.

  • Canton Freedom House Civil Rights Museum

  • C.C. & Emogene Bryant House

  • Amzie Moore House

    Amzie Moore House

  • Unita Blackwell House

    Unita Blackwell House

Our Partners

Get Involved

Own a Freedom House and want to get involved with the Mississippi Freedom Houses Project? Mississippi Heritage Trust is hosting an event this fall at the Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson to celebrate the stories of people working to save Mississippi’s Freedom Houses and help owners identify resources and partners to restore and repurpose their Freedom Houses.