The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia on the campus of Ferris State University officially opens today. The new $1.3 million, 3,300-square-foot museum’s collection includes more than 9,000 artifacts.
The Museum features six exhibit areas — Who and What is Jim Crow, Jim Crow Violence, Jim Crow and Anti-Black Imagery, Battling Jim Crow Imagery, Attacking Jim Crow Segregation, and Beyond Jim Crow.
The museum lists six objectives
- Collect, exhibit and preserve objects and collections related to racial segregation, civil rights and anti-Black caricatures.
- Promote the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism.
- Serve as a teaching resource for Ferris State University courses which deal, directly or indirectly, with the issues of race and ethnicity.
- Serve as an educational resource for scholars and teachers at the state, national and international levels.
- Promote racial understanding and healing.
Serve as a resource for civil rights and human rights organizations.
The curator of the museum is David Pilgrim, vice president for diversity and inclusion at Ferris State. He holds a doctorate in sociology from Ohio State University.
