BIG RAPIDS, MI — Ferris State University’s new Jim Crow Museum will house more than 30,000 artifacts, but the building itself helps tell the stories of objects of oppression and how people are working to heal and overcome.
The Jim Crow Museum — the first of its kind — recently celebrated the opening of the standalone building near the entrance to the Big Rapids campus in Michigan.
The museum will be a resource that leaders say will be a space for teaching, learning, and meaningful conversations about race that inspire understanding, healing, and positive change.
Museum leaders worked with architects from Neumann/Smith Architecture and Rockford Construction to include elements outside and inside the building to help tell the stories. From the selected colors to the motifs of rivers, mosaics, and veils, these design elements help the museum teach more effectively about the Jim Crow period and its lasting impact.
“Our new museum will teach difficult truths but also lifts up the stories of those who challenged hate through courage, advocacy, and lives marked by resilience and dignity,” said Dr. David Pilgrim, the museum’s founder and Ferris State’s Vice President for Diversity, Inclusion, and Strategic Initiatives. “Our mission is to educate and inspire. The very building itself is a powerful tool to spark discussion and tell the story.”
The Jim Crow era was a prolonged period of state-sponsored racial segregation and disenfranchisement in the United States, spanning from the late 19th century to the mid-1960s. Named after a derogatory minstrel show character, it enforced systemic white supremacy and treated African Americans as second-class citizens.
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For 30 years, Ferris State has been the home of the Jim Crow Museum. It began in a modest 500-square-foot room in the Starr Building. Since 2012, it has been housed in a larger 3,500-square-foot space in the lower level of the FLITE building.
The new, $22 million, 26,000-square-foot facility will help expand the museum’s ability to serve as a resource for scholars and draw visitors from around the world.
The museum’s centerpiece is a 7,500-square-foot exhibit gallery with artifacts and information presented in context, telling the stories of people and the times. The facility will also include displays, interactive artifact explorer screens, a dedicated archive and research component, and increased capacity for school groups, faith communities, civic organizations, law enforcement, policymakers, and others.
