Visitors learn more about statehood, how cotton became king and the effects of the Civil War. Promise and Peril examines early 20th century changes in technology and a shift from agriculture, and the Mississippi River Flood of 1927.

The Great Depression and the Second World War followed and then came the civil rights period

The central gallery, This Little Light of Mine, honours civil rights activists, including Rabbi Perry Nussbaum, minister of Beth Israel, Jackson, from 1954 to 1973.

Rabbi Nussbaum trekked 150 miles to Parchman State Prison to visit activists and help them maintain contact with their families and the outside world.

He continued to campaign for civil rights and, in 1967, Beth Israel and his home were bombed by the Ku Klux Klan.

The History Museum covers 15,000 years of history with more than 1,600 items on display.