• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
She Buys Travel

She Buys Travel

Traveling tips, deals, info for women

  • Destinations
  • Great Stays
  • Travel Gear
  • Deals
  • Disney
  • Travel Tips
  • Packing
  • Adventure
  • Luxury
  • Kid Friendly
  • Beaches
  • RVing & Camping
  • Road Trips
  • Outdoors
  • About Us +
    • Contact Us
    • About SheBuysTravel
    • Ask Us!
    • Privacy Policy
    • Website Terms and Conditions
    • Notifications
    • Write for Us

6 Unique Places to Visit in Mississippi

Home / Vacation Ideas / Vacation Ideas In The South / 6 Unique Places to Visit in Mississippi

Sarah Ricks, Updated November 12, 2021

unique places to visit in Mississippi
The Delta Blues Museum is a don't miss stop in Mississippi (Photo credit World Traveling Mom Sarah Ricks)
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and buy, SheBuysTravel may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.

Mississippi is commonly known as the “Birthplace of the Blues.” But one trip through this Southern state will show you that it’s so much more than that! It’s also a state packed with delicious, mouthwatering food and powerful, intense civil rights history. Read on as one SheBuysTravel shares her experience finding several unique places to visit in Mississippi during her road trip from the Mississippi Delta to Jackson.

Unique places to visit in Mississippi include delicious Yazoo Pass Restaurant in Clarksdale. Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

6 Unique Places to Visit in Mississippi

1. Blues Museum
2. Food in Clarksdale
3. Civil Rights Museum
4. Medgar Evers House
5. Smith Robertson Museum
6. Sumner Courthouse

On a road trip from Memphis through the Mississippi Delta and on to Jackson, my husband and I found several unique places to visit in Mississippi, from Blues museums and history museums to restaurants with delicious Southern food and PIE! Follow along as we share this journey.

1. Blues Museum

The Mississippi Delta is the birthplace of the Blues, an American art form. And the funky, friendly town of Clarksdale is the home of the Delta Blues Museum. I especially loved hearing snippets of music from Mississippi artists like Muddy Waters, Ike Turner, and Sam Cooke.

But we also enjoyed learning about Blues greats we didn’t know. And seeing guitars, performing outfits, video clips, interviews, performance outfits. The Museum even has the log cabin Muddy Waters lived in on a Mississippi plantation. Also, the Museum has live performances and other events. So check its calendar.

SheBuysTravel Recommends
Learn a New Language - 60% OFF a Lifetime Subscription

This sale is valid until 6/4/2023. 

Learn a New Language - 60% OFF a Lifetime Subscription
START HERE
Among unique places to visit in Mississippi is the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale.
The Delta Blues Museum is a don’t miss stop in Mississippi. Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

2. Food in Clarksdale

We visited Clarksdale for the Delta Blues Museum. But we could have visited for the food – and desserts – at Yazoo Pass Restaurant. Yum. My husband and I gobbled up the Kentucky Derby Pie and the Key Lime Pie. And we were glad we stopped at Meraki Coffee & Roastery for their lemon pound cake before the next leg of our Mississippi road trip.

If you’re a Southern food fan like I am, check out the great eats in Memphis, Tennessee and at B & B’s in Wilmington, North Carolina.

3. Civil Rights Museum

The brand new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson is brilliant. This must-see museum is worth a trip to Mississippi. The Museum centers on stories of civil rights activists in Mississippi, from WWII to the 1970’s. First, it gives a historical context. Like the names of people lynched, and the supposed “reasons.” Then, the Museum weaves stories using video, audio of interviews and singing, a life-sized jail cell, photos, artifacts.

Unique places to visit in Mississippi include the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson.
Freedom Summer activists jailed for registering Black voters wrote to supporters in code. Can you see B sure to vote? Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

Inspiring ordinary people at the Civil Rights Museum

Rather than famous leaders, the Museum focuses on the bravery of ordinary people. Like the individual organizers of protests, sit-ins, voter registration, and economic boycotts. And on the consequences they faced, like jail, threats, and violence. Activists like Fannie Lou Hamer, fired and evicted for registering to vote. But who went on to found a new political party.

No sugarcoating, but warnings.

The Museum doesn’t shrink from our country’s brutal history. And its artistic installations can be emotionally difficult. For example, in a tiny alcove, I saw a video of flames. Then, I was shocked when an image of a real Mississippi lynching appeared on the alcove wall. And text explaining who the mob had murdered. Suddenly, I realized the flame symbolized how mobs burned people alive. And I was alone in the flames. While deeply moving, I appreciated that the Museum has warnings to let visitors opt out of graphic images. Like the mutilated face of lynching victim Emmett Till.

Unique places to visit in Mississippi include the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson
Next to the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson is the pretty patio restaurant at the Old Capitol Inn. Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

I liked that the last exhibit at Mississippi Civil Rights Museum focuses on the future. The Museum shows visitors’ faces and their responses to questions, like suggestions for how to talk about race. And I left the Museum feeling inspired and energized. Also, while we did not take a guided tour of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, another TMOM did.

Traveling Mom tip: The Civil Rights Museum is emotionally intense. We needed a break after 2 hours. So we crossed the street for a delicious lunch on the sunny patio of Old Capitol Inn. After lunch, we went back to the Museum.

4. Medgar Evers House

At the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, we learned about Medgar Evers, the brave Mississippi NAACP field organizer. Evers organized boycotts, registered voters, investigated Klan violence. He went undercover as a sharecropper to identify witnesses to Emmett Till’s murder.

At the Civil Rights Museum, video of Evers’ powerful speeches helped me understand why Evers threatened Mississippi white supremacists. And why they assassinated him in 1963.

Unique places to visit in Mississippi include kid-friendly exhibits of civil rights history.
The Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson tells the story of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in a kid-friendly way. Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

So we wanted to learn more at the Medgar Evers House in Jackson, now a museum. Evers was assassinated in the driveway of this house, where he lived with his family. Unfortunately, the museum was closed on the day we visited. However, on our Mississippi road trip, we stopped at the house, read the historical marker. And appreciated the opportunity to pay our respects.

5. Smith Robertson Museum

This Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson is in the formerly segregated school of novelist Richard Wright. We thoroughly enjoyed its interactive exhibit called Who Was Medgar Evers, about the Mississippi civil rights activist.

While the exhibit was aimed at kids, it is thoughtful and realistic. For example, the exhibit shows soap and a jar of beans to illustrate the impossible questions Mississippi used to prevent Blacks from voting, like “how many bubbles in a bar of soap.”

Among unique places to visit in Mississippi is the actual courtroom where Emmett Till's murderers were tried.
I was deeply moved to visit the actual courtroom where Emmett Till’s murderers were acquitted, in Sumner, Mississippi. Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

And without being gruesome, Who Was Medgar Evers did not sugarcoat history. It tells the story of the lynching of an Evers family friend, and the friend’s bloody shirt left in a public place as a warning. And illustrates the story with a red stained shirt.

Also, we appreciated the Smith Robertson Museum overview of the history of slavery, including a reproduction of a slave ship that I found too scary to enter. And its exhibits about Reconstruction and the migration of Southern Black people to Northern states, Field to Factory: The Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.

Traveling Mom tip: This gem of a museum only costs $5 and was a memorable part of our Mississippi road trip. But call first to confirm it is open. And ring the bell if the door is locked.

Unique places to visit in Mississippi are museums of civil rights history, Delta Blues, great restaurants.
Unique places to visit in Mississippi are museums of civil rights history, Delta Blues, great restaurants. We’ll be back! Photo credit: Sarah Ricks / World Traveling Mom

6. Sumner Courthouse

In 1955, two white men murdered Emmett Till, a Black Chicago teenager who was visiting Mississippi relatives. A jury acquitted both murderers. But both later confessed.

Visiting the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner was a highlight of our Mississippi road trip. It’s not a museum. Rather, at the site, a trained guide facilitated a thoughtful and emotional conversation among the 5 visitors about race and history. Then the guide brought us into the actual Mississippi courtroom where the trial took place. Even though there is no violent imagery, this emotionally powerful experience may be better for kids over 11. Also, it requires advance reservations.

Does a Mississippi road trip appeal to you? Tell us about it in the comments.

 

 

Filed Under: Restaurants, Road Trips, Southeast Vacation Ideas, Vacation Ideas In The South Tagged With: Mississippi, multi-generation, museums, restaurants, teens, tweens

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Charles McCool says

    October 17, 2018 at 11:06 am

    Mississippi has some fun places. Did you get to Ground Zero or the other blues clubs in Clarksdale? How about Robert Johnson’s grave? I know the Mississippi Gulf Coast was not on this itinerary but I sure do love that place.

    • Sarah Ricks, World SheBuysTravel says

      October 18, 2018 at 10:42 pm

      Yes, we DID get to Ground Zero – but during the day, before it was hopping. Loved Clarksdale and hope to revisit, and also explore the Gulf Coast. The Mississippi Delta felt unique. And we loved the food, music, friendly people.

Primary Sidebar

Join Women with a Spirit of Adventure!

Trending Posts

Hotel Ranga Iceland entrance

Enhance Your Visit to Iceland with a Stay at Hotel Rangá

Adults-Only pool at The Cove Atlantis Reviews

Discovering Paradise: A Review of The Cove at Atlantis Bahamas Resort

Women holding wine glasses and laughing in front of hilly background. Babbel vs. Duolingo

Babbel vs Duolingo: Which Language App is the Best?

Must-Have Travel Gear

Women holding wine glasses and laughing in front of hilly background. Babbel vs. Duolingo

Babbel vs Duolingo: Which Language App is the Best?

Two women looking at phone, posing in front of hilly lake area. Is Babbel worth it

Babbling Your Way to Speaking a New Language: Is Babbel Worth it?

Atlantis Bahamas Splash into Summer Sale

30+ Must-Have Travel Gifts for Women (Updated for Mother’s Day 2023)

Auto Bingo is a great road trip trivia game

7 Fun Road Trip Trivia Games for Families on the Go

Copyright © 2023 SheBuysTravel · All Rights Reserved

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Partner With Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Website Terms and Conditions
  • Notifications
  • Write For Us