Fundraising efforts will begin soon for an $80 million civil rights museum to be built adjacent to Tougaloo College in three years.
A commission appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour voted 22-9 Tuesday to build the museum on a nine-acre site near the college off West County Line Road in north Jackson. Among those voting in favor of the site was Tougaloo President Beverly Hogan, who reiterated that she saw no conflict of interest in serving on the commission and lobbying fellow commissioners to select Tougaloo.
The vote followed an hourlong debate among commission members who supported Tougaloo and those who argued a downtown Jackson site would be more accessible and financially sustainable.
But a Tennessee-based consultant who recommended Tougaloo as the top choice said the site will be visible from I-55 and could be expanded at some point because of the availability of land.
Magnolia Tribune
