SMITH ROBERTSON MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER

The school, built in 1894, was the first African-American school in Mississippi. It refers to itself as "Mother School". She was named in honour of Smith Robertson (1847-1899), a former slave from Fayette, Alabama, who surrendered to Jackson after the civil war. First barber, he quickly became very active in politics and was the city's first black leader. The original wooden structure burned in 1909 and was replaced with the bricks visible today. The building was expanded in 1929 and the school remained in operation until 1971, where it was closed during desegregation. The building became a museum in 1984. Its mission is to raise public awareness of the historical and cultural contribution of Afro-Americans. An exhibition entitled "From Slavery to America" depicts the years 1670-1864 in the life of the Black Mississippi. He tells their struggles and achievements. The Hall of Fame presents great figures that were pioneers in politics, such as Robert G. Clark Jr. (1928), the first African-American at the Mississippi House of Representatives, in 1967; Trinity Blackwell (1933), the first African-American woman elected mayor of a town in Mississippi (Mayersville), from 1976 to 2001; Judge Reuben Anderson (1942), who was the first African-American to sit at the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1985 to 1990; and Harvey Johnson Jr. (1946), which was the first African-American mayor of Jackson and the State, from 1997 to 2005, and from 2009 to 2013. Among the students of the school became famous, the writer Richard Wright (1908-1960), graduated in 1925, especially known for his Native Son Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945) books.