In celebration of Black History Month, Millsaps College will host a traveling exhibit from the Middle Passage Museum Feb. 21 and 22 in the Robert and Dee Leggett Special Events Center on campus.

The term Middle Passage refers to the often brutal journey across the Atlantic that African slaves endured from roughly 1500 until the abolition of the slave trade. The exhibit, which will include approximately 200 artifacts, traces the history of African-Americans from the slavery era to the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibit will be on display Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. General admission is $5.

"The importance of the exhibit is to understand the harshness of what slavery was all about," said museum founder Jim Petty. "But we also to want to realize that out of slavery, a great culture emerged, and carried on, and continued to strive for a better life regardless of the adverse conditions that were placed upon them. African-Americans have truly aspired to become a great culture."
Petty began collecting the artifacts when an African-American friend suggested studying them in order to better understand black history. Petty's collection now includes over 15,000 artifacts.

From the slavery era, items on display will include slave shackles, whips, trading beads, branding irons, whips, slave grave markers, spear coins, slave shoes, eating utensils and slave-made quilts. Reconstruction-era artifacts include freedmen documents, contracts, tools that were used for sharecropping, postcards, trading cards, and tintype and matted photographs dating from 1865 to 1900. Artifacts representing the Jim Crow era, such as study materials used in colored schools, and materials from the Civil Rights Movement round out the collection.

"The items in the exhibit remind us of the heinousness of slavery," said Petty. "Viewing the collection can be very emotional, but it is a tool through which we can understand, honor and respect a great culture."

The museum recently announced that it will make its permanent home in Mobile, Ala. Petty and his wife Mary Anne, who reside in Gulfport, hope to raise money for the museum through the formation of a nonprofit organization. The couple has enjoyed an outpouring of support for their efforts.

Architect Arthur Rosenblatt, author of Building Type Basics for Museums, was one of many who contacted the Pettys to offer help. "Yours is an exciting and very necessary project," he wrote. "I cannot think of a more compelling museum effort that can mean so much for all Americans. I would be honored to be able to participate."

Petty will present an accompanying lecture, titled "From Slavery to Freedom: 200 Years of African American History and Artifacts," on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex recital hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

For more information about the exhibit or the lecture, call (601) 974-1290.