UN(RE)SOLVED INSTALLATION EXHIBITION PREMIERE AT TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS 

Saturday, August 28, 2021

FRONTLINE PBS and Two Mississippi Museums (Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History) invite you to a special event for the Mississippi premiere of the Un(re)solved installation exhibition.

Un(re)solved is a major initiative that draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of firsthand interviews. The investigation tells the stories of lives cut short and examines a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Out of the more than 150 names on the Till Act cold case list, Mississippi has the most names of any state, at 56 names.

The installation exhibition will launch in Mississippi Saturday, August 28, 2021, on the 66th anniversary of Emmett Till’s death. Guests will be invited to visit the Un(re)solved installation, which uses augmented-reality technology to bring civil rights era killings, often racist murders, out of the shadows of the past. The event will feature special guests, including one of the Un(re)solved projects advisory board members, Jerry Mitchell, speaking about the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. To learn more about this special launch-day event and to hear about upcoming Un(re)solved programming, subscribe to the Un(re)solved newsletter .

 

Un(re)solved Installation

The installation experience mixes art and technology with investigative journalism, allowing visitors to learn about a federal effort to investigate racist civil rights era killings.

To lead the creative vision for the installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed-reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker and technologist Tamara Shogaolu. Shogaolu rooted the visuals of Un(re)solved in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence.

Narrated by the award-winning journalist, author and civil rights pioneer Charlayne Hunter-Gault, visitors experience a guided journey to learn about the more than 150 people on the Till Act list and are prompted to say the names of the victims in order to access their stories.

Featured in the experience are oral histories recorded by family and friends of the victims, remembering the lives of loved ones and the multigenerational impact of their untimely loss.

 

Two Mississippi Museums 

Mississippi Civil Rights Museum: “The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum focuses on the period 1945 to 1976 when Mississippi was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement nationwide.

Visitors see a miniature chess set molded from bread by a Freedom Rider at Parchman prison and the front doors of the Bryant store in Money, Mississippi, that Emmett Till walked through in the summer of 1955. They hear the stories and music of activists jailed during the movement and reflect on the consequences African Americans faced when “crossing the line” in Jim Crow Mississippi.

The story of the African American Mississippian’s struggle for freedom and justice is told through seven thematic galleries and mini theaters encircling a central gallery entitled “This Little Light of Mine.”  This inspirational space carries the theme of the entire museum—that throughout Mississippi, ordinary people engaged in an extraordinary struggle to make real America’s promise of equal rights for all. A stunning sculpture and music honoring civil rights veterans is the focus of this dramatic light-filled central space.”

 

Museum of Mississippi History: “The Museum of Mississippi History presents the entire sweep of the state’s history, from earliest times to the present, for all to see and learn. 

Visitors learn about the Native Americans and their lasting mark on the state’s history and landscape, the exploration and eventual settlement by Europeans, and the brutal ways in which African men and women were forcibly brought to Mississippi and enslaved. Visitors also learn about secession and the Civil War, Reconstruction, a new constitution, the great migration and flood, two world wars, the impact of technology on farming, the diversification and industrialization of the economy, civil and voting rights gained by women and blacks, the growth and the battle over public education, among many other topics. They revel in the sounds and words of the world’s finest musicians and authors and see the significant impact of Mississippians on culture.”