*The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta is set to unveil a transformative expansion on November 8, following a $60 million renovation.
This privately funded institution, free from federal oversight, is doubling its capacity with six new galleries, classrooms, and interactive exhibits designed to engage visitors in the fight for civil and human rights CBS News reports. “I think advocacy and change-making is kind of addictive. It’s contagious,” said Jill Savitt, the center’s president and CEO, emphasizing the museum’s mission to inspire action.
Founded in 2014 by civil rights pioneers Evelyn Lowery and Andrew Young on land donated by the Coca-Cola Company, the revamped museum aims to draw repeat visitors with experiences like “Change Agent Adventure,” a gallery for children under 12 opening in April.
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“These ‘change agents’ will be asked to pledge to do something — no matter how small — that reflects the responsibility of each of us to play a role in the world: To have empathy. To call for justice. To be fair, be kind. And that’s the ethos of this gallery,” Savitt said.
The center’s new “Broken Promises” exhibit, debuting in December, explores the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and its violent backlash. “We want to start orienting you in the conversation that we believe we all kind of see, but we don’t say it outright: Progress. Backlash. Progress. Backlash. And that pattern that has been in our country since enslavement,” curator Kama Pierce explained. A bullet-riddled marker from the 1918 lynching of Mary Turner, donated by her descendants, bears “11 bullet holes and 11 grandchildren living,” Pierce noted.
Another highlight is a reimagined room showcasing the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. collection, curated by his daughter, Rev. Bernice King. “We wanted to lift up King’s role as a man, as a human being, not just as an icon,” Savitt said. The museum also features a powerful 1960s sit-in simulation, where visitors experience a segregationist mob through headphones.
“The research says that if you tell people things are really bad and how awful they are, you motivate people for a minute, and then apathy sets in because it’s too hard to do anything,” Savitt said.
Supported by donors like Arthur M. Blank and the Mellon Foundation, the center aims to foster hope and agency.
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