Courtesy of Wikimedia

TOUGALOO, Miss. (AP) AT&T Inc. is giving $250,000 to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and adjoining Museum of Mississippi History in downtown Jackson.

The Department of Archives and History says in a news release that AT&T’s donation will sponsor the museum’s Black Empowerment Gallery, highlighting key Civil Rights-era events, including Kosciusko-native James Meredith’s March Against Fear and the formation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party when the state Democratic Party barred African Americans from joining.

The gallery will be named after Judge Reuben Anderson, the first black Mississippi Supreme Court Justice and an alumnus of Tougaloo College, where the announcement was made.

The Legislature has provided $90 million for the project and the Foundation for Mississippi History has contributed $15.2 million. The museums will open December 2017 during the state’s bicentennial celebration.