BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — Ferris State University faculty and staff gathered to break ground on a new museum that will house the school's massive collection of racist materials.
The university's Jim Crow Museum is moving from its current home to a stand-alone 26,000-square-foot facility on campus.
This new home for the Jim Crow Museum is large enough to house and display the school's 30,000-piece collection of racist materials.
Ferris State is calling the new expanded Jim Crow Museum "a one-of-a-kind resource that leaders say will be a space for teaching, learning, and meaningful conversations about race that inspire understanding, healing, and positive change."
Ferris State President Bill Pink said the museum is a perfect fit at the university, invoking the mission of founders Woodbridge and Helen Ferris.
“At Ferris State, our institution has often been a national leader in laying pathways for innovation no matter the level of difficulty or the popularity. Our founders bravely opened their doors to all people at a time when that was not the expected or even accepted way to do things,” Pink said. “Now, 140 years later, we are still embracing that mission of equity. The new Jim Crow Museum will help us continue to educate those who come through its doors through a historic lens, and consequently, will attract students, visitors, scholars, and policymakers from across the country.”
The new museum is expected to open in the fall of 2026 and will be located near the State Street entrance to the campus.
The museum will not only serve as a place to have meaningful conversations about race, but will also serve as a state-of-the-art archive and research center for students, staff and the public.
David Pilgram, Ferris State’s vice president for Diversity, Inclusion, and Strategic Initiatives, founded the museum nearly two decades ago and said it has drawn visitors from around the country and world.
“While we once focused on the hateful objects themselves, using them as teaching tools, we now also emphasize the stories of people who resisted that hate—through achievements, activism, and lives of quiet dignity,” he said. “This shift brings a hopeful perspective, centering resilience and resistance. By highlighting humanity's enduring strength in overcoming hatred and injustice, the museum will continue to educate and inspire.”
Ferris State University Jim Crow Museum renderings
"The Jim Crow Museum’s initial mission was to use objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social justice. The existing Jim Crow Museum is recognized as one of the best-suited cultural institutions in the nation to provide context to the race-based struggles and circumstances of our modern era," Ferris State University wrote in a release.
The $22 million project was funded through from the Ferris State board of trustees, State of Michigan, The Ferris Foundation as well as corporate and individual donors.
The current Jim Crow Museum is located at 1010 Campus Drive in Big Rapids.
