Hattiesburg Alliance for Public Art in conjunction with Pearl River Community College, the City of Hattiesburg and the Forrest County Board of Supervisors proudly unveiled “Freedom Summer: Honoring History and Hope in Palmer’s Crossing” with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.
“Palmer’s Crossing played a huge role in Freedom Summer,” said director of HAPA, Kristen Brock. “We are proud to continue to tell the story of how Hattiesburg played a pivotal role in making changes for our state, our city and for our country.”
The mural’s artists are Chris and Taryn Holzinger. As a local educator, Chris Holzinger wanted the mural to tell a story as well as to teach the history lesson of the Freedom Summer of 1964. Depicted are Robert Moses and the Freedom Fighters, Vernon Dahmer, depictions of protests at the Capitol and finally Bettie Dahmer, the daughter of Vernon, teaching her Earl Travillion students about the events of that fateful summer.
