About

The Utica Institute Museum opened in 2021 on the Utica Campus of Hinds Community College, formerly Utica Junior College and the Utica Institute, to tell the story of Southern Black Education in rural Mississippi. The school was founded in 1903 by William H. Holtzclaw, a native of Alabama and mentee of Booker T. Washington who sought to replicate the Tuskegee experience in Mississippi’s Black Belt, where many local Black farmers owned small farms.

The museum emerged from a NEH funded project, William H. Holtzclaw and the Black Man’s Burden, which created a summer institute for college and high school teachers to explore Holtzclaw’s contributions to Southern Black Education. Grant co-directors Jean Greene and Dan Fuller worked to continue the project after the grant ended and the Utica Institute Museum is the next iteration in our goal of sharing Holtzclaw’s story with a wider audience.

The museum, in partnership with the William Holtzclaw library, houses the Utica Institute Archives and the Utica Oral History Center. We are located in the former President’s Home on the historic Utica Campus.

Museum Staff