May 3, 2022
BGR Founding Partner and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour joined former President Bill Clinton and former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson at the Two Mississippi Museums – the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum – in a bipartisan tribute to former Mississippi Governor William Winter and former Mississippi First Lady Elise Winter. Governor Winter, who died in 2020, was remembered as an advocate for racial reconciliation and education reform, and Mrs. Winter, who died less than a year after her husband, as an avid volunteer who worked tirelessly to end homelessness.
Among the Winters’ greatest legacies were their contributions in realizing the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the state bill for which was signed into law in 2011 by Governor Barbour; Governor Winter and Justice Anderson had been instrumental in lobbying the Mississippi legislature to pass the bill. Ground was broken in 2013, and the museum finally opened in December 2017. In addition to serving as Governor of Mississippi, William Winter had served at President Clinton’s National Advisory Board on Race. Ceremony attendees included fellow Mississippians Congressman Bennie Thompson, former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, Congressman Michael Guest, former Governor Phil Bryant, and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
