WATCH: Megan Kohler Explores Deep Musical History of Mississippi - 06/25/26

Beautiful art display here. This is a great spot to come get pictures, a photo op with the Mississippi sign. They did a great job with these graphics. Looks awesome. So this is showcasing a ton of Native American art. This is a sculptor they just had on the screen. Here's Cecilia Mosley. Over here is a Native American piece of jewelry. It's just stunning with all the beadwork. This medallion is from the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians, symbolizing the pride and identity of the Choctaw people. Worn with traditional attire, it honors culture and connects each generation to its ancestors. And they're showcasing the ballet. USA International Ballet Competition is held in 2027. The IBC will celebrate 50 years in Mississippi. Over here they're showcasing Robert Pittman, who helped launch MTV and led iHeartMedia. And now we have the Civil Rights display with James Meredith. So tons of Mississippi history on display here. And it shows all these different locations in Mississippi, pinpointing different states, different cities, or sorry, not different states, different cities and different locations where all these iconic people were born and lived. Morgan Freeman lived in Charleston. Sam Cooke was birthed in Clarksdale. Oprah Winfrey, born in Cosico. Jimmy Rogers, Robert L. Johnson, Alan Fred Key, Jimmy Buffett, born in Mississippi. Rest in peace, Jimmy Buffett, one of the greats. Elvis Presley was born in Mississippi. Really cool to see that. We haven't seen this yet. Some of the iconic American pop culture icons. And this is also color coordinated between music, literature, sports, civil rights, art, and technology. So you can see what each person did and what they were known for by color code. They have some stickers and some buttons here for Mississippi. And an art sculpture called Accidental Alligator. This bold, playful, and unmistakably southern industrial steel sculpture is a tribute to one of the most iconic Mississippi creatures. And these are some great stickers they have here. They created their own stickers for America 250 here in Mississippi. They did a great job with the graphics here and the art on display. Mississippi writes our story. The birthplace of America's music. So there's award-winning rock and roll artists and beyond, blues artists and gospel artists, and they have all their names in here. The birthplace of America's music. The Rolling Stones based their name on Mississippi-born Muddy Waters track Rolling Stone. So this big record you can spin and get some fun facts. Mississippi Crossroads is a sacred pilgrimage site for American music legend Robert Johnson sold his soul here for supernatural music talents. Pretty cool stuff. You can see all the fun facts. Then they have a big LED display video that they put together, a video compilation of showcasing what Mississippi is known for. We touched on the ballet earlier. Music is huge in the state of Mississippi. And these are some national champion trophies for 2021 Division I for the Baseball College Champions and then 2022 Division I for the Baseball Championship for the College World Series in Omaha. So Mississippi State has got some great college baseball. And Ole Miss is also based, of course, in the great state of Mississippi. Great sports teams for both of those colleges. And this is where Mississippi advances our story. It's electric. The premier center for high-voltage engineering is located in Starkville, Mississippi. It's the largest university-operated high-voltage facility on the continent and strengthens the United States position in this specialized field. So we've got some science experiments going on here. All these cool interactive displays. Shipbuilders. So you can come over here and play this shipbuilding game. The magnet isn't working anymore so I'll just leave that right there. So here we are in the great state of Mississippi. This is the last thing I'm going to show you in here because music is so important to the state's history. There should be a microphone here. We could rock out like Elvis because he was born in Mississippi. So this is another cool photo op here in the Mississippi display.