Gov. Barbour: Build civil rights museum in Mississippi

Governor Haley Barbour said in his final State of the State speech Tuesday night that the state should build a museum dedicated to the movement.

Barbour had been under fire recently for comments critics claim minimized the problems of Mississippi's civil rights era.

In the prepared text of his speech, which he delivered Tuesday night, Barbour said 2011 is a good time to move forward with the museum in Jackson.

He said that was because it is the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders' journey that challenged racial segregation and the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

Barbour, who's considering a 2012 presidential run, last month told the Weekly Standardmagazine that the Citizens Council was "an organization of town leaders" that helped keep the Ku Klux Klan out of his hometown of Yazoo City when schools desegregated in 1970.