JACKSON, Miss. — It's an unremarkable plot of land, nestled between the state's archives, fairgrounds and Capitol building, but history will be made there Thursday when state officials and civil rights leaders gather to break ground for the country's first state-funded civil rights museum.

It is being built in conjunction with a new state history museum erected on the same site, and both are scheduled to open in 2017, in time for the state’s bicentennial. The museums will be built “side by side,” as the locals say, and will be connected by a common entryway, sharing classroom space, an auditorium and resources.

With its violent history of hate crimes and staunch resistance to the civil rights movement, Mississippi might seem surprising as the first state to fund the building of a civil rights museum, signaling the beginning of a major change in race relations in one of the most historically segregated states in the country....