Rev. Jesse Jackson to officially open Museum of Free Derry

By Richard O'Reilly

The Bloody Sunday Trust has confirmed civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson will officially open the Museum of Free Derry this week.

The museum is dedicated to the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland from 1968 through 1972.  The new site at Glenfada Park is the result of a £2.5 Million pound investment.

The Museum was opened to the public in February, and has welcomed over 12,000 patrons through its doors.

The trust asked Rev.Jackson” to officiate and speak at the official opening on Thursday

Reverend Jackson is one of the world's most respected civil rights campaigners, and a two-time US presidential candidate.

The museum says its particularly pertinent, as Northern Ireland's civil rights movement was 'modelled in no small measure after the African-American struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his band of talented lieutenants,' including a young Jesse Louis Jackson.

Rev. Jackson will also visit the grave of Martin McGuinness, whom he met during a visit to the city back in 2011. 

Remembering #BloodySunday in #Selma and #Derry. Unearned suffering is redemptive. #RPCIreland pic.twitter.com/CnHItromHK

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) June 13, 2017

Tomorrow's launch will take place seven years to the day since the findings of the Saville Inquiry were released. Rev. Jackson will meet with family members of those who lost their lives on Bloody Sunday.

The official launch comes amid a row over a video reel exhibit at the Museum which displays security force personnel in a lost of trouble victims.

Earlier in June a protest took place outside the museum in an attempt to convince the museum to remove British Army and RUC names form the exhibit.