“We invite all of Mississippi to come. What a glorious day it will be,” Gov. Phil Bryant announced Wednesday.

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the adjacent Museum of Mississippi History will open at 11 a.m Saturday, Dec. 9. A free celebration is open to the public and will include music, speakers and food trucks.

“You’re standing in what will be a 200,000 square foot container of Mississippi’s history,” said Bryant at the news conference.

School children will engage in the world class museum to seek the truth of Mississippi’s history: the good and the challenging parts, said Bryant.

The Museum of Mississippi History will touch on all aspects of life in Mississippi from 20,000 B.C. to the present day. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will focus on the struggle for equal rights from 1945 to 1976.

Fifteen thousand years of Mississippi history and more than 22,000 historical artifacts, photographs and documents will be featured in the two museums.

“This history reflects the future of those who live here now in a new Mississippi where all of us have equal opportunities,” said Bryant.

To reserve your free, timed tickets for the opening weekend Dec. 9-10, visit www.twomuseumsopening.com.