Three exhibitions at the Levine Museum of the New South help commemorate the significant milestones and anniversaries of the Civil Rights Movement: “Faces of Freedom Summer,” “Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid” and “Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow.” These exhibitions are part of or coordinate with a larger two-year project titled “Destination Freedom: Civil Rights Struggles Then and Now,” which marks the important anniversaries of the Civil Rights Movements occurring in 2013 through 2015, such as the March on Washington, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid” at the Levine Museum of the New South.

“Out of the Shadows: Undocumented and Unafraid,” which closes on June 29th, explores what it means to be an undocumented Latino youth in the United States today, highlighting the dual identity these children experience as they are both illegal immigrants and acculturated as Americans. Many of these children came to this country as babies, and by law were educated in public schools, where they have navigated American sports, music, fashion and cultural values. But as they grow older, limitations become apparent without social security numbers and driver’s licenses. As the exhibition text states, “They suffer from being relegated to the liminal land of the shadows.” This exhibition is a participatory art project created through the partnership of artist Annabel Manning and members of the youth-led advocacy group, United 4 the Dream.

“Faces of Freedom Summer: The Photographs of Herbert Randall” is a visually stunning display of 102 photographs taken by Herbert Randall in Hattiesburg, Miss. during the summer of 1964. That summer, students of all races and backgrounds, voting-rights organizers and a coalition of local black residents joined together to secure voting rights for all Americans in the South. Sandy Leigh, director of the Freedom Summer project in Hattiesburg, secured Herbert Randall as the official photographer of the project, and he took 1,759 negatives that summer of rallies, voter registration, citizenship classes and the town. “Faces of Freedom Summer” is a touring exhibition organized by the University of Southern Mississippi’s McCain Library and Archives, and it has traveled across the country since 1999. The exhibition will close at the Levine Museum August 17th.

“Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges” at Levine Museum of the New South.

While not officially part of the “Destination Freedom” project, “Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges” pairs nicely with its content and themes. This exhibition was inspired by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb’s 1993 landmark book, “From Swastika to Jim Crow,” and the subsequent PBS documentary, which examined the relationship between two disenfranchised groups: Jewish professors fleeing Nazi Germany and African-American students in the segregated South. A number of Jewish refugee academics found jobs in historically black colleges in the South, where they confronted a rigidly segregated Jim Crow society. The exhibition uses artifacts, photographs and interviews to examine the unlikely coming together of these two groups and the ways they met the challenges of life in the South. “Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow” closes September 14th.

Levine Museum of the New South: 200 E. Seventh St., Charlotte; 704-333-1887; www.museumofthenewsouth.org