Smith Drugs and Company Pharmacy celebrates 1st year as museum

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - The Smith Drugs and Company Pharmacy of Hattiesburg is celebrating its first year as a museum during Black History Month.

The pharmacy is a reminder of Hattiesburg’s past. It was open from 1925 to 1996, serving the community and as a safe space for African-Americans during the civil rights movement.

“It was a gathering place of we’re told by some of the community members that it was a favorite pastime after church on Sundays,” said Vanessa Moulden, the education director of the 6th Street Museum District. “Everybody would come through for the most part here and gather at Smith for socialization and like I said to sit at the soda fountain and helps mouths and shakes and ice cream and cookies.”

The museum is dedicated to the men who owned it, E. Hammond Smith and James A. Cohen.

Smith was one of the most prominent African-American professionals in the Hattiesburg area, who took Cohen under his wing.

Next month makes one year that the museum has been open. Moulden is excited to share the group’s plans for the museum’s future.

“This is the first year that we are open as a museum during Black History Month, and, so in March, we will be celebrating the first-year anniversary of the museum’s opening,” Moulden said. “And of course, our theme this year for Black History Month is generational, strong, inspiring African Americans and, certainly, doctors, E. Hammond Smith and James Cohen were inspiring African Americans in the Hattiesburg community.”

The Museum will be hosting a celebration on March 25 to commemorate the 1 year anniversary.

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