Ross Alexander Collins

The books Collins championed for the Library of Congress came from a seller with a second career. Otto Vollbehr, a German chemist and dealer, sold the library about 3,000 fifteenth-century books in 1930 for $1,500,000, including a Gutenberg Bible printed on vellum. A 1934 House committee hearing then showed that Vollbehr had spent most of that money on Nazi and antisemitic propaganda. As chairman of the House subcommittee on District of Columbia appropriations in the late 1930s, Collins cut welfare and education money, reportedly saying his constituents would not stand for spending it on Black residents.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Highland Park Dentzel Carousel — 11 mi
  The last two-row stationary Dentzel menagerie in the world, in its original carousel house in Meridian's Highland Park, a National Historic Landmark since 1987.
• Jimmie Rodgers Museum — 12 mi
  The museum in Meridian that holds the guitar of the Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers, the first inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
• Meridian Civil Rights Trail — 13 mi
  An 18-stop self-guided trail through Meridian, from the Black business district and the 1964 Freedom Summer office to Wechsler School, the federal courthouse and James Chaney's grave.
• Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience — 13 mi
  Meridian's two-level museum of Mississippi artists and entertainers, opened in 2018, with a Hall of Fame and a Walk of Fame that leads to it from the Riley Center.

More markers nearby

• Gen. Sam Dale — 11 mi
• Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery — 11 mi
• Wechsler School — 12 mi
• Lt. Charles Read — 12 mi