Pamela Junior Delivers Lipsey Lecture at Mississippi College

Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Director Pamela Junior

Pamela Junior will tell a Mississippi College audience about the success of two fabulous museums in Jackson.

The director of both the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Junior will deliver the Lipsey Lecture on November 20. The 6 p.m. event Wednesday at the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall on the Clinton campus is open to the public. A reception will follow.

The two museums, she said, are important “because they tell the story of Mississippi. You can’t have one (museum) without the other.”

The two Mississippi museums have attracted more than 320,000 visitors since opening in December 2017.

A native of Jackson, Junior grew up in the capital city and is a 1981 Jackson State University graduate. She previously served as museum manager of the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History manages the two museums in downtown Jackson.

The Mississippi College English Department sponsors the annual Lipsey Lecture.

“The lectureship exists to promote scholarship and stimulate conversations in the field of humanities,” said Jonathan Randle, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. It allows students to “see the implications of study outside of Mississippi College.”

Junior’s leadership at the two Mississippi museums is winning applause from thousands of visitors across the nation and other countries as well.

“The two museums both challenge and bring hope and show how much we value our history and future here in Mississippi,” said English professor Steven Price. “Pamela Junior is leading the charge and can give us a behind the scenes look at these two Mississippi and Jackson high points.”

Her lecture, Randle said, will help enrich the campus community by stressing the “value of engaging the past in order to learn how to negotiate the present.”

The Lipsey Lecture Series began in 1971. The English Department named the program in honor of Sue Price Lipsey for her many years of service to the Christian university. She joined the faculty in 1946 and retired in May 1974 at Mississippi College.