[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 119 (Wednesday, July 12, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING PAMELA D.C. JUNIOR

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 12, 2023

  Mr. THOMPSON  of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
tenacious and self-motivated leader, Ms. Pamela D.C. Junior. Ms. Junior 
has shown what can be done through hard work, dedication, and a desire 
to achieve success.
  Pamela D.C. Junior, director of the Two Mississippi Museums in 
Jackson, MS retired after 35 years of service. Ms. Junior is a Jackson 
native; Jackson Public Schools product; and a proud graduate of Thee 
Jackson State University, where she received her BS in education, with 
a minor in special education. In 1990, she joined the National Park 
Service in Washington, D.C., serving as a park ranger. Nearly a decade 
later, she returned to Jackson to work for the city's Parks and 
Recreation Department. In 1999, Ms. Junior was hired as the manager of 
the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, where she became co-
coordinator of the National Arts Program and acquired on permanent loan 
the Smithsonian traveling exhibition Field to Factory: The Afro-
American Migration, 1915-1940s.
  In 2017, Ms. Junior was named the inaugural director of the first 
state-sponsored civil rights museum in the nation, the Mississippi 
Civil Rights Museum. In 2019, she was promoted to director of the Two 
Mississippi Museums, where she continued the work of sharing the 
stories of Mississippi told in the Museum of the Mississippi History 
and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museums.
  Ms. Junior has been honored over the years for both her professional 
and community work, and received numerous awards, such as the Freedom 
Rider Award from the Mississippi Freedom 50th Foundation; the For My 
People Award from the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State 
University; the Hometown Hero Award from the Jackson Convention and 
Visitors Bureau; and the Museum Leadership Award by the Association of 
African American Museums. She was inducted into the Mississippi Tourism 
Hall of Fame. Ms. Junior currently serves the community as a board 
member for Visit Jackson and an advisory board member for the 
Mississippi Book Festival. She is also a member of the International 
Women's Forum.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Ms. Pamela 
D.C. Junior for her passion and dedication in the field of public 
history.

                          ____________________