Mission

The Margaret Walker Center is an archive, museum, and Black Studies institute, dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of African American history and culture for a local and global community of students, scholars, and supporters.

Vision and Goals

Founded by Margaret Walker in 1968, the Center seeks to honor her academic, artistic, and activist legacy by expanding and promoting its manuscript holdings and oral history collections, interpreting African American history and culture through its museum and exhibits, coordinating public programs on campus and throughout the community, preserving historic structures central to the African American experience, and advocating for a degree-granting Black Studies program at Jackson State University.

Staff

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Sharon Jessé Edwards, PhD

Mellon Visiting Scholar
Email: sharon.j.edwards@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

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Alissa Rae Funderburk, MA

Mellon Oral Historian
Email: alissa.funderburk@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3144

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Patrice Jones, MS

Administrative Assistant/Building Administrator
Email: patrice.l.jones@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.2735

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Raymond Garrad Lee, MA

Digital Humanities Program Manager
History & Culture Access Consortium (HCAC)
Email: raymond.lee@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.6883

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Monica Lopez

IMLS Undergraduate Fellow
Email: j01050665@students.jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

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Robert Luckett, PhD

Director & Professor of History
Email: robert.luckett@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

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Karanja Matory

Mellon Graduate Fellow
j00672513@students.jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

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Jaylen McDaniels

Graduate Fellow
History & Culture Access Consortium (HCAC)
Email: jaylen.f.mcdaniels@students.jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

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Angela D. Stewart, MA

Archivist
Email: angela.d.stewart@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.2460

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Patricia Syner

Communications Director 
Email: patricia.l.syner@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.1349

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Anastasia Taylor

Director of Digital and Community Engagement
History & Culture Access Consortium (HCAC)
Email: anastasia.taylor@jsums.edu
Phone: 601.979.3935

Margaret Walker Center
College of Liberal Arts
Jackson State University
Ayer Hall
1400 J.R. Lynch Street
P.O. Box 17008
Jackson, MS 39217

A graphic with a white background contains a variety of different logos of different styles. The text of the logos reads: African American Civil Rights Network; Association of African American Museums Institutional Member; American Writers Museum Affiliate; Catherine Coleman Literary Arts, Food, & Justice; Participating Member Distinctive Destinations National Trust for Historic Preservation; Mellon Foundation.

Schedule your visit today!

Phone: 601-979-3935
mwa@jsums.edu

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