Pamela D.C. Junior is the Director Emeritus of The Two Mississippi Museums - The Museum of Mississippi History and The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Before her role with The Two Mississippi Museums, she was the Director of the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, a museum dedicated to preserving and continuing African-American history and culture in Mississippi and the Deep South.

Junior grew up in Jackson and has seen the city change and evolve in many ways, but one thing has remained the same: "The history of Mississippi is complicated. The history of Jackson is complicated. Jackson is a Freedom Movement city. The state of Mississippi is a Freedom Movement state. When you walk in Downtown Jackson, if you walk on any of these streets around the Museum, there is history."

About a decade after graduating from Jackson State University and moving to Washington, D.C., for a job with the National Parks Service, Junior returned to Jackson. Junior started as a manager at The Smith Robertson Museum in 1999. During her time there, she worked tirelessly to improve and develop exhibits and ways to connect to young people learning about the complicated history of Mississippi for the first time. She recalls a particular encounter with a young lady during her time at the Museum, "I was doing a tour upstairs, and we were talking about the enslavement of Africans, and she held her hand up and asked me a question. She said: 'Were you a slave?' That question still sticks with me because she needed something that she could see visually so that she could understand."

The lessons learned through her time at The Smith Robertson Museum paved the way for her role as the inaugural Director of the two most prominent museums in the state. She says that she clearly remembers the moment she realized her 'purpose' and has found that "when you are able to find your purpose and live what has been written out for you, then hey, you are having the best time in your life. And I've been having the best time of my life by going around and talking about the history of Mississippi, talking about some of the greatest people that were ever created. Just ordinary people who did phenomenal things."

Although she is now retired, Junior continues to carry her light into the lives of those around her and Jackson's future. "I love Jackson. The inspiration here is amazing. I've thought about moving away, and I've had all kinds of opportunities, but this is home. And as Dorothy would say, there's no place like home. I'm clicking my heels every day. I know that it's here: This beautiful place, this beautiful place called home."

The complex legacy of a place like Jackson can often deter people from seeking a deeper understanding of the people who choose to live here and who choose to believe in the growth potential. But not Junior -- she is too busy looking for the silver lining and for ordinary people doing extraordinary things. "I feel the past, I feel the soul of Jackson. It's an amazing place. I know that the City With Soul is still here. We ain't going nowhere. And I look forward to seeing everything that's going to happen here."