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Mark Braboy
News Editor
Today, Jackson State University will honor its past, present, and future with the 136th Annual Founders’ Day Convocation and Bell Ringing Ceremony: “One JSU: Higher Purpose, Higher Expectations, Higher Outcomes” at 9:50 a.m. on the Gibbs-Green Pedestrian Walkway.
Keynote speaker for the event will be JSU alumnae and Weather Channel Meteorologist, Vivian Brown. Brown, a native of Jackson, Miss., graduated from Jackson State in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Meteorology and joined the Weather Channel soon after. She was also a member of the track team with a full scholarship and earned her place into the JSU Sports Hall of Fame. She currently co-hosts “Day Planner” on the Weather Channel every Monday through Friday from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.
Hillard Lackey, Associate Professor of Urban Higher Education and the first employee under President John A. Peoples, strongly believes that it is important for JSU students to know their past in order to carry on the legacy of the University.
“The world is in agreement that your history determines, to a large extent, what your present and your future is going to be. So we need to imbue ourselves with Jackson State history in order for us to understand who we are and where we’re trying to go. Everything has antecedence and without antecedence we can’t deal with the present and we surely can’t mold futures. So we want our students to be deeply imbued and immersed in this culture of Jackson State University so they can perpetuate the university because, they become the future,” said Lackey.
He added: “Those of us who are now on the stage, we’re going to move on and we want them to take the stage. So when that time comes they will know what they’re doing, that they are carrying on what was started; our heritage, our legacy, and our core values will persist.”
Natasha King, a senior English major from Jackson, Miss., believes that knowing the history of JSU is important to current students.
“Attending Founders’ Day is important so you can know the history of Jackson State. It’s important to get a degree, but you have to know why you’re getting a degree and why does this make such a huge contribution. Assuming that you’re African-American, this is doing yourself a service and you need to know how big this is,” said King.
Alexis Lloyd, a freshman Meteorology major from Greenville S.C. said, “It’s important for us to know who our founders were, how far we’ve come from 1877, and how people broke their necks for us to be able to learn.”
Earlier in the week, JSU held other Founders’ Day activities including: JSU Names and Sites: a discussion of the book “Jackson State University: The First 100 Years 1877-1977,” written by Leila G. Rhodes; Dean Emeritus of Libraries; JSU Presidents, Programs, Politics and Football featuring Robert Major Walker, the first black mayor of Hattiesburg, Hillard Lackey, and Ivory Phillips, former Dean of the College of Education and Human Development; and a discussion on the History of the Sonic Boom and the Prancing J-Settes.
Jackson State University was founded on Oct. 23, 1877 as Natchez Seminary; a school designed to teach Mississippi’s newly freed and underprivileged African-Americans and operated for 62 years. After being moved to the city of Jackson in 1882, it was renamed Jackson College and became a school designed for educating future teachers. The college awarded its first degree in 1924.
After the American Baptist Home Mission Society financially withdrew from Jackson College, the State of Mississippi took its place in 1940. After gaining its first graduate program and expanding its bachelor’s degrees into the arts and sciences, Jackson College soon became Jackson State College in 1956 and Jackson State University in 1974.
