Mississippi

Anastasia Taylor is the Margaret Walker Center's Director of Digital and Community Engagement. As a proud Jacksonian and alum of HBCU, Tougaloo College, their passion lies in the preservation and accessibility of community history. Their work at MWC focuses on student training, visitor experience, digitization, and organization. They serve on the Mississippi Museum of Art's community access council, insuring that their voice is used to advocate for their local community. Outside of this work, they write poetry and create illustrations that aim to distill their lived experience, archival knowledge, and advocacy.

Robby Luckett received his BA in political science from Yale University and his PhD in history from the University of Georgia. A native Mississippian, he returned home, where he is a tenured Professor of History and Director of the Margaret Walker Center and COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University. His books include a collection of essays, Redefining Liberal Arts Education in the 21 st Century (2021), and a monograph, Joe T. Patterson and the White South’s Dilemma: Evolving Resistance to Black Advancement (2015).

Robby is an Advisory Board member for the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Mississippi Book Festival. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Farish Street Historic District: Main Street Association in Jackson and is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Association of African American Museums. From 2017 to 2023, he served on the Board of Trustees of the Jackson Public School District. For his
work in racial equity, he was named a Kellogg Foundation Fellow. Robby has three children: Silas, Hazel, and Flip.

Celestial Gordon-Griffin is a proud graduate of Tougaloo College, where the institution’s historic role in the Civil Rights Movement and its enduring commitment to social justice, leadership, and service helped shape her passion for civic engagement. Inspired by the courageous men and women who used their voices to challenge injustice and create change, Celestial has carried those lessons into her own work in voter advocacy, education, and community engagement. Her love for Tougaloo continued beyond graduation, as she later became an employee of the College and continues to volunteer and work alongside SGA and campus leaders to encourage student involvement.

Celestial is committed to helping individuals understand not only the importance of voting, but also the power they possess when they actively participate in the decisions affecting their communities. Through voter registration drives, educational forums, community outreach, Democracy Divas and Gents, and Campus Voices, she works to inspire young people to find their voices, understand their influence, and become civically engaged.

Celestial believes that the next generation must understand that democracy requires participation. For her, Tougaloo’s legacy is more than history, it is a responsibility. She views her work as one small part of continuing the legacy of those who came before her while preparing a new generation to lead, advocate, vote, and use their voices to create change.