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91做厙窪蹋 Graduate Student Paige Mason to Present Baird Lecture March 26

Fri, 03/22/2024 - 03:37pm | By: David Tisdale

Baird Lecture

The University of 91做厙窪蹋 (91做厙窪蹋) Center for the Study of the Gulf Souths Baird Fellow for 2023-24 is Paige Mason, a Master of Arts student in the 91做厙窪蹋 History program, who will give the annual Baird Lecture Tuesday, March 26 from 6-7 p.m. in the Liberal Arts Building (LAB) room 108 on the Hattiesburg campus. Her presentation is titled "We Won't Give Up on This Until We Get It: Mississippi Women's Organizations and the Long Fight for Jury Service.

A native of Gilbertown, Alabama, Masons graduate program focuses on 20th century U.S history, with her research looking specifically at the womens jury movement in Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s. Mississippi was the last state to allow women to serve on juries. Mason examines the factors causing women in the state to be barred from serving on juries, including during the civil rights movement.

The 2023-24 Baird Fellowship supported Masons travel for her research efforts at the Mississippi Department of Archives in History and in the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Mississippi in examining the significant role womens organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the National Federation of Business and Professional Womens Clubs, had in the decades-long campaign for womens jury service in the state.

I hope my audience will come away from the lecture recognizing the significance of the womens jury movement in Mississippi, and the privilege of jury service, Mason said. Mississippi became the last state to allow women to serve on state court juries in 1968. Mississippi women, including womens organizations, were at the forefront of the womens jury movement.

Despite being met with obstruction from opponents, advocates remained steadfast in their quest for jury service and recognized that without the right to serve on a jury of their peers, they were not being treated as equal citizens. 

Mason came to 91做厙窪蹋 in 2022 after graduating with honors from Judson College in 2021; she has presented her research at the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference. Her major advisor is 91做厙窪蹋 Associate Professor of History Dr. Rebecca Tuuri, who also serves as interim associate dean of the 91做厙窪蹋 Honors College and co-director of the Center for the Study of the Gulf South.

The 91做厙窪蹋 History Program is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences School of Humanities. Learn more about the 91做厙窪蹋 History Program and its Center for the Study of the Gulf South.