Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The head of the political science and public administration department at Mississippi State has released a new biography about one of the state’s most influential civil rights leaders.

Titled “Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator,” Professor Minion K.C. Morrison’s 365-page book focuses on the Coahoma County native who served as president of the Mississippi NAACP and founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Council of Federated Organizations.

“‘Aaron Henry of Mississippi’ covers the life of this remarkable leader, from his humble beginnings in a sharecropping family to his election to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1979, all the while maintaining the social-change ideology that drove him to improve his native state and the nation,” Morrison writes in the book’s inside cover. The book was published by University of Arkansas Press.

Morrison expressed appreciation for Mitchell Memorial Library’s special collections staff for assisting him with the project. He also thanked the Research Board of the University of Missouri System, Tougaloo College’s Coleman Library, and Mississippi Department of Archives and History, among others.

Noted author and historian John Dittmer, professor emeritus of Depauw University, described Morrison’s book as “an important biography of an extraordinary man” and one which “represents a major contribution to the historiography of the civil rights movement.”

Matthew Holden Jr. of the University of Illinois-Springfield called the book “a page-turner,” while Dianne Pinderhughes of the University of Notre Dame praised it as a “meticulously researched and carefully written biography…that has been well worth the wait.”

Morrison is this year’s selection for the Frank J. Goodnow Award for Distinguished Service of the American Political Science Association. He accepted the honor in ceremonies prior to the association’s recent annual conference in San Francisco, California.

In addition to the new Aaron Henry biography and numerous scholarly articles, Morrison has authored the books “African Americans and Political Participation” (CLIO, 2003) and “Black Political Mobilization, Leadership, Power, and Mass Behavior” (State University of New York Press, 1987).

His areas of expertise include comparative politics—African and third world politics and comparative public administration—and American politics—racial politics, American government, public administration and policy.

Morrison is a 1968 honors graduate of Tougaloo College who went on to complete master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a certificate of African studies from the University of Ghana in Accra.

Before returning to Mississippi, he held the Frederick Middlebush Chair of Political Science at the University of Missouri. He earlier taught at Syracuse University, Hobart and William Smith College and Tougaloo.

 Learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences at www.cas.msstate.edu; its political science and public administration department at www.pspa.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.