Aaron Henry, who began life in an African American sharecropping family in Mississippi and returned from World War II to become a pharmacist and an activist, was the most important continuous leader to fundamentally transform racialized politics and society in his state.

That’s the view of Minion K.C. Morrison, professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Public Policy and Administration and author of the political biography Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator.

“Aaron Henry was a major figure in the civil rights movement and in the Democratic Party, and he remained a major figure until his death in 1997,” Morrison said. “He changed the face of politics in Mississippi.”

Morrison’s book has received critical acclaim and recently won the Lillian Smith Book Award, which honors works focused on race, social justice and civil and human rights. The University of Georgia Libraries sponsor the awards, in partnership with the Southern Regional Council, the Georgia Center for the Book and Piedmont College.

The book “will likely stand as the definitive biography of a major civil rights figure,” according to the American Historical Review.

The American Library Association journal Choice “highly recommended” the book for all libraries.

After serving in World War II, Henry earned a pharmacy degree through the GI Bill and opened a business in Mississippi, where he and other returning black veterans challenged the system of segregation. Inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King, he became even more active in the civil rights movement and, with Medgar Evers, revitalized the NAACP in the state.

Evers and King, more widely remembered today, were both martyred at a relatively young age, Morrison noted, while Henry was able to survive despite a series of violent attacks against him.

“His house and business were bombed, he was harassed, and his wife lost her career as a schoolteacher,” Morrison said. “They tried everything, and a weaker person might have been forced to flee, but Henry somehow managed to survive and continue his work until he died a natural death [at age 74].”

In addition to his leadership of the state NAACP chapter, Henry was a board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — one of the few who was not a Baptist minister — and led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation. That group tried unsuccessfully to integrate the all-white state delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention but went on to win recognition from the national party four years later.

In 1979, Henry won election to the Mississippi state legislature, where he served until 1996.

“The remarkable thing about him is that he was able to enter politics, and be a successful politician, without ever compromising his integrity or his dedication to the cause of justice,” Morrison said. “Especially in Mississippi, where activists seeking to mobilize had not just other citizens against them but also the state government, that was quite a feat.”

Morrison joined the UD faculty in September from Mississippi State University, where he was head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration for seven years and was Senior Fellow in African American Studies.

He earned his doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and, from 1989-2009, was on the faculty of the University of Missouri at Columbia, where he was Middlebush Professor of Political Science, before joining Mississippi State. 

His research interests include comparative politics in the U.S. and Africa, specifically focused on examining how outsiders mobilize for participation in the political process. At UD, he will teach undergraduate and graduate classes in comparative public administration, political leadership and racial politics.