When Mississippi Does it Right -- Aaron Henry: A Civil Rights Leader of the 20th Century

Aaron Henry, civil rights leader


Kudos to the Mississippi Historical Society for the beautiful piece written on civil rights leader, Aaron Henry (by Constance Curry, who with Aaron Henry wrote The Fire Ever Burning. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000.)

Aaron Henry’s Fourth Street Drug Store, which opened in 1950 in Clarksdale, became a hub for political and civil rights planning for three decades. Aaron Henry Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 90.24, Box 144, Folder 4.

Writes Curry -- Aaron Henry was born in 1922 in Coahoma County, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers. From a young age, he worked in the cotton fields alongside his family on the Flowers Plantation outside of Clarksdale. He remembered those years vividly when he recalled,

“As far back as I can remember, I have detested everything about growing cotton.” Regardless of his early hardships, education was a priority for ...

Continued --