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 --

Friends, Family Pay Tribute to Wayne Greenhaw, Noted Civil Rights Author

Alvin Benn, Montgomery Advertiser writes ...

One of Alabama's most pro­lific writers, Greenhaw com­pleted 22 books and was work­ing on another when he died. Flynt traced Greenhaw's back­ground, from his difficult child­hood in which he suffered from polio and his recuperative peri­od that "drove him into an imaginary world of books."


After a part-time job as a sports reporter for the Tusca­loosa News, Greenhaw found his calling when he hit the journalistic jackpot at the Alabama Journal, where he had a chance to record histo­ry on almost a daily basis.

"History could hardly have placed him in a better locale at a more important time with so astounding a cast of characters," said Flynt, who then rattled off the names of newsmakers such as George Wallace, Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Gray and many more. Greenhaw ar­rived in Montgomery at a time when terrorists were bombing homes and church­es, and there were brutal ra­cial murders and compliant city and state officials. Regu­lar Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Council rallies fre­quently made news, "and he reported it," Flynt said.

Read more --