Minion K. C. Morrison facts for kids

Minion Kenneth Chauncey Morrison (born 1946) is an American political scientist. This means he studies how governments work and how people make decisions in groups. He is a professor at the University of Delaware.

Professor Morrison studies different political systems around the world, especially in the United States and Ghana. He has written many books and articles about the Civil Rights Movement. This movement worked to end unfair treatment of African Americans. He also wrote a book about Aaron Henry, an important leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

Minion Morrison's Education and Early Career

Minion Morrison went to Tougaloo College and earned his first degree in 1968. He then studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. There, he earned his master's degree in 1969 and his PhD in 1977. During this time, he also studied in Ghana, Africa, and received a certificate in African studies in 1974.

Between 1969 and 1977, Professor Morrison taught at Tougaloo College. After getting his PhD in 1977, he joined the faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In 1978, he moved to Syracuse University.

In 1989, he joined the University of Missouri. There, he helped support minority students and faculty until 1997. From 2005 to 2008, he held a special teaching position called the Frederick Middlebush Chair. In 2009, he became a professor at Mississippi State University. He was also the head of the Political Science department there. In 2016, he moved to the University of Delaware.

Minion Morrison's Career and Books

Professor Morrison has written many articles for academic journals. These are special magazines for experts in a field. He has also published several important books.

Ethnicity and Political Integration

In 1982, he published his first book, Ethnicity and Political Integration: The Case of Ashanti, Ghana. This book came from his PhD research. It looks at how different groups in Ghana's Ashanti Region came together in the early 1970s. He studied four specific places in Ghana to understand this process.

Black Political Mobilization, Leadership and Power

Professor Morrison's second book, Black Political Mobilization, Leadership and Power, came out in 1989. In this book, he explored how the Civil Rights Movement changed American politics in the 1980s. He looked at how African Americans continued to organize and influence political events for many years after the movement.

He studied three towns in Mississippi: Bolton, Mississippi, Mayersville, Mississippi, and Tchula, Mississippi. These towns had elected Black mayors after being led by white politicians for a long time, ever since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.

Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator

In 2015, Professor Morrison published his third book, Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator. This book is the first full story of Aaron Henry, a very important leader. Henry was the president of the Mississippi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was also a key leader during the Freedom Summer of 1964, which aimed to register Black voters in Mississippi.

The book shows that Henry was not just an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He also worked as an activist in less known ways and was an elected official. Professor Morrison argues that these experiences made Henry a very effective leader during the Civil Rights Movement. For this book, Morrison received the Lillian Smith Book Award in 2016. He also talked about his book on C-SPAN, a TV channel that covers government and public affairs.

Other Works and Awards

Besides writing his own books, Professor Morrison also helped edit other books. He was a co-editor for Race and Democracy in the Americas: Brazil and the United States (2003) and Housing and Urban Poor in Africa (1982).

In 2015, Professor Morrison and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein won the Frank Johnson Goodnow Award. This award is given by the American Political Science Association. It honors people who have served the community of teachers, researchers, and public servants in politics for a long time. Professor Morrison also received the Aaron Henry Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi NAACP.

Selected Works

• Ethnicity and Political Integration: The Case of Ashanti, Ghana (1982)
• Black Political Mobilization, Leadership and Power (1989)
• Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator (2015)

Selected Awards

• Frank Johnson Goodnow Award, American Political Science Association (2015)
• Lillian Smith Book Award (2016)
• Aaron Henry Lifetime Achievement Award, Mississippi NAACP (2016)