On Friday, January 6th, 2023, a statement released by Jackson State University announced OPEEP Co-Director Dr. Tiyi Morris as recipient of the 2023 “For My People” - Doris Derby Legacy Award! Dr. Morris was honored during the 28th Annual For My People Luncheon, held at noon on Friday, January 13th, 2023, in the Jackson State University Student Center Ballroom in Jackson, Mississippi.
As a civil rights historian, Dr. Morris' scholarship focuses on Black women’s social and political activism. She is the author of two books titled Womanpower Unlimited and The Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi. Dr. Morris is the daughter of Euvester Simpson, who will also be honored for her “contributions to African American history and culture" alongside Morris and another recipient, Angela Stewart, at the 28th Annual For My People Luncheon.
According to the Jackson State Newsroom statememt, “The ‘For My People’ awards are named after Margaret Walker’s classic poem that was published in 1942. Past recipients include James Meredith, Unita Blackwell, Robert Clark, Lerone Bennett, Andrew Young, Reena Evers-Everette, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.” Now in the official company of these influential African American leaders and changemakers, Simpson is receiving recognition for her work in the civil rights movement, having “served as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, also known as SNCC, during the Civil Rights Movement, conducting voter registration and voter education workshops throughout Mississippi. On June 9, 1963, she was arrested in Winona, Mississippi, along with Annelle Ponder, Fannie Lou Hamer, June Johnson, and several others, for being in a ‘white only’ area of the bus terminal. Simpson shared a jail cell with Hamer. Members of the group were beaten by their jailers only to be released a few days later and learn that Medgar Evers had been assassinated. During Freedom Summer in 1964, Simpson worked in the COFO office in Jackson, coordinating volunteer orientation.”
The “For My People” – Doris Derby Legacy Award honors those who “continue the traditions of the social justice movements of the 1950s and 1960s,” named eponymously for civil rights activist, artist, scholar, and educator Dr. Doris Derby. In 2021, Dr. Derby was a recipient of the award herself, in recognition of her lifelong efforts to defend human rights and “train new generations under her tutelage as an activist, scholar, artist, and educator.” As a photographer of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, her powerful images were unique in their documentation of everyday Black life, adding depth and nuance to popular portrayals of Black existence and resistance during a time of profound violence and sociopolitical turmoil. In addition to her activist and artistic work, Dr. Derby was also an influential academic. Derby first graduated from Hunter College in 1962, then earned her master’s in anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1975, and her Ph.D. from the same institution in 1980. She taught anthropology and African American studies at UIUC, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the College of Charleston. From 1990 until her retirement, she served as director of the Office of African American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State University.
Reflecting on public perceptions of progress made since the civil rights movement, Dr. Derby wrote the following in her 2021 monograph: “Now is a continuation of then...When you make strides, the enemy takes steps to block your achievements, and you must do something else.”
Dr. Derby passed away less than a year ago on March 28th, 2022.
To borrow Dr. Derby’s language, Dr. Morris works tirelessly to make strides every day in both her roles as Co-Director of OPEEP and Associate Professor of African American and African Studies, despite attempts made by enemies to thwart that progress. An undeniably positive presence in the lives of her colleagues and students, all who know Dr. Morris are so much the better for it. The profound impact of her work as a scholar, educator, and activist speaks to the many ways in which she honors Dr. Derby’s legacy. The OPEEP team could not be prouder of Dr. Morris for this well-deserved accomplishment, and we remain incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work alongside and learn from such a decorated leader.
Dr. Tiyi Morris, OPEEP Co-Director, Associate Professor of African American and African Studies at the Ohio State University at Newark, and recipient of the 2023 “For My People” - Doris Derby Legacy Award