22 • April 14, 2022 - April 20, 2022
THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
IN
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Civil rights activist and photographer, Doris A. Derby By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
endured. These travels and experiences fueled her determination to bring about change and As it so often happens with the she took that vision and energy passing of notable African Amer- into the classicans, we get the news days and room and into sometimes weeks after they adult literacy depart. Such is the case with Doris programs sponA. Derby, an activist photographer sored by SNCC who was seemingly everywhere at Tougaloo Colduring the Civil Rights Move- lege in Missisment. She joined the ancestors on sippi. In this March 28 in Atlanta and was 82. capacity she Her vital statistics, and she was worked in close born Nov. 11, 1939, in the Bronx, association with are but a small indicator of her John O’Neal and commitment to freedom and jus- Gilbert Moses as tice, and her membership in the a co-founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating the Free SouthCommittee (SNCC) and her role ern Theater. It as a founder of the Free South- was around this ern Theater. She was raised in same period of the Williamsbridge section of the time that she Bronx and even as an elemen- began to activetary school student expressed ly photograph her concern about the inequali- the movement ty and the lack of representation activities, with a of Black culture in the classroom. special interest The study of dance was an early on documenting dream, and she was reasonably suc- the role her comcessful winning a scholarship at the rades played in Katherine Dunham African dance the fight against classes at the Harlem YMCA. But a racism and dislifelong endeavor with civil rights crimination. took command as a teenager after From 1963 to she joined the Youth Chapter of the 1972 she was a field secretary NAACP and her church. Besides her for SNCC in Mississippi, workinvolvement in rallies and dem- ing hand in hand with Bob Moses onstrations, Doris was a student at and COFO (Council of Federated Hunter College where she first ma- Organizations), and the Missisjored in cultural anthropology. sippi Freedom Democratic Party During her senior year in col- (MFDP), where she often accomlege, she began traveling abroad, panied the indomitable Fannie visiting such countries as Nigeria, Lou Hamer. Doris was an indisFrance and Italy. Back at home pensable worker in practicalher intrepid wanderlust took her ly every organization to advance to Native American areas, par- freedom during her days in Misticularly to the Navajo Indian sissippi, including a child develReservation where she saw first- opment group, the Head Start hand the oppressive conditions Program, and the massive Freethe people there dom Summer initiative under the direction of Bob Moses.
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Throughout all these activities her camera was busy capturing decisive moments in the struggle, and she was soon a
Doris A. Derby in 2014
member of Southern Media, Inc. and began traveling across the state gathering the photos and moments that would be part of various documentaries. Some of these pictures were part of her lectures and exhibits as she taught and trained students to become active in the movement. In her book “Poetagraphy: Artistic Reflections of a Mississippi Lifeline in Words and Images: 1963-1972” that she published independently in 2019, a good sample of her artistic and political work
is showcased. Two of her photographs were published in “Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts of Women in SNCC,” and she also contributed an essay that recounted some of the trials and tribulations that challenged her during that period. Her photographs and exhibits are too numerous to list here, and the same can be said of her academic career that intensified after she left Mississippi in 1972 and focused on completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in social anthropology at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. Doris joined the University System of Georgia State University in 1990 as an adjunct associate professor of anthropology and the founding director of the Office of African American Student Services and Programs. Consistent with her preoccupation with the visual arts and photography, she was the co-founder of the Performing and Visual Arts Council at Georgia State University in 2008. After more than 22 years at the college, she retired, though continued to lecture and work as a consultant. During her stint at Georgia State University, she lived in Atlanta with her husband actor Bob Banks, both active members of countless institutions and community groups. On Oct. 6, 2011, Doris received the 26th Governor’s Award in the Humanities in Atlanta for documenting and preserving images and stories enabling current and future generations to learn about the Civil Rights Movement and social change in the Deep South.
ACTIVITIES FIND OUT MORE The best place to discover the tireless work and commitment is to visit her papers housed at Emory University in Georgia.
DISCUSSION When and how she began her passionate embrace of the camera cries out for background and development. PLACE IN CONTEXT Doris came of age during the Civil Rights Movement era and played a significant role in its successes.
THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY April 11, 1939: Jane Bolin became the first Black woman to become a U.S. judge, presiding over New York City’s Domestic Relations Court. April 11, 1933: Tony Brown, journalist, was born in Charleston, W. Va. April 12, 1940: Jazz great Herbie Hancock was born in Chicago.
