Aaron Henry was an American civil rights leader, politician, and the president of the NAACP’s Mississippi branch. He was a founding member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which attempted to send a delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Henry was born on July 2, 1922, as the son of sharecroppers in Dublin, Mississippi. He grew up on the Flowers Plantation outside of Clarksdale, working in the cotton fields with his family. Henry despised cotton because he witnessed the hardships that it brought to Blacks working on plantations at a young age.
Henry went to Coahoma County Agricultural High School, which was all black. After high school, Henry worked as a night clerk at a motel to save for college, but he ended up enlisting in the Army. While in the Army, he discovered that racial discrimination and segregation existed even among black soldiers.
While in the army, he resolved to work for black equality and justice in his home state. When he returned to the United States in 1946, a Progressive Voters’ League had been formed to work for the implementation of the 1944 Supreme Court decision abolishing white primaries.
As a veteran, Henry was interested in the Mississippi legislature’s decision to exempt returning veterans from paying the poll tax. A person had to have paid his poll tax for two years prior to voting under the poll tax laws. As a result, he attempted to persuade black Mississippians to go to the courthouse and register to vote. However, several non-white veterans were unable to register.
He went to the circuit clerk’s office to register, but he was denied, as had previous blacks. The clerk requested that he present a certificate proving his exemption from the poll tax. Despite the fact that he provided the certificate, the clerk stated that Henry still needed to pass a series of tests before he could vote. He was finally able to register to vote after reading several sections of the state constitution and passing more tests.
Henry was able to make use of the G. I. Bill, a law that allowed World War II veterans to attend Xavier College (now Xavier University) in New Orleans. After receiving his pharmaceutical degree in 1950, he returned to Clarksdale and co-founded the Fourth Street Drug Store with K. White Mississippian W. Walker It was the area’s only black-owned drugstore.
Henry became involved in both local and state activities. He founded the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was elected president of the Mississippi chapter in 1959. He was a long-time member of the NAACP. In 1962, he was also the president of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and he helped organize the “freedom vote,” a mock statewide general election to parallel the Mississippi gubernatorial election of 1963.
In the 1960s, an incident during the freedom vote campaign prompted Henry to become involved in the challenge to the re-licensing of the major Jackson television station, WLBT. The station had a history of anti-black programming and policy, and when Henry and Dr. R.L.T. Smith went to buy airtime, the station manager told them that “niggers couldn’t buy time.” Henry and colleagues then launched a successful legal challenge to have the station’s license revoked. Because of his actions, more African-American news anchors and employees joined television stations across the country. In December 1979, Henry was elected chairman of the WLBT board of directors.
Henry was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1982, holding the seat until 1996. He died in 1997 of congestive heart failure at a hospital near his home in Clarksdale, following a stroke.