Derby, Doris Adelaide

Doris Adelaide Derby is an African American educator, artist, and civil rights activist. Originally from New York, Derby became involved in the civil rights movement in the early 1960s and joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1963, she moved to Mississippi to begin a literacy program at Tougaloo College in Jackson. She stayed in Mississippi throughout the 1960s, working with many organizations devoted to improving the economic and social conditions of African Americans in the south, including the Poor People's Corporation. Derby received a Master's Degree (1975) and Ph. D. (1980) from the University of Illinois in Anthropology, with a concentration in African and African-American Studies. Derby's artwork and photography have been shown at museums throughout the United States, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1990, she has served as the Director of the Office of African American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State University.