Art Meets Activism: John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, and The Baptism

Dr. Doris Derby
Administrator, Professor, Documentary Photographer, Speaker, and Author

Dr. Doris Derby is an administrator, professor, documentary photographer, speaker, and author who earned her Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in New York, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. She was a Freedom rider and one of the New York SNCC (Student Non -violent Coordinating Committee) organizers of the March on Washington in 1963. She worked in Albany, Georgia, where among other things, she single-handedly integrated St. Pauls’ Episcopal Church, the summer of 1962.

After teaching elementary school in Yonkers, New York, Dr. Derby joined the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi and Alabama, for nine years, to work with grassroots organizers in black communities and take steps to impact societal change. While there she was a pioneer in pre-school and adult literacy initiatives, in developing cooperatives for economic development, in founding the Free Southern Theater, and in being a member of Southern Media, Inc. a documentary and photography and filmmaking group. She also worked at the Margaret Walker Center, of Jackson State University, and Tougaloo College, both HBCUs.

As a ten-year civil rights movement veteran (1962–1972), her work has been recognized in several publications, documentaries, and online publications. Dr. Derby is a contributor to “Hands on the Freedom Plow,” a book that contains fifty SNCC women’s contributions to the civil rights movement. Her new book is entitled, POETAGRAPHY: Artistic Reflections of a Mississippi Lifeline in Words and Images: 1963-1972. It contains a combination of the poetry and documentary photographs she created while working in Mississippi. Her second book, PATCHWORK: (PPP) Paintings, Poetry and Prose; Art and Activism in the Civil Rights Movement, 1960 – 1972, is forthcoming Spring 2021.

From 1990 until her retirement in 2012, Dr. Derby was Georgia State University’s founding Director of African American Student Services and Programs and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department. While there her initiatives impacted the lives of thousands of students here and abroad. In 2011, Dr. Derby was honored with the Georgia Humanities Award by the Governor of Georgia for her work and for her photographs depicting the life of struggling Americans who defied the post-emancipation status quo brought about by political, economic, social, and cultural domination and exploitation.

Dr. Derby’s images have been shown in numerous museums, galleries, universities, and websites including the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the Krannert Art Museum in Illinois, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, the Rose Library of Emory University, in Atlanta, the Art Gallery of Jackson State University, the City Museum in Montpellier, France, the Turner Contemporary Art Museum in Margate, England, the Photographers Gallery and the Website of Appollo Magazine, in London, England. Dr. Derby resides in Atlanta with her husband, retired Army Veteran, and actor, Bob Banks. They are both active in their community.