Independent Historian

Derrion Arrington is a Librarian at the Mississippi Library Commission. He was exposed to The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson at Tougaloo College. He began echoing an excerpt from his book: “Philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man has two educators: “that which is given to him, and the other that which he gives himself.” That ignited a passion that never ceased. He graduated from Tougaloo College and went on to get my Masters at Tulane University in New Orleans in Public History. From there, he became a published writer with his academic essay entitled “Standing Firm in the Dixie: Dr. Benjamin Murph and the Origin of Laurel, Mississippi’s Freedom Movement” which appeared in Study The South, a publication of the University of Mississippi Press. The success of essay reached his hometown of Laurel, Mississippi and he became the Curator of Laurel’s Black History Exhibit and the Lynch Street Exhibit at Jackson State University.