[1] Upon receiving his PhD in 1977, he joined the faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, moving in 1978 to Syracuse University.
[1] In 1989 he moved to The University of Missouri, where he was Vice Provost of Minority Affairs and Faculty Developments until 1997, and from 2005 until 2008 held the Frederick Middlebush Chair.
[1] In 2009 he became a professor at Mississippi State University, where he was also Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and affiliated with African American Studies.
[6] The book is the first full biography of Aaron Henry, who was the president of the Mississippi section of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a leader of the Freedom Summer.
[1] Together with Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Morrison won the 2015 Frank Johnson Goodnow Award from the American Political Science Association, a lifetime award that "honors service to the community of teachers, researchers, and public servants who work in the many fields of politics.