Dr. Joseph Arrington Sr.

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The Arrington family is legendary for its commitment to the city of Atlanta, and as a longtime member and former president of the Atlanta chapter of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association, Joseph Arrington was no different.

A proud and devout Atlanta resident, Arrington, affectionately known as “Uncle Joe,” attended Booker T. Washington High School before earning a bachelor’s degree at his beloved Morehouse College in 1958.  Known for his wit and natural ability to make anyone smile, Uncle Joe was equally intelligent. He continued his educational pursuits at North Carolina Central University, where he earned a law degree, and then went on to obtain a master’s degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh.

“He was able to achieve a lot of great things in his 83 years,” Arrington II said. “He left a lot of great lessons behind for me and my sister and my mom to carry on with us.”

Arrington Sr. was born in Grady Memorial Hospital in the shadow of his residence, the Grady Homes Housing Project, in 1937.

“He was a fierce advocate of education,” Arrington II said. “That was primarily fueled by the hardships of growing up in segregated Atlanta, and he had seen that the only way he knew to break clear of that situation was to just entrench himself in education.”

He was the oldest of five children and called himself the “Leader of the Arrington Pack,” knowing that he would pioneer the path that his siblings would take one day.

Arrington Sr. was the first in the family to obtain a post-graduate degree. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Morehouse College in 1958 before receiving a law degree in 1969 from North Carolina Central University. According to his son, he was the only African American student awarded a Title I Public Health Service traineeship to the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and School of Law.

His accomplishments inspired six additional family members to become lawyers, including his son, daughter Jill Arrington and nephew.

“He loved three things: Morehouse College, his Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and the No. 1 thing was Aunt Barbara. He would talk about those three things nonstop,” Arrington Jr. said.

His love for his college led him to become a member of Morehouse College’s National Alumni Association for four years, before serving as a president of the Atlanta chapter for nine years, Arrington II said. He then went on to become a regional vice president for the southeastern region for a decade. According to his son, Arrington Sr.’s greatest accomplishment was taking the association’s membership from 30 to 350 in one year in the 1980s.

Arrington II said his father taught him many lessons, including, “Don’t spectate. Participate. See a good fight; jump in.”

“He wanted to get his hands dirty,” Arrington II said. “He wanted to get involved.”

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