Mandy Mastrovita – Page 76

The Georgia Archives Institute has just been named the recipient of a 2016 Distinguished Service Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA).

From SAA’s web site:

“The Georgia Archives Institute (GAI) is the 2016 recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ Distinguished Service Award. Created in 1964, the award recognizes an archives institution, education program, nonprofit organization, or government organization that has given outstanding service to its public and has made an exemplary contribution to the archives profession.

For 49 years, GAI has provided an intensive training course in the practical and theoretical foundation for archival enterprise, enabling 775 archivists from thirty-six states and nine countries to understand and implement best practices in the management of archives. GAI’s far-reaching impact has led to the development of professional standards, diverse and inclusive collections, institutional partnerships, the education of archivists as managers and advocates, and a better awareness of the fundamental importance of historical records.

One supporter wrote that GAI has ‘filled a significant gap in archival education for many individuals at small to medium institutions who may shoulder archival responsibilities along with numerous other roles, who may have gained these roles in mid-career, or who may not have access to archival education courses.'”

Please join us in congratulating the Georgia Archives Institute on this achievement!

You can read more about SAA’s 2016 Fellows and Award recipients here.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of a panel of African American leaders including Georgia state senator Leroy Johnson, Reverend J. D. Grier and attorneys Horace T. Ward and William H. Alexander explaining recent demands to the Board of Education, Atlanta, Georgia, 1967 September 25, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 1411, 00:00/05:40, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

United States District Court Judge Horace T. Ward died on Saturday, April 23.

In 1950, Horace T. Ward became the first African American to challenge the racially discriminatory practices at the University of Georgia (UGA).

Although the all-white UGA School of Law rejected Ward’s application and a federal court subsequently upheld the university’s decision, Ward’s challenge to the university’s segregationist policies began a legal process that would eventually bear fruit in 1961 when Ward returned to Georgia to assist Donald Hollowell and Constance Baker Motley in their renewed efforts to desegregate UGA. On January 6, 1961, Judge William A. Bootle ordered UGA to admit two African American students, Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne A. Hunter, ending 175 years of segregation at the university.

Ward served as a partner of the law firm of Hollowell, Ward, Moore, and Alexander during the early 1960s. From 1965-1974, he served in the Georgia state senate. U.S president Jimmy Carter appointed him to a federal judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in 1979, which made Ward the first African American ever to sit on the federal bench in Georgia.

The Civil Rights Digital Library includes numerous archival collections, reference resources, and educator resources that refer to Horace Ward, they are available at:

http://crdl.usg.edu/people/w/ward_horace_t_horace_taliaferro_1927/

Author: Mandy Mastrovita

Georgia Archives Institute is the recipient of SAA’s 2016 Distinguished Service Award

Remembering Horace T. Ward