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:
The December 1, 2015 episode of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s On Second Thought included a segment on modern Southern women. Here, the program’s host Celeste Headlee discusses stereotypes of Southern women with author Jessica Handler and Armstrong State University professor Regina Bradley. You can listen to the episode here (The part begins at approximately 15 minutes and 55 seconds into the broadcast). This On Second Thought piece prompted us to highlight several partner collections that feature the achievements of modern Georgia women, and the impact that these women have had in the state of Georgia.
Cathey Steinberg at her seat in the General Assembly, Atlanta, Georgia, circa late 1970s. Local identification number: W042_50_2_014, SERIES III: Visual Materials, Cathey W. Steinberg papers, W042, Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women’s Movement Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
From our partners at Georgia State University Library Special Collections and Archives, the Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women’s Movement Archives documents the second wave of the women’s movement in Georgia, and in particular, efforts in the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Donna Novak Coles is an activist and philanthropist who has worked with the Feminist Action Alliance, Housewives for the ERA, Georgia Women’s Political Caucus, the League of Women Voters, ERA Georgia. Inc., and the Georgia Women’s Movement Project. Items in this collection include the personal papers and artifacts of individuals active in the 50-plus organizations affiliated with the ERA Georgia Coalition; records of the ERA Georgia Coalition member organizations; personal papers and artifacts from other organizations and supporters of the ERA in Georgia; oral history interviews with ERA and women’s movement activists.
Also from our partners at Georgia State University Library Special Collections and Archives, the Terri Wilder Papers, circa 1996-2007, focus on Wilder’s efforts as an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS. Terri Wilder is a native Georgian activist, HIV/AIDS advocate, and social worker who has worked in HIV patient services for over twenty years. The materials in this collection consist primarily of educational literature produced by organizations with which Wilder has worked, such as ACT-UP, the Global Campaign for Microbicides, and the Hope Clinic at Emory University.
From our partners at the Atlanta History Center, we have two oral history interviews with Dorothy Bolden, available here and here that were conducted by Bernard West on December 7, 1978 as part of the Living Atlanta Oral History Project Collection. Bolden, an African American domestic worker, founded the National Domestic Workers Union in 1968. She also served as vice-president of the Black Women’s Coalition of Atlanta, and worked for both the state and national Departments of Labor. Numerous photographs of Bolden are also available in the Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University.
Photograph of Dorothy Bolden, founder and president of the National Domestic Workers Union L1979-24_75, National Domestic Workers Union (U.S.) Records, Southern Labor Archives, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
And from our partners at the Richard B. Russell Library, the Reflections on Georgia Politics Oral History Collection contains oral history interviews conducted with modern first ladies of Georgia, including Marie Barnes, who discusses her work with the Georgia Early Learning Initiative and her work with women’s health issues, and Shirley Miller, who discusses her goal to promote adult literacy in the state through the Certified Literate Community Program.
Please take a look through these resources, and see what modern Southern women have done in Georgia!
