By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
Horace Montgomery, a retired UGA history professor who received the first doctoral degree from  UGA and later was a leader in marshaling faculty support for desegregation of the university, died in Athens Jan. 3.
Montgomery, who would have been 95 on Jan. 6, died in his sleep at his home. The body was donated to the Medical College of Georgia, and plans for a memorial service will be announced later.
Montgomery died a week before UGA commemorated the 40th anniversary of the enrollment of its first African-American students in January of 1961—an event in which he played a key role in organizing UGA faculty support for integration.
The students, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, enrolled on Jan. 9, 1961, and had attended class for a couple of days when a riot broke out. Though the disturbance caused no serious injuries or damage, university officials suspended Hunter and Holmes and had them taken from campus “in the interest of personal safety and the safety and welfare” of other students.
The next day, Montgomery, then a professor in the history department, and several faculty colleagues met to draft a resolution condemning the violence and calling for the students to be readmitted and protected. Montgomery, who was chief author of the resolution, arranged for the group to appear at a meeting that evening called by the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors to discuss the crisis.
At the meeting, some 300 faculty members gave a rousing standing ovation when Montgomery presented his resolution, which said acts of opposition would “only destroy the prestige of the university, result in loss of faculty and discourage and depress the student body.
“Let the governor of this state, its law enforcement officials and the people know that we, members of the faculty of this great institution, will not retreat from the responsibility of standing steadfastly by the rules of law and morality,” the resolution stated.
Almost all the faculty at the meeting signed the resolution, and within a few days more than 400 faculty members—about 80 percent of the resident faculty—had signed.
Montgomery endured heavy criticism from opponents of integration, including some who favored closing the university. He received many angry phone calls and letters, including a letter, which he kept framed on his wall, from a man who compared him to the Biblical figure Judas Iscariot.
Many others, however, applauded his leadership, including then-UGA President O.C. Aderhold, who personally thanked him. Hunter, who had a history class under Montgomery, praised him not only as a caring and helpful teacher but also for “speaking out for respect for civil and human rights” in a hostile environment.
Montgomery was interviewed for a documentary video that was produced for the 40th anniversary commemoration, and had planned to attend the event for a reunion with Hunter (now Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN bureau chief in South Africa) and others involved in the
desegregation crisis.
Born Jan. 6, 1906, in Pennsylvania, Montgomery received a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Northern University and earned a master’s degree in history from UGA in 1930. After teaching in high school and at a teacher’s college in Pennsylvania, he returned to UGA and in 1939 became the first student to fulfill requirements for a doctoral degree. He received his Ph.D. in history at graduation in 1940.
In 1947, after serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, he joined the UGA history faculty. He retired in 1973.
An authority on American history, with a special emphasis on Southern history, Montgomery studied for his doctorate under legendary UGA history professor E. Merton Coulter. He turned his doctoral dissertation, on the development of political parties in Georgia from 1846 to 1861, into his first book, published in 1950.
He was author or co-author of several other books and numerous articles in historical publications. He was a visiting professor at Oglethorpe University and Pennsylvania State University, and a Fulbright Professor at universities in Austria and Germany. He also served as director of the University Center in Georgia.
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