January 24, 1977: Horace Ward becomes first black Superior Court Judge in Ga

On Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth and I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to discuss today’s significance. Get the picture; January 24, 1977, Horace T. Ward becomes the first African American Superior Court Judge in the State of Georgia. As one might imagine, Judge Ward’s pathway to this position was fraught with adversity.<

Born in LaGrange on July 29, 1927, Ward’s mother was a domestic worker for a local white family. Ward never knew his father and lived with his Mother’s parents until he started school when he was nine. In the face of these challenges, Ward managed to skip grades and graduated as the valedictorian of East Depot Street High School in 1946.

Ward’s education did not end there, he subsequently attended Morehouse College and Atlanta University—the prior name of Clark Atlanta University—obtaining both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. After learning about A.T. Walden, one of the few African American attorneys in Georgia, Ward developed a keen interest in the law.

But there was a small problem: Ward did not want to attend a law school outside of Georgia. At the urging of William Madison Boyd, Ward applied to the university of Georgia School of Law in 1950. Almost a year later, the law school finally denied Ward’s admission. For twelve months Ward lobbied the administration to accept him as a student. The administration did not relent. On June 23, 1952, a suit was filed in federal court attempting to force the school to admit Ward.

Suspiciously, Ward was drafted and his case suspended. He served two years in the Army before returning to his suit. Finally, in December of 1956, Ward was to have his day in Court after six years of waiting. In February of 1957, the District Court dismissed Ward’s suit citing that Ward did not reapply for admission after school changed it’s standards and because Ward had enrolled at Northwestern Law in Illinois. Defeated, Ward chose not to appeal the ruling.

Ward graduated from Northwestern and began practicing law in Georgia with the firm that represented him in the case against UGA’s law school. While Ward was unable to attend UGA’s law school, his efforts helped pave the way for desegregation and on January 6, 1961, Judge William Augustus Bootle ordered that the university admit two African American students: Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne A. Hunter. This victory would not have been reached without Ward’s previous efforts.

In 1964, while Ward practiced at the firm of Hollowell, Ward, Moore & Alexander in Atlanta, he was elected as a State Senator. In the Georgia Senate, Ward met another State Senator of some importance, Jimmy Carter. In 1974, Ward became a Judge in the Civil Court of Fulton County. He served in that position until 1977, when he became the first African American Superior Court Judge in Georgia’s history.

Ward’s time as a Superior Court Judge was limited. In 1979, President Carter nominated and the Senate confirmed Horace T. Ward as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. That appointment made Ward the first African American to become a federal judge in Georgia’s history.

Less than fifty years ago, Georgia never had an African American Superior Court Judge. And while we are not to the point where “[e]verything is beautiful,” our State has made progress in destroying the race barrier.