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{{Short description|American community leader, politician (1847–1924)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Isaiah Thornton Montgomery
| image               = Isaiah Thornton Montgomery.jpg
| birth_date          = May 21, 1847
| birth_place         = [[Davis Island (Mississippi)|Davis Island]], [[Mississippi]], U.S.
| death_date          = March 5, 1924 (aged 76)
| death_place         = [[Mound Bayou, Mississippi]], U.S.
| office              = Mayor of Mound Bayou
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| term_start          = 1888
| term_end            = 1902
| spouse              = Martha Robb
| children            = 11, including [[Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze]]
| relations           = [[Ben Montgomery]] (father),<br />[[William Thornton Montgomery|William Montgomery]] (brother),<br />[[Eugene P. Booze]] (son-in-law)
| occupation          = Community leader, politician, mayor, founder of city
}}
'''Isaiah Thornton Montgomery''' (May 21, 1847 &ndash; March 5, 1924) was an American community leader, politician, and the founder of [[Mound Bayou, Mississippi]], an all-black community. He was a Republican delegate to the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention, and served as the mayor of Mound Bayou.

He participated in the [[Constitution of Mississippi|1890 Mississippi constitutional convention]] as a delegate from [[Bolivar County, Mississippi|Bolivar County]] and voted for the adoption of a state constitution that effectively disfranchised black voters for decades, using [[poll tax]]es and [[literacy test]]s to raise barriers to voter registration.<ref name=JCSRF2002>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_mont.html |first=Richard |last=Wormser |title=Isiah Washington |date=October 18, 2002 |access-date=October 18, 2002 |work=Jim Crow Stories: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow |publisher=[[WNET|Educational Broadcasting Corporation]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021018024802/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_mont.html |archive-date=October 18, 2002 }}</ref><ref name=JCEBC2002>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_williams.html |date=December 28, 2002 |title=Williams v. Mississippi (1898) |work=Jim Crow Stories: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow |author=Educational Broadcasting Corporation |author-link=WNET |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]] |access-date=April 5, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030405072843/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_williams.html |archive-date=April 5, 2003 }}</ref> Montgomery promoted an accommodationist position for African Americans. The [[I. T. Montgomery House]] in Mound Bayou is a National Landmark.

He has been described as "Mississippi's [[Booker T. Washington]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=McMillen |first=Neil R. |date=February 2007 |title=Isaiah T. Montgomery, 1847–1924 (Part II) |url=https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/isaiah-t-montgomery-1847-1924-part-ii |access-date=March 16, 2024 |website=[[Mississippi Historical Society|Mississippi Historical Society: Mississippi History Now]]}}</ref> He is also known as '''I. T. Montgomery''', and '''Isaiah Montgomery'''.

==Early life and education==
Isaiah Thornton Montgomery was born on May 21, 1847, in [[Davis Island (Mississippi)|Davis Island]], Mississippi. He was born into [[slavery in the United States|slavery]], the son of Mary Lewis Montgomery and [[Ben Montgomery]], whom was enslaved by [[Joseph Emory Davis]] at [[Hurricane Plantation]] at [[Davis Bend, Mississippi|Davis Bend]].<ref name="Ruffin II-2007">{{Cite web |last=Ruffin II |first=Herbert G. |date=2007-01-18 |title=Isaiah T. Montgomery (1847-1924) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/montgomery-isaiah-1847-1924/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=[[BlackPast.org]] |language=en-US}}</ref> They had a second son, [[William Thornton Montgomery]]. His father Ben had been promoted to overseer of the property. The Montgomery children learned to read and write due to their father's influential position on the Hurricane Plantation at Davis Bend; and because Davis wanted to establish a more positive working environment for slaves and encouraged education.{{Sfn|Hermann|1981|p=316}}

Montgomery married Martha Robb; they had 11 children and their daughter [[Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze]] was a political organizer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Garrett-Scott |first=Shennette |url=https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1011011911 |title=Part II: Black Women Suffragists |date=2018 |publisher=[[Alexander Street Press]] |others=Introduction by Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Kish Sklar |location=Alexandria, VA |chapter=Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze |access-date=March 17, 2024 |via=[[Alexander Street]]}}</ref>

==Career==
Following the end of the [[American Civil War]], Montgomery began a business <!-- what kind? -->with his father. It lasted until his fathers death in 1877. His father had long dreamed of establishing an independent black colony; by the time of his death, the [[Reconstruction era]] had ended and African Americans struggled to maintain themselves against [[white supremacists]].

After his father's death in 1877, Montgomery worked to realize his father's dream. With his cousin [[Benjamin T. Green]], he bought property in 1887 in the northwest frontier of [[Mississippi Delta]] bottomlands to found Mound Bayou.<ref name="Ruffin II-2007" /> [[Bolivar County]] was the largest in area in the Delta. As farmers cleared land, they started cultivating cotton.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 18, 1910 |title=Negroes Govern a Southern Town |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-negroes-govern-a-southe/129747207/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |pages=59 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

Montgomery worked to gain [[Freedman|freedmen]] protection of the law, and to keep their work and lives separate from supervision by whites.

Montgomery attended Mississippi's 1890 constitutional convention as its only black or Republican delegate. Convened in [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]] in August, the convention drafted a new constitution which was designed to secure white domination of state politics, including the adoption of an "understanding clause" which required any prospective voter to be able to read and interpret any section of the state constitution.{{sfn|Krane|Shaffer|1992|pp=48–49}} With little ability to challenge it, Montgomery accepted the clause, arguing that while it was "apparently one of unfriendliness" to blacks it was in the public interest to prevent illiterates from voting.{{sfn|Krane|Shaffer|1992|p=49}}

In what the ''Washington Post'' termed "A Notable Address Delivered by the Colored Statesman," [[Frederick Douglass]] gave a speech in October 1890 before the [[Bethel Literary and Historical Society]] of [[Washington DC|Washington, D.C.'s]] [[Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church]]. He strongly condemned Montgomery's stance regarding suffrage in Mississippi. Douglass had spoken of Montgomery numerous times before and on the occasion cited his position as an act of "treason, to the cause of the colored people, not only of his own state, but of the United States," referring to the effect Montgomery's act would have in other states. He also lamented having heard in Montgomery "a groan of bitter anguish born of oppression and despair" and a voice of a "soul from which all hope had vanished."<ref>{{cite news|title=DOUGLASS TO HIS RACE|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/138443591|access-date=20 March 2017|work=pqasb.pqarchiver.com|date=Oct 22, 1890|archive-date=21 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321084105/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/doc/138443591.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+22,+1890&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1877-1922)&edition=&startpage=7&desc=DOUGLASS+TO+HIS+RACE|id={{ProQuest|138443591}} |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Douglass|first1=Frederick|title=The race problem : great speech of Frederick Douglass, delivered before the Bethel Literary and Historical Association, in the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, Washington, D.C., October 21, 1890.THE RACE PROBLEM.|date=October 21, 1890|publisher=JOHN H. WILLS School and College Books|location=Washington, DC|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/murray:@field(DOCID+@lit(lcrbmrpt0c13div1)):|accessdate=20 March 2017}}</ref>

==Legacy==
The I. T. Montgomery Elementary School of the [[North Bolivar Consolidated School District]] (formerly the [[Mound Bayou School District]]) is named after Montgomery.<ref>{{cite web|last=Davis Betz|first=Kelsey|url=https://mississippitoday.org/2018/05/19/mound-bayous-history-a-magical-kingdom-residents-fight-to-preserve/|title=Mound Bayou's history a 'magical kingdom' residents fight to preserve |work=[[Mississippi Today]]|date=2018-05-19|accessdate=2021-05-12}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Works cited ==
* {{Cite book |last=Hermann |first=Janet Sharp |title=The Pursuit of a Dream |date=1981 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780195028874 |edition=1st |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Krane|first1=Dale|last2=Shaffer|first2=Stephen D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygMQDdnlH6cC|title=Mississippi Government and Politics: Modernizers Versus Traditionalists|date=1992|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=9780803277588|location=}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* {{Find a Grave|26437879}}

{{Mississippi Constitution signatories|state=collapsed}}
{{Portal bar|Business|Mississippi|Politics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomery, Isiah}}
[[Category:1847 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:African-American mayors in Mississippi]]
[[Category:Mayors of places in Mississippi]]
[[Category:19th-century mayors of places in the United States]]
[[Category:Mississippi Republicans]]
[[Category:People from Mound Bayou, Mississippi]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American politicians]]
[[Category:Montgomery family (Mississippi)|Isaiah]]
[[Category:People enslaved in Mississippi]]


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