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Biography: Isaiah Montgomery (1847-1924)
By Don Schwartz
Isaiah Montgomery was born May 21, 1847 in Davis Bend, Mississippi on the plantation of Joseph Davis, older brother of Jefferson Davis who would become president of the Confederacy. His father was business manager of the plantation, a prominent position for a slave. As a servant in the Davis household, Isaiah had access to the family library and received an extensive education from Davis. At the end of the Civil War, the Montgomerys bought the plantation from Davis, and held it until 1881.
Isaiah became a partner of Montgomery and Sons, one of Mississippi's most profitable cotton businesses until 1876, when it became insolvent due to falling cotton prices. The following year he was hired by the Louisville, New Orleans, & Texas Railroad to sell land on either side of the tracks. He convinced a group of African American pioneers to settle on swampland, an area that became known as Mound Bayou, a town reserved exclusively for blacks.
In 1890 he was the only African American elected as a delegate to the Mississippi constitutional convention, although he was convinced that political activism by blacks would only alienate whites. Consequently, at the convention he voted for the disfranchisement of blacks in Mississippi. Anticipating the position that Booker T. Washington would take five years later, Montgomery believed that African Americans would win acceptance from whites only through education and the acquisition of property. In 1890 he joined with Washington to found the National Negro Business League.
Montgomery served as mayor of Mound Bayou from 1898 to 1902, and later became the town's leading entrepreneur, establishing numerous businesses and educational institutions. He lived prosperously until his death on March 6, 1924. He has been credited for focusing attention on the plight of blacks in Mississippi, but his pragmatic philosophy was denounced by some African Americans who considered him a ‘Judas' in the struggle for equal rights.
This essay was submitted by Don Schwartz, a professor of history at the California State University at Long Beach.
Activity Suggestions
1. In 1890, Isaiah Montgomery along with Booker T. Washington, founded the National Negro Business League. What contributions did the National Negro Business League provide toward the quest for equal treatment? Write a report based on your research of the organization.
2. Have students do a research project on Mound Bayou, and/or other prosperous all African American towns in the country. How did they come into existence? What were their communities like? What was the town's main source of income if any?
These activity suggestions were written by Debbie Dickerson, a social studies teacher in Kansas.
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