{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Georgia Davis Powers | image = GeorgiaDavisPowers-SonjaFeistPrice (cropped).jpg | image_size = 180 px | caption = Powers in 2010 | state_senate = Kentucky | district = 33rd | term_start = January 1, 1968 | term_end = January 1, 1989 | predecessor = Bernard Bonn | successor = Gerald Neal | party = Democratic | birth_name = Georgia Montgomery | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|10|19}} | birth_place = Springfield, Kentucky, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|01|30|1923|10|19|mf=yes}} | death_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | occupation = Politician, civil rights activist | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Norman F. Davis|1943|1968}} * {{marriage|James L. Powers|1973}} }} | parents = Frances Walker and Ben Gore Montgomery | children = William "Billy" Davis }}
'''Georgia Davis Powers''' (née Montgomery; October 19, 1923<ref name="Eblen" /> – January 30, 2016) was an American politician who served for 21 years as a state senator in the Kentucky Senate. In 1967, she was the first African American elected to the senate.<ref name="Eblen">{{cite news|last1=Eblen|first1=Tom|title=Georgia Davis Powers, legislator and civil rights pioneer, dies at 92|url=http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article57463143.html|access-date=January 30, 2016|work=Lexington Herald-Leader|date=January 30, 2016|archive-date=January 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130180246/http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article57463143.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Hudson |first = J. Blaine |editor-first = John E. |editor-last = Kleber |year = 2001 |title = The Encyclopedia of Louisville |publisher = University Press of Kentucky |location = Lexington, Kentucky |isbn = 0-8131-2100-0 |oclc = 247857447 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC |access-date = February 6, 2016 |chapter = African Americans |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC&pg=PA17 |page = 17 |archive-date = March 13, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230313151808/https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC |url-status = live}}</ref> During her term, she was "regarded as the leading advocate for blacks, women, children, the poor, and the handicapped," and was the chair of the Health and Welfare committee from 1970 to 1976 and the Labor and Industry committee from 1978 to 1988.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Miller|first=Penny M.|date=1996|title=Staking Their Claim: The Impact of Kentucky Women in the Political Process|url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1688&context=klj|journal=Kentucky Law Journal|volume=84|issue=4|pages=1188|access-date=August 30, 2019|archive-date=November 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109040614/https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1688&context=klj|url-status=live}}</ref>
Powers attended the Louisville Municipal College, worked for organizations concerning civil and equal rights, and received honorary doctorates from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, among other honors.
==Biography==
Georgia Montgomery was born in Jimtown, Kentucky, a black settlement outside of Springfield, Kentucky, on October 19, 1923.<ref name="Powers-1995" /> Montgomery grew up in a family of nine children. She had eight brothers: Joseph Ben (Jay), Robert, John Albert, Phillip, Lawrence Franklin, James Isaac, Rudolph and Carl. Her parents, Frances Walker and Ben Gore Montgomery later moved the family to the state's largest metropolis, Louisville, as a result of a tornado destroying their two-room shack. As a young girl she attended Louisville's all-black schools, Virginia Avenue Elementary School and Madison Junior High School. She graduated from Central High School in 1940, and from 1940 to 1942 attended the Louisville Municipal College.<ref name="Eblen" /><ref name="Powers-1995" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Adams|first=Luther J.|date=Autumn 2001|title=African American Migration to Louisville in the Mid-Twentieth Century|journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society|volume=99|issue=4|pages=363–384|jstor=23384797}}</ref>
As a young wife and mother of an adopted son, William (known as Billy), Georgia and her husband Norman "Nicky" Davis joined the New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Louisville.<ref name="Powers-1995">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ISharedTheDream|title=I Shared the Dream: The Pride, Passion, and Politics of the First Black Woman Senator from Kentucky|last=Powers|first=Georgia Davis|date=1995|publisher=New Horizon Press|isbn=9780882823546|location=Far Hills, N.J.|oclc=31907951}}</ref>{{Rp|80}} A fellow church member, Verna Smith, encouraged Montgomery to take her first steps into Democratic Party politics by joining the U.S. Senatorial campaign staff of Wilson Wyatt.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://electwomen.com/?p=1402|title=A True Kentucky Pioneer: The Story of Kentucky's First Female and African-American Senator|access-date=April 25, 2011|last=Bailey|first=Brandy|date=April 23, 2009|work=ElectWomen Magazine|archive-date=May 7, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507022920/http://electwomen.com/?p=1402|url-status=live}}</ref>
Davis worked for the Allied Organization for Civil Rights in promoting statewide public accommodations and fair employment laws in the early 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kchr.ky.gov/ggbk/Pages/gbk18.aspx|title=Georgia Davis Powers|access-date=December 12, 2019|archive-date=December 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212014343/https://kchr.ky.gov/ggbk/Pages/gbk18.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>
Davis Powers was initiated as an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nwasgrho.org/famous-sorors|title=Famous Sorors|website=Sigma Gamma Rho Lambda Phi Sigma Alumnae Chapter|language=en|access-date=April 14, 2018|archive-date=April 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414092144/https://www.nwasgrho.org/famous-sorors|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Public office== Davis had a job as a bill clerk in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1966 when she asked Rep. Lloyd Clapp, D-Wingo, to vote for the civil-rights bill proposed by Gov. Edward "Ned" Breathitt. Clapp replied that if he voted for the bill he wouldn't get re-elected, and Davis replied "Maybe you shouldn't get re-elected." He blew cigarette smoke in her face, and she concluded that she needed to have her own seat in the legislature.<ref>"Connections with Renee Shaw," KET, 2016</ref> She won the Democratic primary over Dr. Charles E. Riggs, 1,296 to 1,117.<ref>Courier-Journal, May 24, 1967, p. A21</ref> In the general election, she defeated Republican Clinton Loeffler Jr., 10,548 to 6,778. She succeeded Bernard Bonn, who had moved out of the district.<ref>Courier-Journal, November 8, 1967, pp. A4 and B1</ref> Elected to serve in the Kentucky Senate from January 1968 to January 1989, she sponsored bills prohibiting employment discrimination, sex and age discrimination, in addition to introducing statewide fair housing legislation.<ref name="Dupont-2015">{{Cite book|title=Kentucky women : their lives and times|last=Dupont|first=Carolyn|date=2015|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820347523|editor-last=McEuen|editor-first=Melissa A.|location=Athens|chapter=Georgia Montgomery Davis Powers (1923-): Purpose in Politics|oclc=908324670|editor-last2=Appleton Jr.|editor-first2=Thomas H.}}</ref> On June 15, 1972, she was one of 20 Democratic senators that voted for Kentucky to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pardue |first=Anne |date=June 16, 1972 |title=Kentucky becomes 19th to ratify equal rights for women amendment |work=The Courier Journal |location=Louisville, Kentucky |page=1}}</ref> She was a leader in the movement to change what many considered the racially insensitive wording of the Kentucky State Song, My Old Kentucky Home, in 1986.<ref>{{cite web|title=Interview with Carl R. Hines, Sr.|url=https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/catalog/xt77wm13nn36|website=Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History|publisher=University of Kentucky Libraries: Lexington|access-date=June 18, 2016|archive-date=April 26, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240426185208/https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt77wm13nn36|url-status=live}} Discussion of the episode begins approximately 82 minutes into the interview. Also see the contemporaneous reporting that appeared in the article written by Bob Johnson in the edition of March 12, 1986, of the ''Courier-Journal'' (page 18) and the Associated Press article that appeared in the edition of March 21, 1986, of the ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' (page A11). Hines' resolution was [https://www.scribd.com/document/317306666/1986-HR-159 House Resolution 159 (1986)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814111815/https://www.scribd.com/document/317306666/1986-HR-159 |date=August 14, 2016}}; Powers' resolution was [https://www.scribd.com/document/317306667/1986-SR-114 Senate Resolution 114 (1986)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814182749/https://www.scribd.com/document/317306667/1986-SR-114 |date=August 14, 2016}}.</ref> In the first few months of her term, she introduced and secured an open housing bill, the first in any southern state.<ref name="Dupont-2015" />
She also supported legislation to improve education for the physically and mentally disabled. She was a member of the Cities Committee, Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee and the Rules Committee. She served as secretary of the Democratic caucus from 1968 to 1988. She chaired two legislative committees: Health and Welfare (1970–76) and Labor and Industry (1978–88). In an oral history interview by Betsy Brinson in 2000, Governor Breathitt remembered:
:Georgia Davis Powers was a great leader and a strong supporter of Dr. King and represented his views in Kentucky very effectively. She was later a member of the Kentucky State Senate, a very influential member from Louisville, and I would consider her one of the real heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in this state; and one of the most effective civil rights leaders in this state... She was effective in the Senate and in politics through the art of persuasion. She did not antagonize people. She was very strong in her positions, but she has a wonderful personality and people liked her. And she would get votes very effectively for the causes she believed in. She just was a vote getter and a great lobbyist and persistent, but a wonderful warm personality. Everybody was crazy about her.<ref>{{cite AV media |people=Betsy Brinson |title=Interview of Edward T. Breathitt |url=http://205.204.134.47/civil_rights_mvt/pop.aspx?type=1&asset=385 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424002252/http://205.204.134.47/civil_rights_mvt/pop.aspx?type=1&asset=385 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 24, 2012 |work=The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky |publisher=The Kentucky Historical Society |location=Lexington, Kentucky |date=February 24, 2000}}</ref>
In her autobiography, ''I Shared the Dream: The Pride, Passion, and Politics of the First Black Woman Senator from Kentucky'', Powers wrote that she had a personal relationship with Martin Luther King Jr. as a friend, trusted confidante, and lover.<ref name="Powers-1995" />{{Rp|145–162}}<ref name=Wilkerson >{{cite news | first = Isabel | last = Wilkerson | author-link = Isabel Wilkerson | title = Cries and Whispers | date = June 25, 1995 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/25/books/cries-and-whispers.html | work = The New York Times | access-date = September 30, 2017 | archive-date = October 1, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171001075251/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/25/books/cries-and-whispers.html | url-status = live}}</ref> She also wrote that she was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when King was assassinated in 1968,<ref name=Wilkerson/> although some of King's other associates questioned her account.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfltimes.com/news/civil-rights-leader-politician-and-alleged-mlk-mistress-dies |title=Civil Rights Leader, Politician and Alleged MLK Mistress Dies |date=February 4, 2016 |agency=Associated Press |work=South Florida Times |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-date=June 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170610232518/http://www.sfltimes.com/news/civil-rights-leader-politician-and-alleged-mlk-mistress-dies |url-status=live}}</ref> In ''The Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography'' King's closest aide and best friend Ralph Abernathy, referred to her (not by name) when he detailed who King had spent the remainder of the night and early morning with in the Lorraine Motel before his death. Abernathy wrote also that "their relationship was a close one."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abernathy |first=Ralph |title=And the walls came tumbling down : an autobiography |date=1989 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=0-06-016192-2 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=434–435 |oclc=19556544}}</ref>
After she retired from her seat in the Kentucky Senate in 1988, Powers remained committed to the continuing fight for equal rights and human dignity. In 1990, she created the Friends of Nursing Home Residents (FONHRI) to organize faith-based volunteerism in the Louisville area to serve as visitors to the local nursing homes. She also incorporated in 1994 an organization called QUEST (Quality Education for All Students) to monitor the work of the Jefferson County school board to halt the return to segregated schools.<ref name="Eblen" /><ref name="Powers-1995" />{{Rp|318–319}}
==Awards and honors== Powers was included in a national photographic exhibit that opened on February 8, 1989, at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.: ''Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America''. In 1989, Montgomery received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Kentucky and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Louisville.
==Death== Powers died on January 30, 2016, at the home of one of her brothers in Louisville, after suffering from congestive heart failure for several years.<ref name="Eblen" />
==Legacy== In 2010 the Kentucky Legislature, under House Joint Resolution 67, renamed the portion of I-264 that runs through the West End of Louisville from I-64 near the Indiana border to the junction with US 31W the Georgia Davis Powers Expressway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.governor.ky.gov/pressrelease.htm?PostingGUID={04FB462E-8497-439B-B12F-2D370A12954F} |title=Governor Beshear unveils new highway sign honoring Georgia Davis Powers |access-date=April 25, 2011 |date=June 16, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921004837/http://www.governor.ky.gov/pressrelease.htm?PostingGUID=%7B04FB462E-8497-439B-B12F-2D370A12954F%7D |archive-date=September 21, 2011}}</ref> The University of Kentucky endowed a chair in the name of Senator Powers as part of UK's Center for Research on Violence Against Women.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://uknow.uky.edu/content/uk-house-georgia-powers-collections-chair | title = UK to House Georgia Powers Collections, Chair | access-date = April 25, 2011 | last = Hale | first = Whitney | author2 = Erin Holaday | date = December 3, 2010 | work = UKnow | publisher = University of Kentucky | archive-date = May 13, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513092142/http://uknow.uky.edu/content/uk-house-georgia-powers-collections-chair | url-status = live}}</ref>
==Bibliography== * {{cite book | last= Onyekwuluje | first = Anne B. | title = Historical Influence: reading Georgia Powers as a grassroots civil rights leader in the rough business of Kentucky politics | publisher = Lexington Books | location = Lanham, Md. | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0-7391-5098-6}} * {{cite book | last = Powers | first = Georgia | title = I Shared the Dream: The pride, passion, and politics of the first Black woman senator from Kentucky | url = https://archive.org/details/ishareddreamprid00powe | url-access = registration | publisher = New Horizon Press | location = Far Hills, N.J | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-88282-127-X}} * {{cite book | title = I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America | url = https://archive.org/details/idreamworldportr00lank | url-access = registration |editor1= Barbara Summers |editor-link= Barbara Summers | publisher = Stewart Tabori & Chang | year = 1989 | location = New York, N.Y. | pages = [https://archive.org/details/idreamworldportr00lank/page/74 74–75] | isbn = 1-55670-092-X}} * {{cite web | url = http://9ways.gloriafeldt.com/2011/03/07/breaking-barriers-kentucky%E2%80%99s-first-female-african-american-senator-georgia-davis-powers/ | title = Breaking Barriers: Kentucky's First Female African American Senator, Georgia Davis Powers | access-date = April 25, 2011 | last = Groob | first = Kathy | date = March 7, 2011 | work = 9 Ways Blog | publisher = Gloria Feldt}} * {{cite web | url = http://www.ket.org/civilrights/bio_powers.htm | title = Georgia Davis Powers | access-date = April 25, 2011 | work = Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky | publisher = Kentucky Educational Television}} * {{cite news | first = Candyce | last = Clifft | title = Georgia Davis Powers | date = November 6, 2010 | publisher = Kentucky Educational Television | url = http://www.ket.org/cgi-bin/cheetah/watch_video.pl?nola=KLOUL+000503&altdir=&template= | work = Louisville Life, Program #503 | access-date = April 25, 2011}} * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120215230605/http://www.kywcrh.org/archives/tag/georgia-davis-powers Georgia Davis Powers]}} entries in ''History of Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era'', University of Kentucky. * {{cite journal | title = Review, I Shared the Dream: The Pride, Passion and Politics of the First Black Woman Senator from Kentucky | journal = Publishers Weekly | date = January 2, 1995| url = http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-88282-127-6 | access-date = July 4, 2011}}. * {{cite journal | title = Review, I Shared the Dream: The Pride, Passion and Politics of the First Black Woman Senator from Kentucky | journal = Kirkus Reviews | date = March 1, 1995| url = http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/non-fiction/georgia-davis-powers/i-shared-the-dream/#review | access-date = July 4, 2011}}. * {{cite news|title=Sen. Georgia Powers donates papers to UK |work=Kentucky Kernel |date=December 2, 2010 |first=Becca |last=Clemons |url=http://kykernel.com/2010/12/03/sen-georgia-powers-donates-papers-to-uk/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130127064552/http://kykernel.com/2010/12/03/sen-georgia-powers-donates-papers-to-uk/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |access-date=July 4, 2011}}.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * [https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt75hq3rxp7p Guide to the Georgia Davis Powers papers, 1949–2012, undated] housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
{{Kentucky Women Remembered|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powers, Georgia Davis}} Category:1923 births Category:2016 deaths Category:20th-century African-American politicians Category:20th-century African-American women politicians Category:20th-century American women politicians Category:20th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly Category:21st-century African-American women Category:African-American civil rights activists Category:African-American state legislators in Kentucky Category:African-American women activists Category:American civil rights activists Category:American women human rights activists Category:Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni Category:Democratic Party Kentucky state senators Category:People from Springfield, Kentucky Category:Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky Category:Simmons College of Kentucky alumni Category:Women state legislators in Kentucky Category:Writers from Kentucky