Friends Remember Pioneer Judge's 'Quiet Determination'

Judge Horace Ward of Georgia died on Saturday, April 23 at the age of 88. 

Ward graduated with honors from Morehouse College and then got a master's degree from Atlanta University. Those are both historically black institutions. When he applied to the School of Law at the University of Georgia in 1950, he was refused because of his race.  The Board of Regents offered to help him go to school in another state. But Ward insisted he wanted to study at UGA. Ward's case was thrown out seven years later and he went to Northwestern University in Illinois where he earned his law degree. 

Ward also served in the state senate for nine years. And in 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the U.S. District Court, making Ward the first African-American to sit on a federal bench in Georgia. And it's said that he never stopped helping others get opportunities and education.

Press play to hear friends and mentees of Horace Ward remember him, including Atlanta Civil Rights activist Lonnie King.

"Horace Ward was a quiet kind of individual but he had a complete resolve in his being, in his soul to rid segregation and discrimination from the face of the earth in Georgia and in the South." -Lonnie King, Civil Rights leader and friend of Ward

Funeral services for Horace Ward will be held on Tuesday, May 3 at 11 a.m. at M.L. King International Chapel on the campus of Morehouse College.