Mary Booze

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze

| image = Mary Montgomery Booze.png

| caption = Booze (c. 1920)

| birth_name = Mary Cordelia Montgomery

| birth_date = {{birth date text|March 1878}}{{cite United States census | url =https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7602/4119864_00809/27565477?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/17631583/person/432190831984/facts/citation/1162257892551/edit/record | title =Twelfth Census of the United States | year =1900 | location =Bolivar County, Mississippi | roll = | page =1A | line =22 | enumdist =9 | filmnum = | nafilm = | url-access=subscription| accessdate =17 May 2020 }}

| birth_place = Davis Bend, Mississippi, U.S.{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/9278/43006_162028006056_0133-00187/1523246?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/17631583/person/432190831984/facts/citation/1162257909284/edit/record|title=Certificate of Death/Commonwealth of Virginia|author= |date=23 May 1955 |website=Ancestry.com |publisher=Generations Network|url-access=subscription|access-date=9 May 2020 |quote=}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1955|5|17|1878|3|31}}

| death_place = Hampton, Virginia, U.S.

| alma_mater = Straight University

| known_for = First African-American woman to sit on the Republican National Committee

| education =

| employer =

| occupation = Businesswoman, political organizer, teacher at Mound Bayou Normal Institute, activist

| height =

| term =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| party = Republican

| spouse = {{marriage|Eugene P. Booze|1901|1939|reason=his death}}

| children = 2

| parents = Isaiah T. Montgomery (father)

| relatives = Ben Montgomery (paternal grandfather),
William Thornton Montgomery (paternal uncle)

}}

Mary Cordelia Montgomery Booze (née Mary Cordelia Montgomery; March 1878 – May 17, 1955) was an American political organizer, teacher, businessperson, and activist. The daughter of former slaves, she was one of the first African-American women to sit on the Republican National Committee. From 1924 until her death, she was the national committeewoman for her native state of Mississippi.

Biography

Mary Cordelia Montgomery was born in 1878 at Brierfield Plantation to Isaiah Thornton Montgomery and Martha Robb Montgomery, former slaves of Joseph Emory Davis, brother of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. She was named for her maternal grandmother Mary Virginia Lewis Montgomery, wife of inventor Benjamin Montgomery.{{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}} Montgomery grew up in the Mississippi Delta.

In 1924, Booze became a member of the Republican National Committee; she was one of the first African-American women to do so along with Mary Miller Williams of Georgia. She became a subject of innuendo in fierce state politics during the 1928 presidential campaign that year.{{cite web |title=Theodore G. Bilbo of Mississippi |url=http://www.applet-magic.com/bilbo.htm |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016070711/http://www.applet-magic.com/bilbo.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2017 |access-date=July 28, 2015 |publisher=San Jose State University |location=San Jose, California}}{{clarification needed|date=December 2022}}

On August 10, 1927, Mary and her husband, Eugene P. Booze were arrested and charged with the murder of her father, Isaiah Montgomery. Montgomery who had founded Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and died in 1924. When the couple was charged, it was believed Montgomery had been murdered by poisoning, although at the time of his death it was thought his passing was due to natural causes. Supporters of the couple were immediately skeptical of the charges and "further expressed the opinion that Mr. and Mrs. Booze are the victims of a frame-up designed to reflect discredit upon Mrs. Booze as National Republican Committee-woman".{{cite news |date=August 11, 1927 |title=Eugene Booze And Wife Arrested Charged With Murdering Isaiah T. Montgomery |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-black-dispatch-eugene-booze-and-wife/143608083/ |access-date=September 26, 2023 |website=The Black Dispatch |publisher= |pages=6 |publication-place=Oklahoma City |via=Newspapers.com}}