James Montford

By ELLA BRADY, MANAN MENDIRATTA and HANSI ZHU

Staff Writers

Among a mass of swirling, interacting colors, several faces appear. Those memorialized by former Theater Instructor Cary Wendell in his mural of revolutionaries include Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi. Others, nameless, are depicted in various heroic acts—students confront members of the Ku Klux Klan on one end, while civil rights leaders march for voting rights on the other. Pictured also is James Montford, whose one-year term as the Adviser to Students of Color left an indelible mark on multiculturalism and anti-racist education at the Academy.

At Exeter, Montford relentlessly fought for increased racial education and awareness. Most notably, he went on a six-day hunger strike to demand formal recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day at the Academy. His efforts were documented in a front-page article in The Exonian’s Dec. 9, 1989 issue, entitled “Martin Luther King Day To Be Recognized: James Montford, Minority Adviser, Ends Six Day Fast. Monford’s Methods Questioned.”

Though The Exonian reported that “[Montford] sees himself as the facilitator of the movement, one to inspire rather than to create change,” his strike did both for Exeter. Exeter owes its MLK Day curriculum—a source of student learning and action—to his revolutionary act. 

Montford arrived at Exeter in 1989. Prior to his time at the Academy, Montford received a Master of Arts in Art and Education from Columbia University, a Master of Fine Arts from Hoffberger School of Painting and a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University. He was also a professor and admissions officer at the University of Connecticut. 

In his early days at the Academy, he was “constantly subjected to racism,” The Exonian reported, “primarily due to the long standing tradition of the Academy.” Flipping through the 1952 Exeter Song Book on his first day, Montford found “Old Black Joe” and “Carry Me Back to Old Virginie,” songs with racist depictions of Black people. 

The Exonian used racially charged language to describe this event. “[The songs had] tales of little d-rkies or bl-ckies, tales he felt directed at him through his race and signifying the school’s racist history.”

According to the paper, Montford was also “confronted with the town’s [Ku Klux Klan] ordeal.” The paper did not specify whether this “ordeal” was a specific incident or a general pattern of Klan activity, though it likely referred to the discovery that a Sheriff’s Office staffer was found to be a member of the Klan.

The prevalence of racism at the Academy led Montford to champion Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations. “Essentially,” The Exonian reported, “Montford wants to convey the critical importance of recognizing issues of diversity and taking a moment to contemplate what exactly Martin Luther King Day represents. He addresses all the various constituencies of the school, from the Board of Trustees to the janitors, asking each to examine their role in such a multicultural community an[d] if they in fact embrace such a community.”

To fight for such a day, Montford began his fast on Nov. 30, 1989, intending to strike for as long as necessary until a formal celebration was approved. 

For Montford, fasting was a non-aggressive approach to raising awareness of his cause and of racism at the Academy more generally. “People prefer not to deal with the real issues, members of an intellectual environment cleverly disguising their description of the situation by substituting ‘cultural insensitivity’ for ‘racism.’” 

“I’m not putting anyone up against a wall, but only hoping to make them aware of the fact that the issue of racism must be observed as a community and that they do what is right,” he continued. “I'm not making noise, but dealing with this from a personal point of view in an attempt to have others question for themselves what this is all about in light of the holiday.”

The Exonian added that “Montford wants the day to be recognized not just in respect of Martin Luther King, but more decisively to inspire everyone to think about who blacks are as a people.”

Montford’s fast lasted six days. Amid this period, he consumed only a liquid diet. 

During the second day of Montford’s strike, he spoke to then-Principal Kendra Stearns O’Donnell. At that point, O’Donnell would not commit to hosting a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. “Her response was that attempts should be made within the community to initiate discussion, and many individuals’ sentiments indicated the seriousness of recognizing the issue of racism and reaching a tangible outcome,” the paper reported.

The strike ended when Principal O’Donnell asked Montford to stop. At the same time, O’Donnell announced a plan for an Academy-wide day of recognition on Jan. 15. O’Donnell agreed to form a group to plan “a programmed day of active discussions geared toward diversity and multicultural awareness which asks people to examine their sentiments.” 

Despite O’Donnell’s ultimate agreement to his request, Montford’s fast provoked controversy among students and faculty. Many criticized his methods, with The Exonian reporting that “many students and faculty alike did not agree with Montford’s fasting as a way to address the issue of diversity and multicultural relations on campus.” O’Donnell herself was reported by The Exonian to feel “hurt and angry” that Montford had not communicated with her before his fast. 

Still, O’Donnell expressed an “eager[ness] to aid in the planning for the day.” A petition she worked on with Andre Jackson ’90, then-Vice President of the Afro-Exonian Society, had shown overwhelming support for formal recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

In Jan. the next year, the Academy hosted its first official Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which included a memorial service for King and eight workshops on civil rights. The workshops educated students through lectures, films, discussions and assemblies. Students across the board praised the schedule of events for its organization and mind-openingness. “Being exposed to the different speakers and presentations, we saw and learned about things that we can't always read about,” Paulina Jerez ’91 told The Exonian at the time. 

Others held reservations. “Even though I thought the day was great, I thought it would have been more beneficial for the Exeter community to discuss more current racial issues in the discussions,” Jen Saija ’91 said.

Over the next decade, however, Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a highly customizable and personal sequence of workshops in line with Montford’s vision. Activities celebrated the greater idea of diversity, rather than just the life of King himself. According to Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee member and Math Instructor Joyce Kemp ’89 (Hon.), workshops became more interactive and the speakers more diverse. 

Though Montford left the Academy the year after his fast, his mission persisted: to strengthen education on multiculturalism for students at Exeter.

On the twentieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, English Instructor Mercy Carbonell ’96 (Hon.) and her late partner, former English Instructor Christine Robinson ’83 (Hon.), wrote in The Exeter Bulletin that, “from modest beginnings, MLK Day has become part of Exeter’s tradition, part of Exeter’s curriculum. And curriculum is an essential word, for students and faculty become engaged in serious work, intellectually and emotionally, in small discussion groups, in lecture halls, in the theater, in the Assembly Hall, in Phillips Church. The campus becomes a classroom, and the text becomes the stories of peoples’ search for justice and equality and peace.”

Montford’s contributions to that education at the Academy did not stop at MLK Day. Prior to his fast, in Oct. of 1989, Montford organized a boycott of the Drama Department’s musical production, Little Shop of Horrors, a classic American musical by Howard Ashman. Montford took issue with the show’s man-eating plant, Audrey II, which he described to The Exonian in the Oct. 28, 1989 issue as a “street smart, funky conniving villain”: a “rhythm and blues answer to Richard the Third.” 

Montford explained that Audrey II would lose its meaning unless played by a Black voice. The plant’s villainy, he argued, hinged upon negative stereotypes associated with the Black voice—while satirical, it unconsciously reinforced racist assumptions about Black people.

Aiming to have the audience recognize and conquer the stereotypes in the play, Montford personally boycotted the production and distributed pamphlets explaining his views. This passive, expository approach to race education was the essence of Montford’s teaching philosophy: revealing the root of the issue and allowing students to consider it for themselves. “Take what I say,” he said, “and make light of it or use it to deal with the larger theme, which to me concerns how in our society we invent stereotypes and subjugate people.”

To further educate students, Montford invited such speakers to campus as Nathan Rutstein, author of several books on racism, who presented on the history of racism in the United States. These speeches, along with his personal efforts, initiated a culture of awareness that continues to further social justice on campus.

Montford’s actions inspired subsequent Exonians to fight for cultural and racial awareness. In 2011, when the Academy Dining Halls celebrated the Lunar New Year using exclusively Chinese decorations, Asian students at Exeter were inspired by Montford’s activism to speak out.

In an opinion in The Exonian, Hoony Lee ‘13 wrote, “After [James Montford’s fast], the Academy claims that it has changed. But I don’t believe that. On the exterior, Exeter seems to have worked to acknowledge the varying cultures, ethnicities and nationalities of its student body. But, if you think about it deeply, we’re not so different than we were in the days of James Montford. Exeter is still pretending to be serious about ethnicity.” 

Nearly nine years later, Montford’s strike was again invoked in defense of a student protest. In the aftermath of a Halloween costume controversy, student leaders in La Allianza Latina staged a protest over the Academy’s treatment of Latinx people. Writing about the protest in an opinion for The Exonian entitled “Imagine PEA Without Protest,” then-Dean of Multicultural Affairs Sami Atif wrote, “Exeter observed MLK day only after a faculty member went on hunger strike… Let’s imagine PEA without protest. In all seriousness, what would be left?”

Montford’s short time at the Academy was marked by a commitment to multiculturalism still felt today. “By 2010 one third of the United States will be inhabited by people of color,” he told The Exonian. “This must be faced and we must find out where we are heading in terms of education upon multiculturalism.” Although that year has come and gone, Montford’s legacy persists in the growing number of multicultural course offerings, the annual MLK Day workshops and in all students still fighting for social justice at Exeter today.

In Montford’s words, “You can do all the groundwork you want to do, but to make people move, you sometimes need one human act of rebellion.”