3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

governor of North Carolina refused to stay the sentence. Montgomery died in the gas
chamber. ie
His family wanted to bring him home for burial, but the chief of police visited the
black undertaker and told him there would be trouble if anyone tried to bury
Montgomery, especially in his Army uniform, in Monroe . Local whites, the police chief
said, would not stand for it. Black veterans learned of the threat and complained loudly.
Montgomery had won medals for bravery while the chief of police had stayed home
during the war, they pointed out . The veterans, Williams included, felt Montgomery had
paid society's debt for killing another man and deserved a decent burial . They vowed to
support the undertaker and the family.~9
As the undertaker retrieved Montgomery's body at the state prison and prepared it
for burial in his medal-bedecked uniform, the vets organized armed patrols to guard the
funeral parlor and patrol the black neighborhood . Many black veterans owned souvenir
guns--war trophies such as the German-made, 9-mm Luger pistol Williams himself
acquired in Detroit in 1948--for which ammunition was readily available . "I have come
here as a concerned citizen to warn you against permitting any attempt to interfere with
the burial of Benny Montgomery," a black preacher warned the police chief. `"fhe black
veterans have amid themselves and are walking the streets ready to kill ."~°
~ aCohen, Black Cnrsader, 46-47 .
~~id .
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