George William Gore, Jr., educator and administrator, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 11, 1901, to George W. Gore, Sr., and Emma (Hambrick) Gore. By 1910, however, 8-year-old George was living with Edward W. Byrdsong and his adopted daughter, Sarah Jones. Gore’s mother, Emma, had passed away in 1902 before he was barely a year old. His widowed father was thereafter not much apparent in the younger Gore’s life. 

Edward Byrdsong, who passed in 1929, left his stock in the People’s Bank and Trust Company to George Gore, Jr.

Gore attended DePauw University and was the Rector Scholarship’s first Black graduate and, as a member of the class of ’23, the first Black graduate of a U.S. school of journalism.

 After receiving a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism from DePauw, he earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Columbia. He joined the journalism faculty at Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College (later known as Tennessee State University) in his native Nashville. He spent 23 years there, serving as dean from 1928 to 1950.

 While at Tennessee A&I, he founded the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society on November 26, 1937. What began as distinct scholastic societies from five different college campuses merged to form the Federation of Honor Societies to promote and reward academic excellence among African American students. In 1939, the federation was renamed the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, which boasts 93,000 members across 79 chapters today. Gore served as its first executive secretary.

Gore was eventually lured away from Tennessee A&I by Florida A&M University, where he served as president from 1950 to 1968, FAMU’s second-longest-serving president. There, he oversaw the institution’s transition from Florida A&M College to Florida A&M University, expanding its enrollment, accreditation, academic offerings, and physical plant. Upon his retirement in 1968, he was named President Emeritus, and the Gore Education Complex at FAMU and the nearby street, Gore Avenue, were named for him. 

Returning to Nashville, he served as Visiting Professor and Lecturer at George Peabody College and Interim President of Fisk University. He also served as president of the American Teachers Association, president of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, president of the Association of College Honor Societies, and president of the Council of Florida Degree-Granting Institutions. Additionally, Gore was vice president of the National Education Association, vice chairman of NEA Defense of Democracy Through Education, and trustee of Florida Memorial College. He was a member of the board of Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company and chairman of the Council of Former Presidents of Black Colleges. He, likewise, was a member of the Southern Regional Education Board, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Collegiate Deans, the Executive Committee of the Conference of Negro Land Grant College Presidents, and chairman of the Florida Council of Negro College Presidents.

Dr. George Gore was editor of The Broadcaster, and his book, Negro Journalism: An Essay on the History and Present Conditions of the Negro Press, has been a seminal work on the role of the African American press in shaping race relations and advocating for civil rights in America.

He was a charter member of the Chi Boulé of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity in Nashville, Tennessee, a founder of the Alpha Zeta Boulé in Tallahassee, Florida. He served as Grand Sire Archon (president) from 1954 to 1956.

He was married to Pearl Mayo (Winrow) Gore for more than 52 years until his passing in 1982. She succeeded him in death in 1998.

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