Walter P. Carter

Walter P. Carter (April 29, 1923 - (July 31, 1971) was a civil rights activist and a central figure in Baltimore’s civil rights movement, organizing demonstrations against discrimination throughout Maryland. [cite web|url=http://www.gazette.net/stories/111006/polia%20s195126_31951.shtml|title=Line forms for Baltimore mayoral vacancy|last=Pietila|first=Antero |date=2006-11-10|publisher=Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./The Gazette|accessdate=2008-05-13] A hospital, an elementary school, a recreation center, a college library and a day care center in Baltimore are named for him.

Background

Carter was the seventh of nine children born to Carrie P. and Walter Carter Sr. in Monroe, North Carolina. [cite web|url=http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/recnparks/popups/rec_centers/walter_p_carter.htm|title=Carter Recreation Center|publisher=Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks|accessdate=2008-05-13]

ocial activist

Carter led voter registration drives in the South, was a World War II veteran who won five battle stars. He was also an organizer of the 1960 Freedom Rides to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a Maryland coordinator of the March on Washington in 1963, and the founder of the William L. Moore Foundation. He was a coordinator of the massive Federated Civil Rights Organization march to protest segregation in housing in 1965, and the chief architect of the Activists, Inc. [cite web|url=http://aomol.net/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000708/html/am708--1894.html|title=House Joint Resolution 29|date=1972-04-26|publisher=Maryland State Archives|accessdate=2008-05-13] In the late 1960's, Carter convinced the Community Chest, now known as the United Way of Central Maryland, to fund grass roots organizations with African American constituents, such as Echo House. [cite web|url=http://www.echo-house.org/history.htm. |title=History|publisher=Echo House|accessdate=2008-05-15] Carter protested segrated housing and poor living conditions that African Americans faced in Baltimore in the late 1950s and thru the 1960s. He organized protest marches, often taking the fight to the homes of the whites who owned the segregated housing. [cite web|url=http://www.btimes.com/news/media/pdfs/697.pdf.|title=Baltimore Civil Rights Veterans Contribute to MLK Legacy|last=Morgan|first=Ken|date=2006-01-19|publisher=The Baltimore Times|accessdate=2008-05-13]

Legacy

Carter died on July 31, 1971, as he was giving a report at the Union Baptist Church in Baltimore. The Walter P. Carter Mental Health Hospital was established in Baltimore in 1974 in Carter's honor. [cite web|url=http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/carter/html/welcome.htm|title=Walter P. Carter Center|publisher=Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene|accessdate=2008-05-13] There is also a day care center [cite web|url=http://resources.childhealthcare.org/details.do?id=11647|title=Walter P. Carter day Care Center|publisher=The Center for the Promotion of Child Development through Primary Care |accessdate=2008-05-13] , a public school [cite web|url=http://md.localschooldirectory.com/schools_info.php/school_id/37514|title=Walter P. Carter Elementary School|publisher=Local School Directory.|accessdate=2008-05-15] and a college library in Baltimore named for Carter. [cite web|url=http://www.sdc.edu/news/chronicles/sum06-vol7/30-year-anniversary.asp|title=A Man and a Library Share a 30-Year Anniversary|publisher=Sojourner-Douglass College|accessdate=2008-05-13] Every year, the children at the Walter P. Carter Elementary School participate in a "Walter P. Carter Day" program where they come up with different ways of celebrating his legacy.

Family

Carter's youngest daughter, Jill P. Carter, is an attorney and member of the Maryland House of Delegates and ran for the mayor's office in 2007. Carter's oldest daughter, Judith Lynn, is married to Baltimore City circuit court judge Sylvester B. Cox.

Notes