Celebrating the Life of the Late Robert L. Carter
WHEREAS, the Honorable Robert L. Carter, II was born on March 17, 1917 in Careyville, Florida, the youngest of nine children and raised in Newark, New Jersey; and
WHEREAS, upon graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Carter received degrees from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (1937), Howard University School of Law (1940) and Columbia University (1941); and
WHEREAS, after spending three years serving his nation in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Carter came to the NAACP as legal assistant to then-General Counsel Thurgood Marshall in 1944, and was then appointed to Assistant Special Counsel the following year; and
WHEREAS, Carter's legal prowess was shown most prominently as lead attorney in the NAACP's most pivotal school desegregation cases including Sweatt v. Painter and as the chief litigator and strategist for Brown v. Board of Education; and
WHEREAS, Carter succeeded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as General Counsel of the NAACP from 1956-1968, arguing and winning twenty five of his twenty-six cases before the United States Supreme Court; and
WHEREAS, Carter co-founded the National Conference of Black Lawyers in 1968 to "serve as the legal arm of the movement for Black Liberation... and to work in coalition to assist in ending oppression of all peoples"; and
WHEREAS, President Richard M. Nixon nominated and Carter was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1972, where he served until his death on January 3, 2012; and
WHEREAS, the NAACP bestowed upon Judge Carter its highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, in 2004, for his extraordinary service to his nation and people.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this 103'd National Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Houston, Texas sends its deepest condolences to the Carter family for their tremendous loss; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP celebrates the sacrifice and legacy of the late Honorable Robert L. Carter, and that a copy of this resolution will be given to his family as well as be placed in the archives of the NAACP.