Vernon Ernest Carter (August 3, 1919 - August 21, 2007)[3] was an American Lutheran minister and civil rights activist. He is best known for his 114-day protest against de facto segregation in Boston's public schools, during which he spent 108 days living on the sidewalk outside the Boston School Committee Headquarters, which ultimately resulted in the passing of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act and the beginning of desegregation busing in Massachusetts.
Carter experienced a spiritual awakening at the age of 15 during a revival service in New Bedford, after which he began preaching but long before he was ordained. His mother supported her three children by cleaning the home of a wealthy family and cleaning at a local YWCA. Vernon's father had abandoned the family.[2]
In 1956, Carter became pastor of the All Saints Lutheran Church, located on West Newton Street in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, which he served until 1979.[6] The church was later converted into the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, and a community center used by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción before being demolished in 2020/21 due to structural issues.[7]
Civil rights movement
Vernon Carter (second from right) marching alongside Martin Luther King (first on left) in Boston, April 1965
Carter was involved in civil rights activism long before the movement of the 1960s. In August 1942, Carter was heading a campaign consisting of both Black and White citizens against employment discrimination, securing a promise from the General Electric Company in West Lynn, Massachusetts that Black women would be hired upon passing required tests. The acting mayor, Arthur J. Frawley, expressed his support for the group and declared that "prejudices should be banished by all persons, that we may go forward as a strong, united nation".[8]
Carter was a follower of Martin Luther King's philosophy of non-violence and considered King his idol, keeping a picture of him on his desk in the All Saints Church.[2]
In 1963, Carter spoke to demonstrators at a protest against inaction by the Justice Department after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, a terrorist attack carried out by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, Alabama which killed 4 Black children.[9] Speaking to picketers outside the federal building on the day after the bombing, Carter stressed the need for active participation by the federal government.[10]
Carter participated in the Boston school boycott of 1964, which had been declared illegal by attorney general Edward W. Brooke. Carter said that if truant officers tried to enter a "freedom school" held at his church, "they would have to move me physically". The boycott was supported by the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, who argued that "there is no valid legal or constitutional objection to a peaceful school stay out". Other participants in the boycott included comedian Dick Gregory, who had taken part in civil rights demonstrations across the country, as well as other church ministers including Virgil Wood.[11]
Freedom Vigil
Flyer advertising Carter's "Freedom Vigil" in 1965. Freedom's Journal was the name of the first African-American newspaper in the United States, published between 1827 and 1829.
In the summer of 1965, Vernon Carter held a vigil on the sidewalk outside of Boston's School Committee Headquarters at 15 Beacon Street, in a protest against continued de facto segregation in Boston's public schools.[12] Carter vowed to remain on the sidewalk until the Boston School Committee agreed to meet with Black leaders and parents to discuss the racial imbalance in schools.[13] The protest began after the Boston School Committee voted 3 to 2 - without a hearing - to reject grievances brought to them by the NAACP regarding racial imbalance in Boston's public schools. Carter's "Freedom Vigil" began two days later on April 28, 1965.[2]
Initial reactions from the police and passers-by were mostly negative, but gradually became less hostile as the vigil progressed.[14] At one point during the vigil he was accosted by Jozef Mlot-Mroz, a prolific anti-communist activist and opponent of racial integration, who was fined $25 for assaulting Carter.[15]
15 Beacon Street, which housed the Boston School Committee, was the site of Carter's "Freedom Vigil" (pictured in 2012)
Shortly after the vigil began, a van was donated by a local chapter of the NAACP to provide Carter with a place to sleep while remaining outside the School Committee Headquarters. He had access to a shower at a nearby Paulist chapel, and shaved inside the School Committee building. Supporters brought him sandwiches and coffee for lunch, and in the evenings his dinner tab at the Parker House Hotel was covered by a Jewish philanthropist. He would spend up to 11 hours a day circling the pavement in front of the Committee building, carrying a hand-painted sign over his shoulders, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by hundreds of others.[2][12] Carter's protest vigil led Phyllis M. Ryan, who was acting as Carter's press secretary, to refer to him as "the pastor who lives on the sidewalk" after the first week of his protest.[16]
In early June, Martin Luther King Jr. sent a message of support to Carter, telling him that "Your vigil in behalf of truth shines forth from Beacon Street into the dark ghettos of American life encouraging thousands of your brothers" and that "Your sacrifice may well be the wedge which crumbles the wall of de facto segregation in Boston Schools".[18] 42 days into the vigil, Carter was hospitalized for chest pains, but returned to the picket line immediately after being released from hospital.[5]
In July, Carter told the Christian Science Monitor "I simply did this as an American citizen and as a parent, and I also did this as a Christian who believed that the minds of people, or the hearts of people, must be changed in order to effect a solution for this problem." In August he spoke to the Boston Herald, and said "It doesn't take large numbers of men to do big things. There were 12 disciples. One man can save a city. I didn't have any idea this would last 100 days, but I knew that men can't call time on God's will, and I told my wife that if I put on a sign and began walking, I'd go all the way."[2] Carter had vowed to continue the vigil through the winter, telling a reporter "if that's what it takes, that's what I'm going to do".[12]
Carter's vigil ended on August 18, 1965, 114 days after the initial school committee vote which had prompted the start of the protest, when Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe signed the Racial Imbalance Act into law. This law mandated desegregation measures in schools with at least 50% of students from minority backgrounds, and Carter was given the pen that governor Volpe used to sign the bill into law.[14][12] Excluding the initial two days before the start of his vigil and his brief hospitalization in June, Carter had spent a total of 108 days living on the sidewalk outside the school committee building, and upon ending the vigil he was immediately hospitalized for exhaustion and exposure.[19] Former Massachusetts secretary of education Paul Parks later said that Carter had "played a significant role" and that "his camping out beside the School Committee building and parading out there 24 hours a day led to the passage of the bill".[2] In 1985, 20 years after his freedom vigil, Carter was awarded a citation by the Boston School Committee for his efforts to desegregate schools.[5][6]
Later activism
In response to rioting in June 1967 which affected the Roxbury area of Boston, Carter urged residents of the inner city and suburbs to join him in a "peace vigil" to "make our communities a safe haven of healthy citizenship".[20]
In 1975, Carter spoke at the Student Conference Against Racism at Boston University, where he depicted the city of Boston as a "hunched over, drooling Neanderthal", declaring that "This city isn't going anywhere until Caucasians cease pseudo-scientifically classifying Blacks into inferior categories".[21]
During Nelson Mandela's visit to Boston in 1990, church bells sounded at 11am to mark his visit, as a result of a campaign by Vernon Carter to welcome the South African activist to the city.[22]
Carter also worked with Ethiopian refugees, as well as others who like himself were of Black and Native American ancestry. He helped to establish "Heritage Circle", a program which helped Black people of part Native American ancestry to establish their heritage.[2]
Personal life and death
Vernon Carter was a man of short stature, standing at approximately 5ft (1.52 m) tall.[14] He was known as "Little Arrow" to his family and those in the Native American community.
In 1943 he married Arlene Mae Anderson, whom he had met while preaching at his first pastorate in Lynn, Massachusetts, and they were married for 22 years before separating. The couple reconciled in the final months of Vernon's life.[2]
Vernon Carter died from cancer on August 21, 2007 at the age of 88 in Williston, Vermont.[23] His funeral was held in Bethel AME Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[2] He was survived by his 2 daughters, 7 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, and predeceased by his brother Earle M. Carter Sr.[6] His former wife Arlene Mae Carter died on August 10, 2024 at the age of 97.[24] Vernon and Arlene Carter are memorialized as "Heroes of Boston" in the 1965 Freedom Plaza surrounding The Embrace, a sculpture on Boston Common.[25]
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