Robert L. Carter was born in Careyville, Florida, March 11, 1917 but his family
moved to New Jersey shortly after his birth. After graduating magna cum laude
in 1937 from Lincoln University, Mr. Carter studied at Howard University School
of Law from which he also graduated magna cum laude in 1940. In 1941, Mr. Carter
received a masters degree in law from Columbia University.After receiving his
law degrees, but before embarking on his professional career as an attorney, Judge
Carter served in the United States Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant from
1941 to 1944. In 1944, he was hired as a Legal Assistant for the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (the "NAACP"). In 1945, Judge
Carter became the Assistant Special Counsel for the NAACP, and later, its General
Counsel in 1956.
While counsel for the NAACP from the years 1944 to 1968, Judge Carter argued
and won twenty-one of twenty-two cases in the United States Supreme Court including
a number of cases of enormous social significance. Among those cases was Brown
v. Board of Education, the celebrated case outlawing segregation in the nation's
public schools. Significantly, in that case, Judge Carter secured the pivotal
involvement of social scientists who provided evidence on segregation's devastating
effects on the psyches of black children. Judge Carter's other cases of note include
NAACP v. Alabama and NAACP v. Button which accorded first amendment protection
(freedom of association and freedom of political advocacy) to civil rights groups;
Baker v. Carr, which established the one man one vote principal which governs
the nation's voting rights litigation to this day; and South Carolina Electric
& Gas v. Fleming, which outlawed segregation in intrastate transportation.
While on leave from the NAACP, Judge Carter served as the Director of Veteran
Affairs for the American Veterans Committee (1948-1949). Also, in 1962, he served
as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New
York.
In 1968, Judge Carter resigned as NAACP General Counsel and became a Fellow in
Urban Studies at Columbia University. In 1969, he joined the law firm of Poletti,
Freidin, Prashker, Feldman & Gartner as a senior partner, specializing in
the representation of management in labor disputes and other commercial legal
problems. Thereafter, in July 25, 1972, Judge Carter was appointed by President
Richard M. Nixon to the United States Court for the Southern District of New York,
where he became a senior judge December 31,1986.
Throughout his legal career, Judge Carter has been involved in a wide variety
of public, scholarly and community activities. He has served as an Adjunct Professor
at New York University Law School, Yale University and University of Michigan
Law School; Regents Lecturer at the University of California (Los Angeles) in
1969, and as a member of the United States delegation to the United Nation's Conference
on Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in Stockholm, Sweden in 1965. In addition,
Judge Carter was a delegate to the World Assembly on Human Rights in Montreal
in 1968; a member of the American delegation to UNESCO Conference in Addis Abba
in 1971; a member of the New York State Special Commission on Attica which investigated
the causes of the prison riots in the state's prison from 1971 to 1972; a member
of the New York City Mayor's Judiciary Committee: an Urban Fellow at Columbia
University; and a Shikes Fellow at Harvard University in 1991. In light of his
many achievements, Judge Carter received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate
Achievement from Howard University. He holds honorary degrees from a number of
prestigious institutions including Northeastern University, College of the Holy
Cross, and Howard University School of Law. Also, in 1995, he was awarded the
Federal Bar Council's Emory Bucknor Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
Judge Carter has lectured in Europe, Africa and the U.S., and his writings have
been published in the Harvard, New York University, University of Michigan and
Washington University Law Reviews, Humanist, Saturday Review and the Op Ed page
of the Washington Post, among other publications. Judge Carter has also served
on the boards of a wide variety of social organizations such as the Northside
Center for Child Development, National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing,
and American Civil Liberties Union, to name just a few.
