Vertie L. Carter, EdD: Educator & Advocate

Vertie L. Carter, EdD: Educator & Advocate

Born into a sharecropping family in 1923, Vertie L. Carter grew up in a two-room shack on a plantation in the Antioch community in Hempstead County. After earning a bachelor’s degree from AM& N College, she attended classes in Little Rock to earn a master’s in education from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, because Blacks were not permitted on the Fayetteville campus. She received her doctoral degree from the University of North Texas in Denton. While working at Philander Smith College in Little Rock she established a Teacher Education Laboratory with personal funds and led the college to receive its accreditations. Dr. Carter was appointed by three governors to serve on the Arkansas Merit System Council to monitor equal employment opportunity (EEO) in state jobs; she was the first African American, first woman, and first educator to serve on the council and chaired the council for seven years. During this time, she wrote a book called How to Get a Career Job and held seminars to help people apply for and test for state jobs. After pointing out that there were no black members of the Oral Review Board, she selected two to serve on the board. Dr. Carter also served as second vice president of the International Personnel Management Association and vice president of the advisory committee on affirmative action.