Mae Bertha Carter

Mae Bertha Carter (January 13, 1923 – April 28, 1999) was a figure of the 20th century African-American Civil Rights Movement figure from Drew, Mississippi.[1]

Carter was born on January 13, 1923 in Sunflower County, Mississippi. In Sunflower County she enrolled 7 of her 13 children in schools previously reserved for Whites in the fall of 1965. She continued to keep her children in the schools even though an entity fired bullets into their house, and even though her landlord evicted her and her family. Carter and Marian Wright Edelman, a lawyer who worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., sued the Drew School District to challenge the Mississippi "freedom of choice" law. In 1969 the plaintiffs won the suit.[2] In 1969 a court order ended the segregation system in the Drew School District. All seven of her children graduated from the previously all-White Drew High School.[3] She died in her home in Drew on April 28, 1999.[2]

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Notes

  1. ↑ Moye, J. Todd. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986. University of North Carolina Press, November 29, 2004. 28. Retrieved from Google Books on February 26, 2012. ISBN 0-8078-5561-8, 9780807855614.
  2. 1 2 Ravo, Nick. "Mae Bertha Carter, 76, Mother Who Defied Segregation Law." The New York Times. May 6, 1999. Retrieved on March 30, 2012.
  3. ↑ Glisson, p. 224
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