On August 12, 1965, the children of Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter enrolled in school in Drew, Mississippi, in Sunflower County. This would be a common occurrence today, marked by new school clothes, supplies, and perhaps a sack lunch. But in 1965, the Carter children integrated Sunflower schools and what is now a routine fall tradition became instead a testament to the courage and determination of the Carter family to secure equal education for their children.

Mae Bertha Carter believed in the importance of education. In an interview in March 1999, she described the connection between education and politics: "The first thing is education. If you ain't got no education these whites folks can tell you anything and you believe it. What education do, it make you think for yourself. Education is the most important thing there is, I don't care what nobody say. That's the truth. At least you can read the ballot for yourself and know how to vote for yourself." Carter believed so strongly in education that she sent 10 of her children to previously all-white schools, where they suffered intimidation and abuse. The family lost their home on a cotton plantation, where they sharecropped 25 acres and suffered threats of violence. And yet they refused to withdraw from the white schools. Assistance from the American Friends Service Committee and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) allowed the Carters to continue their struggle for a better education for their children.

Ultimately, the Carter family persevered. Seven of the Carter children graduated from the University of Mississippi, an achievement unequaled in any other family. On April 28, 1999, Mae Bertha Carter passed away, after a long bout with cancer. Constance Curry, who documented her important civil rights struggle in the Mississippi Delta in Silver Rights, joined the Carter family and students from across the state on October 2, to honor Mae Bertha Carter and her children on the campus of the University. Part of a Statewide Student Summit on Race, the event took place in the Circle in front of the Lyceum and included planting a tree as a living tribute to Carter and erecting a plaque in her memory. Her courage and fortitude were inspiring; her legacy in the struggle for freedom is unmatched. As she said in March, "I know I won't be here a thousand years--I may not be here one year but ain't nobody going back to slavery. And if that be what they think they can forget it. They crazy. All the slave people who say yessir and yessir and yessir are dead. Ain't gon be no more slaves." Carter and her family insured that freedom for generations to come.

Susan Glisson

Photograph by Ann Curry