Civil War Veteran & Farmer: Amos King

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring a series about Black Fulton County residents throughout history. This is the final installment in this four-part series.

The Civil War was America’s bloodiest conflict. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. An estimated total of 620,000 men – or about 2% of the population at the time – died as a result of battle or disease. The American Battlefield Trust states that the number of Civil War dead were not equaled by the combined toll of other American conflicts until Vietnam.

The Confiscation Act of 1862 was meant to free enslaved people whose enslavers were in rebellion against the United States, and the Militia Act, passed the same year, empowered the president to use formerly enslaved people in any capacity within the Union Army. President Lincoln expressed concerns about this, worrying over public opinion in the four border states that remained with the Union but still supported slavery; these were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Lincoln was also worried about northern Democrats, who supported the war but not abolition. But with the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that all enslaved people in rebellious states would be freed as of January 1, 1863, the recruitment of Black regiments began in earnest.

The Bureau of Colored Troops was formed to facilitate recruitment for what was called the United States Colored Troops (USCT). The USCT also included soldiers from other backgrounds, including Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans. The USCT was only active for the last two years of the war, but by 1865 the 175 regiments constituted one-tenth of the man power of the Union Army, or about 178,000 individuals. About 20% of these soldiers died, a rate about 35% higher than that of white Union troops. Disease caused the most fatalities for both Black and white soldiers. Black New Yorkers constituted 4,125 of these soldiers. However, they faced some difficulties in enlisting due to the racist beliefs held by NY Gov. Horatio Seymour, who did whatever he could to impede the creation of the troops and enlistment of Black soldiers. Prior to the formation of the USCT, volunteer regiments of free Blacks had already been formed. Nearly all of these were converted to regular units. Possibly the most well-known of these units is the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, thanks in part to the 1989 film Glory, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman.

Although allowed to enlist in the Union Army, Black soldiers still faced discrimination and far worse treatment at the hands of Confederate soldiers. Black soldiers received less pay than their white counterparts at first, but they successfully lobbied for equal pay. Rank advancement was limited for Black soldiers, and the USCT were led by white Union officers. Black veterans received no formal recognition for combat honors until after the turn of the 20^th century.

The Confederate states passed a law stating that Black men captured in uniform would be tried as slave insurrectionists, a capital offense with an automatic death sentence. However, more often than not, Black prisoners of war were murdered by their captors with no trial. Black POWs suffered extra violence at the hands of Confederate troops, and the policies they enacted broke down prisoner exchange protocol between the Confederacy and the Union. Their abhorrent mistreatment and murder of Black prisoners was a direct violation of the US Government’s Liber Code, which objected to mistreatment of POWs based on ethnicity. Black soldiers were often victims of battlefield massacres and atrocities, most notably at Fort Pillow in Tennessee, Battle of the Crater in Virginia, and Battle of Olustee in Florida. The USCT disbanded in the fall of 1865.

Amos King was not born in Fulton County. He first appears on the census for Caroga in 1860, but the Kings and two other Black families had traveled from Dutchess County and settled in the area in the early 1850s, the others being the Millett and Leonard families. An 1851 map shows that Leonard, Millett, and King were all living on lots close to one another in North Bush. They were farmers and farm laborers. In her book Blacks in the Adirondacks: A History, Sally Svenson notes that the population of Caroga was only about 625 when the group from Dutchess County arrived.

Detail from an 1856 map of Fulton County; properties of King, Millett, and Leonard are circled.

In May 1863, Amos King enlisted in the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. At 43 years old, he was one of the oldest recruits. King was assigned to Company G and so saw action at many of the major battles that the 54^th participated in.

Kurz & Allison. Storming Fort Wagner. South Carolina United States Fort Wagner Morris Island, ca. 1890. LC-DIG-pga-01949.

The Second Battle of Fort Wagner was fought on July 18, 1863, an unsuccessful assault on the fort protecting Morris Island near Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. The approach to the fort was a 60-yard-wide strip of beach with the ocean on one side and a marsh on the other. The 54^th, under command of Capt. Robert Gould Shaw, led the Union charge at dusk, backed by two brigades composed of nine regiments. The 54^th was about 150 yards from the fort when cannon and direct fire tore through their ranks. The men managed to reach the parapet, but were eventually forced back. By 10pm, the fighting was done and the Union had suffered heavy losses, including Shaw. The Union dead totaled about 1,515, while the Confederates lost 174. Only 315 men from the 54^th Mass survived: 30 were killed in action, 24 later died of injuries, 15 were captured, and 52 were reported missing and never seen again. Amos King survived, physically uninjured.

In February of 1864, King found himself in Florida. Union General Truman Seymour landed troops at Jacksonville with an aim to disrupt Confederate food supplies. When he met little resistance, Seymour marched toward the capital of Tallahassee, against orders, assuming he would face only the small state militia. But Confederate reinforcements were sent from Charleston and the armies collided near Ocean Pond in Olustee on the 20th. The Union forces were repulsed and retreated toward Jacksonville. Confederate Brig. Gen. Joseph Finegan didn’t exploit the retreat, allowing most of the Union forces to reach Jacksonville, but the Confederates did attempt to engage the rear element of Seymour’s forces. They were repelled by members of the 54^th Mass and the 35^th USCT. Two days later, the 54^th was ordered to countermarch back to Ten-Mile Station, where a train carrying Union wounded had broken down and was in danger of being captured. The men of the 54^th attached ropes to the cars and pulled the train to Camp Finegan, about three miles away, where they secured horses. Both men and horses pulled the train the remaining way to Jacksonville – a total distance of about ten miles that took 42 hours. In King’s discharge papers, a note remarked: “At Olustee, he conducted himself with great bravery.”

The Union numbers of killed, injured, and missing totaled 1,861 men, or about 34% of the troops there, while the Confederate Army’s losses totaled 946, still 19% of their force. The ratio of Union causalities to troops involved made Olustee the second bloodiest battle in the war. Finegan received criticism for not pursuing the retreating Union forces, instead focusing on the wounded and retreating Black troops. Many of the wounded and captured Black soldiers were executed.

Battle of Olustee (battleofolustee.org)

Writing in 1901, William F. Pennington, a Confederate soldier who was at Olustee, recalled his activities during the war. As darkness fell that first day, he heard shooting that sounded almost like skirmishers and asked another soldier what the shooting was about. He answered that his men were killing Black soldiers: “I have tried to make the boys desist but I can’t control them.” The next morning, Pennington returned to the field and saw the results of the night before. He wrote: “Negroes, and plenty of them, whom I had seen lying all over the field wounded, and as far as I could see, many of them moving around from place to place, now without a motion, all were dead. If a negro had a shot in the shin, another was sure to be in the head.”

Though King survived the war, three of the four other Black men who enlisted from Caroga did not, including Charles and George Leonard (20 and 22 years old, respectively) and Joseph King, the 16-year-old son of Amos and his first wife, Marie. Amos returned to Caroga and in October 1865 he purchased a farm with his soldier’s wages and bounty from joining the 54^th. He married for the second time in 1872, a woman named Carrie Hagamore, and the couple had another son, also named Joseph.

In 1900 the family is listed as living on East Ave. in Johnstown. At age 82, King was still working as a farm laborer. That same year, Rev. Charles A. Smith of Auburn presented a talk called “A Brave Black Regiment,” about the 54^th Mass, at the AME Zion Church. From the Daily Leader: “In the audience sat an old man 80 years of age. He leaned forward to catch every word of the speaker, and after the lecture he grasped the speaker by the hand and said he could witness all that was said, for he had participated in the battle. It was Amos King of Johnstown. They had not met since they parted after the war. Two of the members of his regiment were present whom he had not met since they were discharged, more than thirty-five years ago.”

Amos King died on October 10, 1908, in the home of his son Joseph in Amsterdam. King had been ill for some time. When Joseph checked in on his father at 3:30 that morning, he was living, but when he went into the room at 5:00 he discovered his father had passed away in his sleep. The cause of death was given as heart disease. Amos was 89 years old. He is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam, in the Civil War Circle.

In the North Bush Cemetery in Caroga, many of these other early Black residents are buried, most in unmarked graves. In 1996, the town arranged to have a monument purchased in memory of these early residents, and a ceremony was held to commemorate the installation.

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The Fulton County Negro Action Committee

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring a series about Black Fulton County residents throughout history. This is the third installment in this four-part series.

The Fulton County Negro Action Committee (FULNAC) was established in 1969 as a non-profit with the mission to “promote mutual interest among the members of the black community and the cultural, political, educational, and social aspects” of the Black community in Fulton County. The organization, chartered by NYS in 1970, worked to eliminate housing, employment, and educational biases in the county through the work of its various committees, public meetings, and programs. One of the most important aspects of FULNAC’s work was offering sickle cell anemia clinics. The inherited disorder is more common in Black Americans compared to other ethnicities, affecting about 1 in 365 people.

Education was an important part of the Committee’s work, both in educating the public but also in ensuring that Black students were receiving fair and acceptable education in Fulton County schools. In a FULNAC hosted panel discussion on June 11, 1970, called “What Is It Like to be Black and Living in Fulton County in 1970,” Rosemary Hall, a senior at Gloversville High School, spoke about what it was like being a Black student in a predominantly white school. “I can’t recall any experiences where I was personally discriminated against,” she said, “but I know of some of my friends who have been discriminated against by some of the teachers and students at the high school.” Her main concern was that most of the teachers seemed to know very little about Black culture. “When I grew out a natural hairdo, some of the teachers asked me if this meant I was a militant,” Hall explained. She went on to add that she didn’t feel Black history was very well represented in the curriculum, and that this exclusion deprived her of an important part of American History education. This latter point was a major one for FULNAC, who wanted to work with the Gloversville School District to help change this. The first Black educator was hired by the district in 1956, and the second a decade later, both by state mandate. By the early 1970s, there were only three Black teachers in Gloversville.

Delores Thompson served as FULNAC’s education committee chair and in 1972 she was able to set up a meeting with the school board about these concerns. It wasn’t the first time the group had approached the school to include more Black history in the curriculum; they had collected books and materials that would help guide educators, and the district did establish a half-year Black Studies course in the high school. While this was a step in the right direction, the Committee’s actual goal was to integrate Black history and culture into the regular curriculum, without creating a separate program. They had been in contact with the Cultural Relations Commission at NYSED, who agreed to assist as they could. At this meeting, Thompson showed “Black Treasures,” a six-minute film about Black authors, scientists, doctors, and other historic figures. “And that’s what our children are deprived of,” Thompson explained. “Our children can only look into the history books and see the white heroes, but what of theirs?” She added, “The only image which both black and white children in the district have is that of the slave.”

In October, the district adopted the Equal Education Policy, which included curriculum revision, textbook review, elective courses, and an agreement to build up the school’s library. FULNAC’s Executive Board sanctioned the policy, though chairman Robert J. Robinson noted, “This policy is only paper and words, if implementation is not enforced by the school administration.” Thompson was pleased with the work that the Committee and the district accomplished: “We feel this policy covers most of the areas which affect black students, and will help white students to have a better understanding of the total history of America.”

The district worked with FULNAC to offer in-service training for teachers on how to correct these lapses in the current curriculum. The Committee screened the film “Black History Lost, Strayed, or Stolen,” followed by a panel discussion. The panel included Suzanne Ferguson, the Board of Education president; Audrey Bowman and Paul Reed, teachers; Delores Thompson of FULNAC; and Patricia Allen and Thomas Sena, students. The discussion was moderated by Dr. George Pilkey from FMCC. This was followed by an open discussion.

Housing was one of the biggest concerns for Black families in the county. It was not uncommon for landlords to refuse to rent to Black tenants and these occurrences are documented in local newspapers. On June 3, 1970, the Leader Herald published the following: “A complaint alleging racial discrimination against a Gloversville property owner was reported to have been satisfactorily resolved.” Joseph R. Ryle filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission in Albany on May 22, alleging that he was refused to be considered for tenancy because of the owner’s “feelings about renting to Negroes.” Ryle stated that he “feared the loss of white tenants in the building because of renting to a Negro.” When the commission reached out to the property owner, he agreed to rent the apartment to Ryle.

In the same 1970 panel where Rosemary Hall spoke of her experiences at GHS, Morris Van Slyke, a leather worker, spoke about his trouble finding housing and advancing in his work. His family moved from Manhattan to Gloversville when he was three years old. He attended GHS until he dropped out at age 16, but said he didn’t experience much prejudice in school. In 1962, Van Slyke tried to rent an apartment in Gloversville. He was close to signing a lease when the landlord learned he was Black and refused the apartment. “The landlord explained to me that I would be using the same halls as the other people in the building and that just wouldn’t work,” Van Slyke added.

Maurice Darden, another panelist, shared his experience trying to rent a place in Johnstown. Darden, a Virginia native and toll planning engineer with the General Telephone Company of Upstate NY, said: “After I had been here for two days, a realtor showed me around to some of the worst excuses for houses I have ever witnessed . . . It was getting to the point where people would say they had rooms to rent until they saw to whom they were renting, and that’s when they said no.” Darden tested his theory by going to a rental property with a realtor, who didn’t believe Darden’s claims. He explained that the realtor went up to the porch alone and asked if the apartment was for rent. When he was told yes, it was, he motioned for Darden to come out of the car to look at the place: “When the woman saw me, she slammed the door.”

Fair employment opportunities were also a big concern for FULNAC. Van Slyke earned his GED through trade school, where he learned welding. When he couldn’t find welding jobs in this area, he began training as a leather colorer at Perrone’s. After the closure of that department, he was unable to find coloring work in other mills and offered only menial jobs instead. “I never did find anyone who would hire me as a colorer,” he said, “but it is a skilled job and I know the mills need them. In fact, I know of white men who are being trained from scratch at some mills in Fulton County.” He felt that “there is no chance for advancement in the leather industry for the black man. Most of the black people in Fulton County work in the leather mills, but I know of only one man who has what most people would consider a position of responsibility. Personally, I find myself a certified welder and a trained colorer who can obtain work here in neither field, even though men are needed in these areas.”

In addition to working to eliminate the discrimination Black residents experienced, FULNAC also offered community events like picnics, field days, dances, and holiday programs. The group was able to offer some college scholarships and supported students by organizing essay contests about Black history.

Although FULNAC as an organization no longer exists, they shed light on real and important issues impacting the Black citizens of Fulton County and did important work to address them and effect change in the community.

Community Service & Activism: Gladys Leggins

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring a series about Black Fulton County residents throughout history. This is the second installment in this four-part series.

In our last post, we explored the life and work of Elmer Carter, a man who grew up in Gloversville and went on to play an important role on the national stage in the work for social justice and equal rights. This week, we’ll be staying a little bit closer to home and highlighting the importance of community service and activism through the life of Gladys Leggins of Gloversville.

Gladys was born in Virginia on September 11, 1893 and most likely came to the Glove Cities sometime around 1919/1920; she is first listed in the census and city directory in 1920. She was Gladys Jones then, and married to David Jones from South Carolina. The 1920 US Census listed the couple as living with and working for the James Knox family at 601 S. William St. in Johnstown. Yes, that is the Knox family of gelatin fame; James was the son of company founders Charles B. and Rose Knox.

The Jones’ could be considered part of the Great Migration that occurred between 1916 and 1970. During this period, six million Black southerners left their homes and moved north, many to large cities like NYC and Chicago, but also areas like Syracuse and other upstate NY towns. A cursory glance at census records in Fulton County during this time shows quite a number of Black residents who were born in southern states. In her book The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, historian Isabel Wilkerson posits that this mass movement over six decades was a turning point in history that “grew out of unmet promises made after the Civil War and, through the sheer weight of it, helped push the country toward the civil rights revolutions of the 1960s.”

Advertisement, Gloversville Johnstown City Directory (1930)

The couple must not have been employed by the Knox family for a long period of time. Tracing them through city directories, we see Gladys continued to work as a domestic and cook and David found a job as a glove cutter. By 1926, Gladys had moved to Gloversville and David remained in Johnstown. He would later relocate to Gloversville, but it seems the couple was no longer together. Gladys secured a job as a telephone operator, which she continued for a few years. In March 1938, Gladys married Arthur Leggins, a local truck driver who operated his own business out of his home at 25 Wells St. Arthur too had been previously married. He and his first wife Anna Watters had one daughter, Lillian (a son, Arthur, Jr., died at age 2 in 1922).

Gladys became very involved in civic and religious life in Gloversville over the decades. She was a member of the AME Zion Church and served as the chaplain of the Missionary Society there. She was a member of the YWCA (and one-time board member), the First Ward Republican Club, the board of the Fulmont Development Facility, an advisory board member of the Fulmont Neighborhood Center, the Fulton County Negro Action Committee, the Fanny Rose Temple (the women’s auxiliary for the Black Elks Sacandaga Lodge; the Elks did not allow Black members until 1973, so the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, or Black Elks, were formed in 1868 in Cincinnati, OH), and, when she reached a certain age, a member of the 50-Plus Senior Club of Johnstown and the 55-Plus Senior Club of Gloversville (and its chaplain). Gladys dedicated her life to making the community a better place.

Photo from the Leader Herald, May 22, 1963.

On May 21, 1963, Gladys was cited as a “woman who has learned ‘the true meaning of service'” during a dinner of the First Ward Republican Club at the YWCA. It was the 2nd annual testimonial dinner that the club held. In front of the 126 people in attendance, Gladys was presented a silver tray as a thank you for her service. District Attorney H. Andrew Schulsberg spoke: “We are honoring her because of her devoted service to others, and that is the kind of person this troubled world needs now more than ever.”

Leggins was also honored as a mother. The first acknowledgement was on May 13, 1974, when the Elks hosted their Mother’s Day Program. Gladys was recognized as the second oldest mother in the Black community at 80 years old (the oldest was Ada Case at 86, who was honored as Mother of the Year). But in 1976, Leggins received the award of Mother of the Year in the annual Mother’s Day program. Gladys read a poem and expressed her thanks for the award.

From the Leader-Herald, May 1976.

It wasn’t just Gladys that was making the world a better place; her daughter Lillian assisted in a history-making kidney transplant operation in Ann Arbor, MI in May of 1964. The “dramatic operation . . . saved the life of Janice Ottenbacher, 15, of Richmond, Mich.”

Gladys Leggins passed away in June 1980, but her hard work and dedication to her community won’t be forgotten. We thank Gladys for all she gave to the community, and hope to honor that legacy by continuing to make Fulton County the best place it can be.

Pastor’s Son, Veteran, & Social Justice Activist: Elmer Anderson Carter

In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be featuring a series about Black Fulton County residents throughout history. This is the first biography in this four-part series.

Elmer Anderson Carter, painted by Betsey Graves Reyneau; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Harmon Foundation.

Elmer Anderson Carter was born on July 19, 1889 in Rochester, NY, the second child in what would eventually become quite a large family. His father, Rev. George C. Carter, brought the family to Gloversville in 1899, where he was installed as the pastor at the AME Zion Church. It wasn’t the pastor’s first time in Fulton County, having served at the Johnstown AME Zion Church about 15 years previously. Under his leadership in Gloversville, a fundraiser was organized and the congregation was able to purchase the chapel on East Fulton St., an effort several years in the making.

Rev. Carter was entering into his fourth year as pastor for the Gloversville church when he unexpectedly found that he had no place for his family – seven children, including Elmer – to live. The first reference to this issue was in the April 28, 1903 edition of the Daily Leader. The column, titled “NOT A GODLESS CITY,” was a reprinting of and comment on an editorial that appeared in the Albany Evening Journal the previous day. It was based on comments made by the Reverend that he was so far unable to find anyone willing to rent a house to his family. “There are two reasons given for the refusal of the Gloversville landlords to let the Rev. Mr. Carter have a house,” the editorial read. “One is that he is a negro, and the other is that he has a large family. The latter is mentioned only for the sake of appearances, since the former is the principal, and to the landlords a sufficient one.”

The Leader rebutted: “The facts revealed by Rev. Mr. Carter do not reflect favorably upon those who are perfectly able to relieve the distress which he complained of, and who refused to do so because he was born with a dark skin.” These prejudicial few were in the minority, the article continued; “Mr. Carter has a widespread sympathy here.” The paper told its readers that several people had already made offers to the Reverend after hearing of his plight; indeed, by the following day he moved his family into a property on Kingsboro Ave. owned by James W. Green.

The Carter family remained in Gloversville for several years. Elmer graduated from Gloversville High School in 1907 and “was one of the brightest and most ambitious men ever sent out of Gloversville.” Soon after, the family relocated to Auburn, but Elmer went on to Harvard, where he graduated in 1912. From there, Elmer taught history at the Prairie View State Normal College in Prairie View, TX and later went on to be head of the math department. Prairie View, today called Prairie View A&M University, was a Black college established in 1876 during Reconstruction.

When the US entered World War I, Elmer enlisted in the 92nd Infantry. Active in both World Wars, the men of the 92nd were nicknamed “Buffalo Soldiers” after the name given to Black calvary men of the 19th century. It was organized at Camp Funston, KS. The military was segregated (in fact, it wouldn’t be integrated until 1948 under President Truman) and the camp was no different. There was a special “negro zone” that included “separate amusement places and exchanges” for Black enlisted men. Even in France, where the 92nd landed, they served under and alongside French troops because of issues of racial prejudice in the American military.

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Elmer Carter’s Draft Card, Ancestry.com.

Elmer Carter landed in France on June 19, 1918. As part of the 92nd, he was part of the Meusse-Argonne Offensive on the Western Front. It was the largest battle in US military history and the deadliest in American history. Lasting 47 days, from September 26 through Armistice Day on November 11, 1918, there were 350,000 casualties, including 28,000 Germans, 26,277 Americans, and an unknown number of French. The inexperience of the newly trained troops, along with the outbreak of the Spanish Flu pandemic, deeply affected American losses.

After the war, Elmer made a visit to Gloversville in the spring of 1919 at the invitation of Rev. W.B. Caines of the AME Zion Church. He spoke to a crowd of nearly 250 people about his experiences in the military and in France. Carter recalled a group of injured men who were marked with tags stating the nature of their injuries (gas exposure, slightly wounded, etc.): “With the shot and shell falling all around, the boys tore off their tacks with which they were labeled with the remark that they had come to France to fight and not go to a hospital, and rushed back into the fray, some of them being brought back suffering from the wounds from which they never recovered.” Carter also remembered the hundreds of pieces of German propaganda dropped over them, “urging them to lay down their arms and come over behind their lines, where they would be protected by the Hun troops in making the line.” But Carter and his comrades had no intention of doing this, and he told the crowd that “the answer was in the cemetery just outside of the city of Metz, where the bodies of more than 400 colored boys of the 92nd rested.”

From the New York Times, January 17, 1973.

Carter began a job in social work that would come to define the rest of his career and lead to political appointments. He was hired as the secretary of the Columbus, OH branch of the National Urban League. The Urban League, founded in 1910 and still in existence today, is a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in NYC that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Americans and against racial discrimination. He also held this position in branches in Louisville, KY and St. Paul-Minneapolis, MN. In 1928 Carter was appointed editor of “Opportunity Journal of Negro Life,” the official publication of the Urban League, a position he held until 1942.

Carter was appointed by Governor Herbert H. Lehman to the Board of Appeals of the Division of Unemployment Insurance in 1937. Under Governor Thomas E. Dewey, in 1945 Carter was appointed to the NYS Commission on Anti-Discrimination, the predecessor of the State Division of Human Rights. He was serving in this role when he was the main speaker at Gloversville’s “I Am An American Day,” held in Melchoir Park. “I Am an American Day” was designated as the third Sunday in May by Congress in 1940 and was soon promoted by the US Immigration and Nationalization Service. In 1952, the date was changed to September 7th and renamed Citizenship Day and Constitution Day. Gloversville’s celebration that year included music, speakers, and delegations from area community organizations and clubs. Carter returned to Gloversville once more to serve as the keynote speaker for the 1946 celebration in his one-time hometown.

After a lifetime of service and advocacy for social justice, Carter retired in 1961. He then served for two years as special assistant to Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Elmer Anderson Carter died on January 16, 1973 at age 82 in his home at 409 Edgecombe Ave. in Hamilton Heights in New York. He was predeceased by his wife, Thelma Johnson Carter, and survived by one daughter, Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Campbell. The impressive 1917 apartment building on Edgecombe was designated as a city landmark in 1993 “because from the 30’s to the 50’s it was the address of choice for some of New York City’s black elite,” according to the New York Times. Other famous Black residents of the building included artist Aaron Douglas, activist and author WEB DuBois, and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was at that time lawyer for the NAACP.

409 Edgecombe Ave.

Although not born in Fulton County, Elmer Carter spent several of his formative years in the city and was clearly well-liked by many of those who remembered him and called him a friend. It may be safe to speculate that Elmer held a fondness for the city as well, since he returned at least twice for public speaking engagements. From Upstate New York, the South, France, the Midwest, and Albany and New York City, Elmer A. Carter will be remembered for his relentless determination in the fight for civil rights and social justice.