LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of acclaimed civil rights
pioneer and federal judge Robert L. Carter

WHEREAS, Born on March 11, 1917, in Caryville, Florida, as the youngest
of nine children, Robert L. Carter soon after moved to Newark, New
Jersey, with his mother where he was raised; and
WHEREAS, He graduated from high school at the age of 16 and earned his
undergraduate degree in political science from Lincoln University, and
his law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1940, both on
scholarship; the following year, he went on to earn his LLM from Colum-
bia Law School; and
WHEREAS, Robert L. Carter joined the United States Army Air Corps just
a few months prior to the United States entering World War II; and
WHEREAS, Despite repeated antagonisms, he completed Officer Candidate
School and earned the rank of Second Lieutenant; and
WHEREAS, At the time, he was the only black officer at Harding Field
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; as a result, he continued to face the
constant barrage of racial hostility; and
WHEREAS, Following his military service, Robert L. Carter began work
with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and
WHEREAS, In 1945, Robert L. Carter was an Assistant Special Counsel at
the Legal Defense Fund, and in 1948, he became a legal assistant to
Thurgood Marshall; and
WHEREAS, In 1956, Robert L. Carter succeeded Thurgood Marshall as the
general counsel of the NAACP, and over the course of his tenure, he
argued or co-argued and won 21 of 22 cases in the United States Supreme
Court; and
WHEREAS, Robert L. Carter played an integral role in landmark cases
such as Sweatt v. Painter, Sipuel v. Board of Regents of The University
of Oklahoma, Brown v. Board of Education, and NAACP v. Alabama; and
WHEREAS, In 1968, Robert L. Carter resigned from the NAACP, along with
his entire legal staff, in protest to the firing of NAACP employee Lewis
Steele; and
WHEREAS, Following his departure from the NAACP, Robert L. Carter
co-founded the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL), an organiza-
tion formed to serve as the Black Liberation movement's legal arm and
aid other black activists; notable clients were individuals such as
Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, the Attica Brothers, Geronimo Pratt, Mumia
Abu-Jamal, Ben Chavis and the Wilmington Ten; and
WHEREAS, The National Conference of Black Lawyers also lobbied against
apartheid in South Africa; and
WHEREAS, In 1972, at the recommendation of U.S. Senator Jacob Javits,
President Richard M. Nixon nominated Robert L. Carter to the federal
bench for the Southern District of New York; and
WHEREAS, On the bench, Robert L. Carter become well-known for his
involvement in cases involving professional basketball; he oversaw the
merger of the National Basketball Association and the American Basket-
ball Association in the 1970s, the settlement of a class-action anti-
trust suit against the N.B.A., and a number of high-profile free-agent
arbitration disputes; and
WHEREAS, In 1979, his judicial findings as they related to biases
against Black and Hispanic applicants to the New York City Police
Department led to significant changes in hiring policies and minority
representation on the force; and
WHEREAS, In his later years, Robert L. Carter remained a passionate
and outspoken supporter of current issues related to racial bias and
unequal treatment, never wavering from the opinion that much remained to

be accomplished in the pursuit to achieve true racial equality; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
mourn the death of acclaimed civil rights pioneer and federal judge
Robert L. Carter; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the family of Robert L. Carter.