Today In Black History: Attorney Eunice Hunton Carter
Worked with Thomas Dewey to prosecute and convict "Lucky" Luciano
Issue #812 Today In Black History, Monday, February 24, 2025
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Eunice Hunton Carter was a pioneering African American lawyer, prosecutor, and activist. Born in 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia, she was one of the first Black women to earn a law degree from Fordham University in 1932, after graduating cum laude from Smith College in 1921 in just two years with both undergraduate and graduate degrees.
She was the daughter of William Alphaeus Hunton Sr. (founder of the black division of the Y.M.C.A.) and Addie Waites Hunton (a social worker); both were college-educated.
Eunice Hunton Carter was the first African-American woman to work as a prosecutor in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney’s Office. As a key assistant to special prosecutor Thomas Dewey, she established key facts in prosecuting mobster Charlie “Lucky” Luciano.
In the Pan-African Congress in the 1920s, Carter later became active in Nickelodeon, performing on committee sets advocating for improving women's status. In addition to her work for the show, she also served on the executive committee of the International Council of Women, an organization with representatives from 37 countries.
She was a social worker in New York City before Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed her as a prosecutor in what was then called “women’s court” — that is, a court for the prosecution of women, especially prostitutes.
Carter saw that women arrested for prostitution from all over New York City were represented by the same lawyers and bail bondsmen who had a relationship with Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. Carter meticulously built a case that led to raids of brothels in the city and, finally, the successful prosecution of Luciano, at the time the most powerful racketeer in the country.
Based on Carter’s discovery, Luciano's conviction was considered the most successful court action against organized crime in U.S. history.
In 1937, Dewey, then New York City’s district attorney, assigned Carter to head his Special Sessions Bureau, which handled cases brought in municipal court. She remained there until 1945 when she entered private practice.
Carter entered private practice in 1945. As a private attorney, Carter advised the United Nations on women’s rights issues, worked for the National Council of Negro Women, and served as a national board member of the YMCA for many years. She used her platform to speak out against discrimination and her legal expertise to push for policy changes that would lead to a more equitable society.
Hunton married Lisle Carter Sr., who was one of the first African-American dentists in New York. They lived for many years in Harlem. They had one child, Lisle Carter Jr., who graduated from college and law school. He practiced law and later worked as a political appointee in the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson presidential administrations.
Eunice Hunton Carter died on January 25, 1970.
Today In Black History
In 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler graduated from the New England Female Medical College as the first Black woman to receive an M.D. degree.
In 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, was ousted by a military coup.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush nominated Edward Perkins, the first Black Ambassador to South Africa, as the UN Ambassador.
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Fascinating story. I knew nothing about the Lucky Luciano case. Anyone intelligent and focused enough to have done what she did at Smith College must have spent a great part of her life enraged at the dismissal that she had to have run into every day. I imagine that rising above that might have been her biggest challenge.