Frederick Carter

Douglass CarterFrederick Douglass Carter, a good and honorable man, passed from this world August 5, 2013, one day shy of his 91st birthday, with his family in Hampton, Va. He was born August 6, 1922 at the foot of Lookout Mountain in St. Elmo (Chattanooga), Tenn. He was the oldest of four sons born to Holman and Jessie Evelyn Carter. He graduated from the only Negro high school in Chattanooga, Howard High. He was the president of the class of 1940. He went on to attend Morehouse College. While there he was drafted into the Army. After being injured, he was honorably discharged September 10, 1943. He returned to Morehouse, graduating in the class of 1945 with the distinction of being "The Outstanding Man of Affairs."Douglass lived up to the legacy of his name sake, Frederick Douglass. Until his death he was outspoken and opinionated about civil rights, politics, religion and other important issues of the times. In Chattanooga, at 16 he was arrested for refusing to give up his seat on the bus to a White man in violation of Tennessee jim crow statutes. He disrupted his high school graduation exercises by making an impromptu speech in protest to the fact that speakers selected by the graduating class were not allowed to speak but replaced by speakers selected by the school administration, making the Chattanooga paper. In 1942, while at Morehouse College, in protest to the segregated military, and despite being threatened with expulsion, he refused to sign up for the Selective Service Draft, until Morehouse President Benjamin E. Mayes and Dr. Channing H. Tobias, advisor on "Negro Affairs" to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, encourage him to enlist based on a promise that the armed forces would be integrated at the end of World War II.On Sept. 15, 1945, he married Minnie Mae Coates, also of Chattanooga. Beginning with their honeymoon, they became part of the great migration of Black citizens leaving the south and going north or west in search of a better life. By train they traveled to Denver, Colo., where he was enrolled in law school at the University of Denver.The couple returned to Chattanooga in 1953. In 1954 Douglass became the first Negro to run for City Commission. Along with Douglasss Uncle, Horace Carter and Minnie Maes sister, Alberta and her husband Raymond Cathey, they ran their own business, Carter & Cathey Sundries, a drug store on South Broad St. which was the only place in Chattanooga where both Colored and White customers were served at the fountain counter. During this period Douglass and his family were subjected to numerous threats from the KKK. In 1959 the family returned to Denver.While Douglass never realized his dream of becoming a lawyer, he worked hard to give his family a good life. During his life time he worked for Atlas Powder Co., the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Post Office, Denver City and County Courts, Martin Marietta Corporation and Neighborhood Youth Corps. In 1984, he retired as a Patient Advocate and Administrator at Denver General Hospital, Department of Health and Human Services.Mr. and Mrs. Carter moved to Newport News, Va., in 1996. Just before moving to Virginia they lost their youngest son, Douglas Shearer. On June 3, 2008, Douglass lost his wife of 62 years. His brothers, Burrell, Henry and Samuel, also preceded him.Left to cherish Frederick Douglass Carters memory are his daughters, Kathleen Harmon (Thomas IV), of Hampton, and Leslie Diane (Kenneth), of Newport News, Va.; his son, Holman , of Boulder, Colo.; six grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grand on the way. He will be fondly remembered by special cousins, Cyrus (Virginia) and Roland Carter, of Chattanooga, and Percy Mae Burrell Mathis (Charles), of Boston, Mass., as well as a host of nieces, nephews, including Mary Jo Gilbert, Emily Clark and Stephen Clark, of Chattanooga; Barbara and James Cathey, Atlanta, other relatives and many friends.The family will come together to celebrate his life and legacy, and to place his remains with those of his beloved wife (and son), in Denver on Saturday, Sept. 14, the day before what would be their 68th anniversary.