With excellence and quiet devotion, Indianapolis native Arthur L. Carter Sr. has come alongside numerous people as an advisor, mentor and volunteer in the community he loves.
Due to his humility, it might not be immediately apparent that Carter is part of the Tuskegee Airmen, an elite group of fighter pilots and crewmembers who advanced the cause of equality for African-Americans during World War II. Carter is the last surviving original member of the group from Indianapolis.
As trailblazers, the Tuskegee Airmen advanced equality before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional sports and before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. began the bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black air combat fighters, and are credited with having never lost an aircraft they escorted.
“At first, many of the top guys didn’t want to train Black fighter pilots. They said Black men did not have the intelligence and dexterity to fly planes,” Carter said. “They tried to keep us from that.”
Realizing that they had to be twice as good to defy racist expectations and safeguard future opportunities for Blacks in the military, the Tuskegee Airmen set high standards. The airmen scored impressive victories against German forces in North Africa and Italy, destroying key targets and escorting Allied bombers.
Carter enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps (now U.S. Air Force) in 1941 at age 19, and was trained as an airplane engine mechanic. After his discharge in 1945 he held several positions at various government agencies, mainly the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Internal Revenue Service. He also opened a successful travel agency and held leadership positions in Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
This week Carter sat down with the Recorder to talk about some significant moments from his life:
Congressional Gold Medal (given to Carter and other Tuskegee Airmen by President George W. Bush in 2007)
“We were honored to receive this, although it took over 60 years for it to happen. When I volunteered, I had no idea history was being made. In fact, the way segregation was in the South, some people said, ‘you didn’t serve overseas. I said, ‘yeah, not overseas, but I did do foreign service, in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. That was foreign enough to me!”
Carter and Other Airmen with Lena Horne
“This is in a book that has been written about the Tuskegee Airmen. Lena Horne came to sing for Tuskegee Airmen for a couple of days, and I was the one who drove her around the area in a jeep.
“Once she was standing beside an airplane to pose while the photographers were taking her picture. When they got finished, she got back in the jeep, turned to me and asked, ‘Were my legs crossed?’
“I was 21 years old and in the military, but was shy as hell, and this woman asked me that question. I told her I wasn’t paying any attention, which was the God’s honest truth. I was just sitting there in the Jeep.
“So she said, ‘Well, women with skinny legs should cross their legs at the ankles, so that no light shows between them.’
“It wasn’t funny to me at the time, because she was just making a statement of fact, but I’ll never forget that. I later met her daughter, who came to Indianapolis to speak for the Tuskegee Airmen. The young lady said, ‘Oh, Arthur Carter, she’s mentioned your name.’ Which surprised me, because I was just her chauffeur for a couple of days.”
Invitation to President Barack Obama’s 2009 Inauguration
“I didn’t think we would have the first Black president in my lifetime. I cried like a baby during the inauguration. My girlfriend asked, what are you crying about, and I said, you’re too young to understand, but I’ll try to explain it to you tonight. I told her I went through all-Black schools, School 26 and Crispus Attucks, and every room I was in had a clock on the wall that had to be wound up everyday, a flag for us to recite the pledge of allegiance and a picture of George Washington. Every Black teacher told us at sometime during each semester that we too could become president. I remembered that during the inauguration.”
Kappa Alpha Psi Laurel Wreath Award
(Given to Carter in June)
“This is the highest award the fraternity can confer on a brother. I felt a state of euphoria, like being in another world, especially when you’re looking out there and it’s over 5,000 people in the audience expressing appreciation.
“You don’t really work for this award, at least I didn’t. I never dreamed I would even get it. I was raised by three of the fraternity’s founders who lived here and indoctrinated me. They taught us to prepare ourselves to be of service to the fraternity, and be prepared for the call to serve.”
