Hidden Figures: Eunice Carter #WomensHERstoryMonth 21/28 (Patreon)

Hidden Figures: Eunice Carter #WomensHERstoryMonth 21/28

Eunice Roberta Hunton Carter (July 16, 1899 – January 25, 1970) was the first Black 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 led a massive prostitution racketeering investigation, building the case and strategy that allowed New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey to successfully charge Mafioso kingpin Charles "Lucky” Luciano, known as the “chairman of the board” of the Five Families of New York, with compulsory prostitution. Eunice graduated cum laude from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, receiving a Bachelor's and a Master's degree. After a brief time as a social worker, she decided to study law. She became the first black woman to receive a law degree from Fordham University in New York City when, in 1933, Eunice Carter passed the New York bar exam Carter soon established a career in both law and international politics. In 1935 Carter became the first black woman assistant district attorney in the state of New York. As assistant DA, she determined that Mafia boss Lucky Luciano must be involved in prostitution, after 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 noticed that women arrested for prostitution from all over New York City were represented by the same lawyers and bail bondsmen. And those agents had a relationship with Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. Bringing that information to Dewey, Carter then meticulously put together a massive prostitution racketeering case that eventually implicated Luciano, at the time the most powerful racketeer in the country. She convinced New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey to personally prosecute the case. Luciano was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in 1936; he served ten years, and then was deported back to Italy. The conviction was described by Luciano biographer Tim Newark as, "a land-mark in legal history as it was the first against a major organized crime figure for anything other than tax evasion”. The case generated national fame for Dewey, which he rode to election as the governor of New York. Carter continued working with the District Attorney’s Office until 1945, when she entered private practice. She was active with the United Nations, the National Council of Negro Women and the YWCA until her death in 1970. #HiddenFigures #EuniceCarter ****************** Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! https://www.teepublic.com/user/sssseren Follow me on social media! Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu Personal Tumblr: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com Tumblr for my work: https://sssseren.tumblr.com Snapchat: sssseren GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/tc5wh7q Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seren_sensei ****************** Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture' Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6 Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6 Digital download (e-book): https://gumroad.com/l/IkUa ****************** Links: Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Forgotten-Americas-Powerful-Mobster/dp/1250121973 'How Eunice Carter helped take down one of America's most notorious mob bosses:' https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eunice-carter-black-lawyer-who-took-down-one-of-americas-most-notorious-mob-bosses/ 'BROOKLYN NETS PRESENT THE UNTOLD - EUNICE CARTER:' https://www.nba.com/nets/news/bhm/2019/02/03/eunice-carter 'The Real-Life Heroine Who Inspired a Character on ‘Boardwalk Empire:’ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/books/review/invisible-stepehn-carter-eunice-hunton-carter-biography.html EUNICE CARTER - The Mob Museum: https://themobmuseum.org/notable_names/eunice-carter/ 'Takedown of a Mobster: The Eunice Carter Story:' https://millennialpolitics.co/takedown-of-a-mobster-the-eunice-carter-story/ 'Crime does not pay; ask Eunice Carter:' https://aaregistry.org/story/crime-does-not-pay-ask-eunice-carter/ EUNICE ROBERTA HUNTON CARTER - ONE OF THE FIRST BLACK PROSECUTORS IN THE UNITED STATES:' https://blackthen.com/eunice-roberta-hunton-carter-one-of-the-first-black-prosecutors-in-the-united-states/ Eunice Carter (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunice_Carter