Elizabeth Carter Brooks

Summary

Elizabeth Carter Brooks
1867 – 1951
Place of Birth: New Bedford, MA
Place of Death: New Bedford, MA
Notable: Activist & Architect

Media

YouTube Video

Podcast Episode

Show Notes

Elizabeth Carter was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1967. Sources provided no information about her father. But her mother, Martha Webb was previously enslaved by President John Tyler. Webb was an abolitionist who actively participated in the Underground Railroad and the early Civil Rights Movement. That early example of activism would shape the future of Carter’s life.

During her childhood, Carter attended public schools and graduated from New Bedford High School. She enrolled at the Swain Free School of Design to study architecture and design. Brooks continued her education at the Harrington Normal School for Teachers where she became the school’s first Black graduate.

In the 1890s, Carter accepted a teaching position at Howard’s Orphan Home which was founded and managed by Black Americans in Brooklyn, New York. She joined the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACW) in 1895 and served as secretary of its convention in 1896. She helped to establish the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (NFCWC).

Carter moved back to New Bedford in the latter half of the 1890s. She was part of a group that established the New Bedford Home for the Aged in 1897. The Home initially operated out of temporary locations and for the first six months Carter covered its rent. This was New Bedford’s first official home for the elderly.

Eventually, the Women’s Loyal Union took responsibility for the Home’s management and financial expenses. Carter further contributed to the Home by designing its permanent location at 396 Middle Street. She served as president of both the Home and the Women’s Loyal Union until 1930.

While Carter had dreamed of providing a home for the elderly, she was also committed to molding young minds. Carter resumed teaching in 1901 and would spend over 25 years at the Taylor School. Sources vary but in the process, she became either the first Black female or first Black teacher overall in the New Bedford public school system.

Carter served as the NACW’s vice-president-at-large from 1906 to 1908 and president from 1908 to 1912. After the NAACP was established in 1909, Carter joined and eventually led the local and regional New Bedford branches. As part of the NFCWC, Carter pushed initiatives such as boycotts and lobbying for an antilynching bill. She was tapped by the War Council of the National Board of the YWCA to oversee the construction of the Phillis Wheatley YWCA in Washington, D.C.

Carter retired from teaching in 1929 and married W. Sampson Brooks, an AME bishop. Carter Brooks relocated with her husband to San Antonio but he unfortunately died just four years later. She returned to New Bedford and continued her work with various organizations. Carter Brooks also took on a new mission of preserving Black history and heritage. She provided a loan for the Martha Briggs Educational Club to purchase Sergeant William H. Carney’s home which became a memorial. She also held weekly meetings with young women to discuss men and women from Black history.

Elizabeth Carter Brooks continued to work until she died in 1951. In her honor, New Bedford named a school after her in 1957.

Sources

1. Boyd, Herb. 2020. “Elizabeth Carter Brooks, Architect and Women’s Club Leader.” New York Amsterdam News. December 17, 2020. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/12/17/elizabeth-carter-brooks-architect-and-womens-club/.
2. Cox, John. 2023. “Elizabeth Carter Brooks.” Lighting the Way, Historic Women of the SouthCoast. New Bedford Whaling Museum. March 22, 2023. https://historicwomensouthcoast.org/elizabeth-carter-brooks/.
3. “Elizabeth Carter Brooks (1867-1951).” n.d. NB Historical Society. New Bedford Historical Society. Accessed August 22, 2024. https://nbhistoricalsociety.org/portfolio-item/elizabeth-carter-brooks-1867-1951/.
4. “Elizabeth Carter Brooks, Educator, and Preservationist Born.” 2022. African American Registry. September 23, 2022. https://aaregistry.org/story/elizabeth-carter-brooks-educator-and-preservationist-born/.
5. “Elizabeth Carter Brooks.” n.d. Massachusetts Hall of Black Achievement. Bridgewater State University. Accessed August 22, 2024. https://vc.bridgew.edu/hoba/19/.
6. Greene, Debra Foster. n.d. “Biographical Sketch of Elizabeth C. Carter Brooks, 1867-1951.” Alexander Street. Accessed August 22, 2024. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1007600720.
7. O’Leary, Ann. 2020. “Born to a Former Slave, Elizabeth Carter Brooks Was a Social Activist Who Supported African American Achievement.” SouthCoastTODAY. Standard-Times. March 3, 2020. https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/local/2020/03/04/born-to-former-slave-elizabeth/1591562007/.

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