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{{Short description|Trinidadian-British community activist (1930–2008)}}
{{POV|date= August 2023|talk=POV|reason= see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents&oldid=1171563939#Trevor_Carter_(GA);_POV,_puffery,_original_research,_and_misrepresentation_of_sources }}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|03||1930|10|09|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Archway, London]], England
| occupation = {{cslist|
| organization = {{ubli|[[Young Communist League (Great Britain)|Young Communist League]]
| known_for = Civil rights, equal opportunity and education activism
| notable_works = ''Shattering Illusions: West Indians in British Politics'' (1986)
| party = {{ubl|[[Communist Party of Great Britain|CPGB]] (until 1991)|[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] (1990s)}}
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Corinne Skinner-Carter]]|1955}}
| relatives = [[Claudia Jones]] (cousin)
| honours = Recommended by the education authority for an [[OBE]] for his role in the Swann Report (rejected by Carter)
}}
'''Trevor Carter''' (9 October 1930 – March 2008) was a British [[Marxism–Leninism|communist]] party leader, educator, black civil rights activist, and co-founder of the Caribbean Teachers Association. He served as the
Writers
Carter was the stage manager of the first [[British African-Caribbean people|British-Caribbean]] Carnival, held in [[St Pancras Town Hall]], and later a Trustee of the Notting Hill Carnival Trust.<ref name="Wong2009">{{Cite news |last=Wong |first=Ansel |author-link=Ansel Wong |date=October 2009 |title=National Discourse on Carnival Arts |page=34 |publisher=Carnival Village |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a8c562dcf81e0bc546534e6/t/5c9a36daec212dd0c3c69ff1/1553610462562/Carnival+Discourse+Report.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405075924/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a8c562dcf81e0bc546534e6/t/5c9a36daec212dd0c3c69ff1/1553610462562/Carnival+Discourse+Report.pdf |archive-date=5 April 2023}}</ref> Together his cousin [[Claudia Jones]], and wife, the ''[[EastEnders]]'' actress [[Corinne Skinner-Carter]], they helped establish the second-largest annual carnival in the world, London's [[Notting Hill Carnival]].
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Trevor Clarence Carter was born in [[Woodbrook, Port of Spain]], in the British colony of [[Trinidad]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hines |first=Vince |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQSGAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Trevor+Carter%22 |title=How Black People Overcame Fifty Years of Repression in Britain: 1945-1975 |publisher=Zulu |year=1998 |pages=44 |isbn=9780950293936 |language=en |format=paperback}}</ref> on 9 October 1930, the eldest of 12 children of housewife Elene Carter, and her husband, cabinet maker Clarence Carter.<ref name=Wong2009/> His views and political beliefs were heavily influenced by some of his teachers who were Marxists, and by his father who was a trade unionist, the combination of which made a strong impression on Carter.<ref name=Meddick2020/> Sometime during his childhood, he met a girl called [[Corinne Skinner-Carter|Corinne]], whom he married later in life.<ref name=Wroe2008/>
At the age of 14, Carter left school and worked as a mess boy on a merchant ship; during this time he travelled to [[New Orleans]] where he observed [[Jim Crow laws|segregation]].<ref name=Wroe2008>{{Cite news |last=Wroe |first=Simon |date=20 March 2008 |title=Trevor, a true fighter for equality |work=[[Camden New Journal]] |url=http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2008/032008/obit032008_01.html |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430193035/http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2008/032008/obit032008_01.html |archive-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> Carter's "experiences in New Orleans at the height of racial segregation engendered a lifelong battle to improve race relations" according to Carter's obituary,<ref name= Wroe2008/> and made him vow to never live in the United States according to [[Graham Stevenson (trade union leader)|Graham Stevenson]], a British trade union leader.<ref name="Stevenson2011">{{Cite news |last= Stevenson|first= Graham |author-link= Graham Stevenson (trade union leader) |date=25 August 2011 |title=Carter Trevor |work=Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies|publisher= grahamstevenson.me.uk |url=https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2011/08/25/carter-trevor/ |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430193137/https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2011/08/25/carter-trevor/ |archive-date=30 April 2023}}</ref>
=== Arrival in Britain ===
After travelling through various parts of the U.S., Carter moved to Britain to study architecture at [[Regent Street Polytechnic]].<ref name=Wong2009/> In 1954 he arrived in London as a member of the [[Windrush generation]].<ref name=Meddick2020/> According to Paul Okojie of [[Manchester Polytechnic]] in a 1987 book review published in ''[[Race & Class]]'', Carter described London during that period in his 1986 book, ''Shattering Illusions: West Indians in British Politics'' as "traumatic", and a place "which rejected, insulted, devalued and discriminated against" West Indians, where they "encountered humiliation and had to learn to survive within a system of economic, political and cultural subordination", writing that the work they could find was "invariably unskilled manual work" with long hours for little pay.<ref name= Okojie1987/>
=== Early activism ===
According to Okojie, Carter says that the trade unions "refused to align with black people in their struggles against racial oppression", and quotes Carter as writing, "a clearer vision of our common good, which must be socialism, would help us to rescue black people from the margins of political activity".<ref name= Okojie1987/> Evan Smith cites page 62 of Carter's book in a 2008 ''[[Science & Society]]'' article to state that, during the 1950s, the Communist Party recruited Carter, Strachan and other black members but that, "for Carter, the 'stubborn class-before-race position of the Party during the fifties and sixties cost the Party dearly in terms of its [black] members'."<ref name=Smith2008>{{cite journal |title= Class before Race": British Communism and the Place of Empire in Postwar Race Relations |last= Smith |first= Evan |journal = Science & Society |volume = 72 |issue = 4 |date = October 2008 |
Carter greeted his cousin, Claudia Jones, when she arrived in the UK after being deported from the US in November 1955.<ref name=Wong2009/> Carter admired Jones for her understanding of racial and class issues.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Horsley |first=David |date=1 December 2020 |title=The political life and times of Claudia Jones |work=[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|The Morning Star]] |url=https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/political-life-and-times-claudia-jones |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430194037/https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/political-life-and-times-claudia-jones |archive-date=30 April 2023 |quote= In Britain, veteran Caribbean communists Billy Strachan, Trevor Carter and Cleston Taylor recognised Jones as having a greater understanding of race and class than themselves and a greater vision.}}</ref> On New Year's Eve 1955, Carter married Corinne Skinner at [[Christ Church, Hampstead]].<ref
== Role in the creation of Notting Hill Carnival ==
In the aftermath of the [[Notting hill race riots|Notting Hill race riots]], and the 1959 [[murder of Kelso Cochrane]] by white youths, Carter, Corinne Skinner-Carter and Claudia Jones were among a committee that sought to create a carnival to bring the London Caribbean community together. Their plans came to fruition on 30 January 1959, and Carter worked as the stage manager of the first [[British African-Caribbean people|British-Caribbean]] Carnival, held in [[St Pancras Town Hall]].<ref name="Wong2009" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Younge |first=Cary |date=17 August 2002 |title=The politics of partying |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/aug/17/nottinghillcarnival2002.nottinghillcarnival |access-date=5 July 2023}}</ref> This event was the precursor to the [[Notting Hill Carnival]], which would become one of the largest annual carnivals in the world. Carter continued to support and promote the
== Work in British Guiana ==
[[Cheddi Jagan]] invited Carter to travel to [[British Guiana]],<ref name="Manifesto2020">{{unreliable source?|date=August 2023}} {{Cite book |title=Red Lives: Communists and the Struggle for Socialism |last2= |last3= |publisher=Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited / Communist Party of Britain |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-907464-45-4 |editor-last=Meddick |editor-first=Simon |pages=33 |editor-last2=Payne |editor-first2=Liz |editor-last3=Katz |editor-first3=Phil}}</ref> where Carter worked from 1963 to 1966 as a school teacher<ref name="Stevenson2011" /> with the [[People's Progressive Party (Guyana)|People's Progressive Party]], founded by Jagan.<ref name="Manifesto2020" /> During his time in Guiana, the political situation became unstable and he returned to Britain.<ref name="Manifesto2020" />
== Educationalist career and later work ==
Upon returning to Britain from Guyana in 1966, Carter enrolled at the [[College of North West London]] (then Kilburn Polytechnic) and began studying A-level [[physiology]], [[sociology]], and [[economics]].<ref name="Stevenson2011" /> During the nights he worked for a [[telephone exchange]] in [[Covent Garden]].<ref name="Stevenson2011" /> Completing his courses, he enrolled at the [[University of North London]] (then Polytechnic of North London) in 1968.<ref name="Stevenson2011" />
Sometime during the 1970s, Carter worked with [[The Mangrove]] restaurant, where a group of other activists known as "the [[Mangrove Nine]]" met.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jasper |first=Lee |author-link=Lee Jasper |date=4 December 2020 |title=The Mangrove: My University of activism |work=Operation Black Vote |url=https://www.obv.org.uk/node/12923 |url-status=live |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430194545/https://www.obv.org.uk/node/12923 |archive-date=30 April 2023}}</ref>
After graduation, Carter became a [[Qualified teacher status|qualified British teacher]] and began working at Brooke House secondary school in [[Lower Clapton]], [[Hackney, London|Hackney]], and later became the school's head of the social studies department.<ref name="Stevenson2011" /> Alongside other black activists, Carter became one of the founding members of the Caribbean Teachers Association, which led him to become involved in the Rampton Report, which found that the British educational system had been failing black students.<ref name="Manifesto2020" /> He contributed to another government educational reform white paper called the Swann Report as a member of [[Michael Swann|Lord Swann]]'s committee,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Marika |author-link=Marika Sherwood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YykqAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Trevor+Carter%22 |title=Claudia Jones: A Life in Exile |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart |year=1999 |pages=11 |isbn=9780853158820 |language=en |format=paperback}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cashmore |first1=Ellis |author-link=Ellis Cashmore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOAR150mjZ4C&dq=%22Trevor+Carter%22&pg=PA161 |title=Introduction to Race Relations |last2=Troyna |first2=Barry |publisher=Falmer Press |year=1990 |isbn=9781850007593 |pages=161 |language=en |format=Hardcover}}</ref> work for which he was recommended to receive
He joined the [[Inner London Education Authority]] as a Senior Education Liaison Officer,<ref name="Stevenson2011" /> before being made their Head of Equal Opportunities.<ref name="Manifesto2020" /> He was the chairman of the Hackney Community Relations Enterprise,<ref name="Wroe2008" /> and co-founder of both the Caribbean Teachers Organisation and the [[Black Theatre Co-operative]].<ref name="Wroe2008" /> He also volunteered for [[War on Want]].<ref name="Wroe2008" />
In 1987, Carter was elected to the central committee of the CPGB at the 40th Congress of the party.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OV1nAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Trevor+Carter%22 |title=Third World Impact |publisher=Hansib Pub. |year=1988 |isbn=9781870518048 |editor-last=Ali |editor-first=Arif |pages=348 |language=en |format=Hardcover}}</ref> After the CPGB dissolved in 1991, Carter joined the Labour Party and ran as a council candidate for Labour in [[Islington]].<ref name="Wroe2008" />
===Author ===
== Later life and death ==
In 1998, Carter was interviewed for a documentary about [[Paul Robeson]] entitled ''[[Paul Robeson: Here I Stand]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 July 1998 |title=Trevor Carter |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/archive/interview/trevor-carter/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504151548/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/archive/interview/trevor-carter/ |archive-date=4 May 2023 |access-date=4 May 2023 |website=PBS}}</ref>
Carter died in early March 2008 at his home in [[Archway, London|Archway]], London. His funeral was held on 18 March 2008, at St Augustine's Church, Highgate,<ref name=Wroe2>{{cite news |last=Wroe |first=Simon |date=6 March 2008 |title=Obituary {{!}} Activist and socialist who was an inspiration to all |newspaper=Camden New Journal |url=http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2008/030608/obit030608_03.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430194920/https://www.thecnj.com/camden/2008/030608/obit030608_03.html |archive-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> with a eulogy titled "A Life with Purpose" being delivered by Professor [[Gus John]].<ref name="Wong2009" /> [[Jeremy Corbyn]] described him as a "hope and inspiration to many who were suffering appalling racism and discrimination as newly arrived workers from the West Indies".<ref name="Wroe2008" />
In September 2009, at a ceremony organised by family and friends, a teak bench was dedicated to Carter's memory in [[Waterlow Park]], [[Highgate]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Gulliver |first=John |date=11 September 2009 |title=The Bull, a man who got things done |newspaper=Islington Tribune |url=http://www.thecnj.com/islington/2009/091109/inews091109_16.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430195052/https://www.thecnj.com/islington/2009/091109/inews091109_16.html |archive-date=30 April 2023}}</ref>
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{{Reflist}}
== External source ==
* [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/archive/interview/trevor-carter/ Trevor Carter interview in ''Paul Robeson: Here I Stand''] (PBS.org)
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