Velma Carter Bio
Why Velma Carter?
The Early Years of Velma Carter
From an early age, Velma had a quick wit and sharp tongue that gave the patriarchy a run for its money. She challenged questionable male authority figures and suffocating gender roles at a time when backlash was guaranteed. Undaunted, she figured if the boys could tame the broncos, so could she. When she wasn’t handling teams of workhorses with her brother Frank, Velma became adept at horticulture, agriculture and root remedies, all of which became the foundation for the healthy, holistic lifestyle she would ultimately lead.
Her mother noted her advanced intellect and sent Velma to attend school in Edmonton for a more rigorous education. There, living with her sister Agnes and maternal grandparents, the family advocated for Velma to attend Norwood school. However, she was denied entry because of her race. Her grandfather, the Rev. Frank Henderson, repeatedly went to the school and challenged the principal. Finally, the principal relented with a caveat: Velma would start two grades higher and if after one semester she was behind her classmates, she would be expelled.
Today this is what we call being set up for failure. However, Rev. Henderson and Agnes tutored Velma and to the principal’s shock and dismay, in one semester Velma outscored some of her white classmates. From there, Velma went on to become who we believe is the first Black student to attend Victoria Composite High School. At the same time, other Black girls were being sent to the school for domestics several blocks over, despite their aptitudes.
These early encounters with institutional racism taught a young Velma Carter that negations about her capabilities were patently false; challenging gatekeepers for what you want in life was a necessity, as was the grit and discipline to grab opportunities that were intentionally dangled above your reach.
A New Educational Philosophy
Velma graduated from Normal School (teachers college) while still in her teens and was assigned her first post: a one-room schoolhouse on the Saskatchewan border in the village of Clansdonald.
The townsfolk heard in advance their new schoolteacher was Black. They assembled at the train station – illiterate and with marginal English but for a perfected enunciation of the N-Word – and accosted Velma; the teenager who was the only teacher they were going to get. The mob discovered this fact the hard way after they sent Velma back to Edmonton. They were informed by the school board it was Velma or no one.
Having come from a people who had developed a deft ability to navigate white supremacy, Velma courageously went back to Clansdonald with a plan. She would uphold her oath to educate, even if it required inventing new techniques, as her training had only prepared her for grade-level English speakers.
Velma dived into the depths of her creativity, crafting songs, enactments, rhymes and other methods to reach the students. When racism and misogyny would rear their heads and massive farm boys threatened violence, her childhood skill of wrangling broncos came in handy and she quickly dispelled their threats with a sound thrashing.
It was a language they understood, and sent a message to any other men-boys who were looking to alleviate their insecurities through violence.
By the end of the school year, the parents of Clansdonald were devastated to see Velma leave. Thanks to her, their children were nearly fluent in English and were literate for the first time in most of their bloodlines. They gathered once again at the train station, apparently swapping their pitchforks and torches for waving handkerchiefs and tearful goodbyes.
Velma went on to teach at other one-room schoolhouses in Alberta, including the Toles School at Amber Valley. There, with a Black student body, she laid the foundation for what would be the educational philosophy for the hundreds of Black students she would later go on to educate in the US: Black children possess the same intelligence as others and they shall not be dismissed as failures; it is the teacher’s responsibility to innovate methods to engage them and bring forth their potential.
This philosophy challenged the prevailing notions of the time; notions that had enshrined medical racism (junk science alleging African-descended people were the least intelligent race due to small brain size) at the core of North American education systems.
Velma, with her creative, encouraging instruction, was fondly remembered by many of her Amber Valley students as the best teacher they ever had. She recognized their gifts and abilities and it transformed them.
Velma Moves to Berkeley, California
After 12 years of teaching in small villages around Alberta, Velma returned to Wildwood and ran the Leffler General Store with her brother Frank. Here she honed a business acumen that would inform multiple ventures outside of her education career.
By 1946, Velma grew tired of the limitations of small town life. She loved the people she was born and raised with, but knew she would have to leave to build the life she really wanted.
Velma moved to Berkeley, California, married Texan Mitchell Carter and had a son, Le Vero Carter, all by 1948. There, she embarked on a nearly 25-year career teaching in predominantly Black schools in the Bay Area eventually becoming a vice-principal – a rarity for a woman, let alone a Black one, at the time.
To know Velma is to understand the rich contextual history in which she lived. The 1960s had exploded with a revolution of Black thought, culture and resistance. Berkeley was an epicenter of “The Struggle”, and Velma was surrounded by organizing, protest, and self-defense. The women’s liberation movement also entered a new iteration in the 60s with women of all races pushing back against patriarchal oppression. Her son grew up watching his mother embody the principles being fought for long before they emerged in mainstream discourse and were monopolized by white women of that generation. As such, he affectionately dubbed Velma “The Original Women’s Libber.”
Having been raised on Garvey’s “Up you mighty race, accomplish what you will”, Velma doubled her commitment to the shaping of young Black minds. While the revolution marched through the streets, her realm of resistance was the classroom. Her progressive teaching methods were heralded to professors developing Head Start, a program that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, and services to low-income children and families.
“In its earliest days, Head Start was not just an early childhood innovation, it was an invention, and a radical one at that. Much more than just childcare or even preschool, Head Start was a dramatic intervention that was designed intentionally by a cross-disciplinary team of scientists and experts to end poverty by sparking curiosity and a lifelong love of learning among the country’s most vulnerable children and their families. In some parts of the country, such as the deep South, Head Start was a critical part of the struggle for civil rights and social justice.”
Velma, a Black Woman from Wildwood, Alberta, was invited to be a Demonstration Instructor and share her affirming approach to educating Black children with the Head Start team, thus weaving her influence into an organization that currently supports more than 1 million children in North America and birthed the iconic TV show we all know and love, Sesame Street.
Velma Returns to Her Roots
Although Velma had accomplished much, life still had some curveballs in store. When she met her husband, Velma was impressed by his ambition for upward mobility. However, unbeknownst to her, Mitchell wasn’t just an ex-military man. He had lived through a horrific lynching that hollowed out Kirvin, Texas, the proserous Black town of his birth. Trauma left him an alcoholic who hid his addiction by drinking odorless liquor. His alcoholism contributed to incidents of domestic violence. The Carters had built a respectable real estate portfolio while in California, led in part by Velma’s acumen. Even though there was a lot to lose, Velma continued to defy convention by liquidating their assets and leaving Mitchell to his own devices. She returned to her people in Alberta in 1969 and he died shortly thereafter.
Back in Berkeley, the war on Black bodies had hit close to home when her son, who had been filming the state violence, became a target. Fearing for his life, she sent him to Edmonton for safety amongst her people. Their life as they had known it, was over. It was time to rebuild.
Family obligations soon took centre stage. Although Velma was retired, she took on the task of raising her son Le Vero’s two daughters. It was her legal strategy that introduced the Edmonton court system to the concept of Black children remaining with Black families. That, along with her financial backing, resulted in Le Vero becoming the first male to be awarded full custody of female children in Alberta.
Returning to Edmonton was like entering a time warp. Velma quickly encountered regressive mentalities in both Black and white people who seemed frozen in time. It was a stark contrast to her life in Berkeley. By now, her people had largely internalized the oppression they were subjected to, thus becoming passive and more interested in assimilation. Velma was watching her people’s place in history slip away.
She decided to apply the same lens of promise to her cultural community; where many were struggling with self-hatred and identity issues. She saw they were facing erasure so embarked on a new career: author and documentarian.
Through meticulous interviews and transcription, Velma recorded the elders who had made the trek from the South to Northern Alberta. Like Zora Neale Hurston, she did not seek to edit their Southern dialect and speech patterns with the Queen’s English. She believed their telltale signs of Blackness were perfect as they were and required no gentrification.
Her history books, the Windows of Our Memories, Vols I and II; along with The Black Canadians, a social studies textbook to give Black students positive, modern representions instead of the slavery-era content favoured by Canadian school systems, became groundbreaking texts in their genres.
Forever Innovating: Velma in Her Later Years
Through the 1970s and 80s, Velma led many community consciousness-raising projects and events. She formed a nonprofit, the Black Cultural Research Society and held conferences and symposiums inviting some of Canada’s foremost Black activists and thought leaders, such as Nova Scotia’s Carrie Best. Edmonton’s Black community did not have easy access to such influencers; the impact was electrifying.
Harnessing that positivity, she founded an all-Black newspaper, the Communicant, to highlight local activities and accomplishments. It was her way of countering the negative messages so many had taken to heart. The Communicant was published for approximately 10 years, thanks to the involvement of other community builders, notably Edith Mayes and Phyllis Johnson.
If all that wasn’t enough, during this same time period Velma Carter also masterminded the family’s multi-million dollar real estate portfolio, worked to recruit a progressive Black minister for the scandal-ridden historical Black church that teetered on the brink of implosion, ran an ordered, well-appointed home, continued to raise and support the activities of her two granddaughters, elatedly welcomed the birth of her grandson and inspired countless community and family members.
In the 1990s, Velma was reenergized with the birth of great-grandchildren. Her home was filled with their sparkling presence and she encouraged their growth and expression.
She achieved all of these things while making sure she didn’t lose herself in the process.
Here is where we take deep inspiration for our offerings from the Velma Carter Centre. As our namesake exemplifies, achievement does not have to come at the sacrifice of our health and well being.
Velma Carter focused deeply on her spirituality, her holistic healing practices and mindset.
They were the real source of her success.
They helped her recover from stressful, traumatic experiences that are identifiable if you read between the lines of this biographical account.
When Velma passed away on January 5, 2002, the family had been keeping watch for two weeks. The hospital room and adjoining hall held members of the Black community who knew a great matriarch was leaving us. Did we love and respect her because she gave us her all and kept nothing in return? No. Velma was generous but she required reciprocity. That is what we respected, and it has become a guiding principle of our work today.
In honour of Velma Carter and the deep wisdom her life imparted to those who have an ear to hear, we proudly present the Velma Carter Centre for African-Canadian Women.
May the lifelong healing and learning she refined, enrich and transform you.
Junetta Carter-Jamerson
Director & Co-Founder
Velma Carter Centre for African Canadian Women