Philip Carter

Professor Philip W. Carter, Jr., MSW, is a professor of Social Work and an academic activist with more than 40 years of service at Marshall University.

A native of Clay County who was raised in Clarksburg, Carter came to Marshall in 1959 to play basketball. His advocacy efforts began when he formed the student-led Civic Interest Progressives (CIP). The CIP was responsible for desegregation in public accommodations, the establishment of human rights commissions and racial betterment on Marshall’s campus and across the Tri-State.

Carter’s 1962 appointment by U.S. Representative Ken Heckler to the U.S. Capitol Police Force was the first for an undergraduate athlete to receive a federal appointment. As one of the first black athletes at a Division I white institution south of the Mason-Dixon Line, he assumed leadership on the basketball court and mobilized desegregation in public businesses in the Tri-State.

Throughout the country, Carter has employed sit-ins, wade-ins, share-ins, picketing, court challenges, education/information, voting, business policy, economic disruption and marches to secure black rights.

At age 26, he was one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).  His education and experience at the University of Pittsburgh and in the community prepared him to lead Community Action Regional Training (CART) for 23 counties in Western Pennsylvania.

Carter’s cumulative preparation in academia and in the community led him back to his alma mater in 1980, where he demanded accreditation of the Social Work Department. Serving as the department’s chairperson, he became the first Social Work faculty member to receive tenure.

Carter has served four terms as president of the Huntington-Cabell chapter of the NAACP. At the end of the millennium, The Herald-Dispatch recognized him as one of the “50 Top Influential Leaders in the Tri-State for the 20th Century.”

In 2011, Carter was inducted into the West Virginia All-Black School Sports and Academic Hall of Fame as a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. He also is a co-founder of the Black Legends Hall of Fame, which has recognized more than 125 Black student athletes at Marshall since 1995.

In 2017, Carter and his wife Beverly were recognized by the Fairfield community for their social justice work.

Mayor Steve Williams designated 9th Street between 4th and 5th avenues as Phil Carter Plaza during a public ceremony in November 2022 in downtown Huntington.