Born in 1933, Jeanie Martin Carter grew up in Bartow County, Georgia, where she attended Noble Hill Elementary School and Summer Hill High School. After earning an education degree from Morris Brown College, she taught at Marietta’s Lemon Street Elementary School, Wright Street School, and Hickory Hills Elementary, where she was the first black teacher on staff. After earning a master’s degree at Emory University, she taught at Park Street Elementary School and Pine Forest Elementary School before retiring in 1991. Carter would go on to serve as the first black woman on the school board from 1993 to 2009.

Listen to the audio recording of her oral history interview.