Marjorie Day Carter, a well-known teacher in the Syracuse School District for 40 years, passed away on Thursday, April 25.
She was 97 years old.
In 1950, she became the first Black teacher to be hired by Syracuse Schools.
“Whatever it is that you want to do,” she liked to say, “believe in yourself and you can do it.”
According to her obituary, she was born on August 9, 1926, the only child of Orlando and Hester Day.
The lifelong resident of Syracuse attended Madison Elementary School and graduated from Central High School.
Music and the arts were her main interests growing up, and she was an avid reader.
”I always enjoyed school,” Day Carter once said. “I admired what teachers were doing. I’m not sure if I had a role model, but one teacher I remember was Miss Hamlin in the sixth grade (at the Madison School). She did special things. I did that with kids, too.”
“Marjorie grew up in Syracuse University’s Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity House at 1011 Walnut Avenue, where her father worked as the head custodian for decades,” the Onondaga Historical Association’s Robert Searing wrote in a profile in 2023. “There she witnessed the power of education to shape lives.”
After graduating from Cortland State Teachers College in 1950, she was hired to teach first and second grade at Syracuse’s Charles Andrews School on the city’s East Side.
She would be the only Black teacher in the district for four years.
Her hire created news in local newspaper, but Day Carter was too busy educating her students to notice any attention.
“I guess I was more uncomfortable just being a new teacher in a room with 36 kids,” she told columnist Dick Case in 1990. “I knew I had to do the best job I could, as a teacher. As a Black, I knew I’d have to take a little extra step.”
“Remember,” she added, “this was before the integration plan and busing. Charles Andrews was just a neighborhood school. My main concern was giving the kids as much as I could, stretching them as much as I could. Their parents told me later the kids never came home and said they had a Black teacher. The parents found that out when they came to school and met me.”
She worked on federally funded programs that sought to improve the quality of classroom instruction for inner-city and at-risk youth in Syracuse and was an early proponent for team teaching.
“During the tumultuous days of the civil rights movement,” Searing wrote, “Carter acted as a steady hand and leader in the fight for equity in education.”
“Because she was willing to try new and innovative teaching methods,” her obituary said, “with the goal of bringing the highest level of learning to Syracuse City Schools, she was offered the position of Instructional Specialist, a position she filled for most of her career, educating the teachers and advocating for the interests of those who teach.”
In 1972, she made history again when she became the first Black woman to assume the office of president of the Syracuse Teachers’ Association.
Day Carter was a board member of the New York State United Teachers and served as a delegate for the National Education Association. She traveled to China to bring new ideas in education as the country opened its doors to Western ideas and she served as a member of a delegation to Lesotho, to expand the educational process in that emerging African country.
She was a board member of the Association of Childhood Education at the national level.
“Teaching,” she said in 1984, “is never dull. It’s as exciting as you want to make it.”
She remained active after her retirement in 1990.
She continued to educate members of the community as a docent for the Everson Museum of Art for more than 25 years and was honored by receiving its Exemplary Service Award.
Day Carter served on the leadership team of the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary for 25 years, was busy with the Syracuse Chapter of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, as well as the Syracuse Interfaith Works Senior Service Program, SUNY Cortland Alumni Board, and Syracuse University’s International Center.
She served as a board member for OASIS of Central New York and was a past President of the Syracuse Chapter of Links, Incorporated, was a member of University United Methodist Church, and a member and contributor to the Onondaga Historical Association.
Her many honors include the Post Standard Woman of Achievement Award for contributions to the local community and she was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Century Club in 2021.
Day Carter also received the SUNY Cortland Distinguished Alumni Award, and an Association of Black Educators’ Distinguished Service Award. In her honor, a Marjorie Day Carter Scholarship is awarded annually to a SUNY Cortland student who is committed to teaching in an urban setting.
She was predeceased by her beloved husband Alonzo Carter in 1974.
Day Carter is survived by several cousins including Judith Bryant of Auburn NY, Gloria Strong and Valerie Wallace of Hampton, Virginia, Barbara Bakeman Fero and Jo Anne Bakeman of Syracuse, NY, and a host of friends, neighbors, former students, and family.
She is also survived by special friends Trymeter “Tree” Carter and Sandra L. Holmes.
Calling hours will be held Monday, May 6, from 11 am to 1 pm at University United Methodist Church at 1085 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, with services to follow at 1, Rev. Alicia Wood will be officiating.
Parking for the church is at 324 University Avenue, Syracuse, NY
Interment will be in Highland Cemetery, 4262-4282 New Seneca Turnpike, Marcellus NY 13108, where she will be buried next to her husband, Alonzo, and alongside her parents Orlando and Hester.
Donations can be made to Salvation Army Women’s and Children’s Services, 677 South Salina Street, Syracuse NY 13202, or to Syracuse Chapter of Links, Inc Scholarship Fund, c/o PO Box 345, Syracuse NY 13214.
Online condolences can be shared at www.shepardsonfh.com.
