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Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Dean Karen Bravo hosted a conversation Thursday with former Indiana Attorney General Pamela Carter, as the state’s first Black and first female attorney general recounted some of the formative experiences of her life and how she came to be elected to one of the state’s highest elected positions.
Bravo started out by discussing Carter’s experience marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and how it influenced her career path.
Carter, who was also the first Black woman to serve as an attorney general in any U.S. state, according to IU, said that she was a high school student when she went to Chicago to march with King.
She said it was the first time she saw Ku Klux Klan regalia and that it was also the first time she felt primal fear.
The crowd linked arms at the march and began to sing and picked up their pace.
Carter said it calmed her down and kept the crowd focused on a peaceful protest.
“I’ll never forget that because at that moment as a teenager, the empowerment of a U.S. citizen fighting for the American dream. That was I was entitled to as much as anyone else,” Carter said.
She recalled her great grandfather, who was a slave on a Georgia plantation and left shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
Her grandfather, who lived until he was 100, would quote William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England.
Carter said the book on English common law is how she first learned about law.
“I knew he had done it. It wasn’t an exaggeration, because when I went to IU McKinney Law School and I was in the stacks of a library, we didn’t have the technology at that time in the 80s. I saw the Blackstone Commentaries, opened it to the first volume, and my grandfather had been quoting that to me verbatim,” Carter said.
She said that her grandfather couldn’t read or write initially, but learned how to, studied the law and took the bar exam.
He couldn’t practice law, so he started a church in Michigan.
Carter added that seeing her family’s resilience and development by making their way during a challenging time and still being successful is something that still informs her.
Carter was a social worker after she graduated with her bachelor’s in social work and pre-law from the University of Detroit.
She graduated from IU McKinney and then worked with the United Auto Workers until she became deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Evan Bayh.
In 1992 she ran for Indiana Attorney General, won the general election and succeeded Linley Pearson.
After that, she served as the vice president of manufacturing at Cummins and as a member of the board of directors of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
She said that being taught how to think critically and write clearly has helped her in her career.
Bravo followed up by asking what some of the most meaningful aspects of her role were as attorney general.
Carter said during her time as attorney general, the office handled a lot of major cases like the Mike Tyson appellate case, a Medicaid case and four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Our reputation became a national reputation,” Carter said.
Bravo asked Carter to discus the four cases she had brought before the U.S. Supreme Court and how she won all four cases.
Carter said when she became attorney general the office didn’t have a U.S. Supreme Court group.
She said that she never argued those cases before the high court because she wanted her best and brightest there.
Carter added that she did argue a case before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bravo noted how Carter has served in many different roles in her life. She asked her what advice she might have for someone that’s just starting their calling.
Carter said that self-awareness and investing in passions is important.
“I’d also say don’t be a cynic. I’m not a cynic, because I choose not to be one, I choose hope. I choose for our improvement every day, but I am going to have sometimes when it’s not going to be so good. And there’ll be times when it’ll be better. But I choose joy. I choose strength,” Carter said.
Bravo asked her what it felt like to break through the metaphorical glass ceilings over and over again.
Carter said she doesn’t think about breaking barriers.
“I try to live life full throttle. Just go for it every day. I think you have to be entrepreneurial in your career, because if something doesn’t work, you try something else, you don’t get stuck. And I’ve had a fairly varied career and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. But I would say that I just try to take the challenges as they come,” Carter said.
She added that it was never an easy path, but it was an achievable one.
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