Fannie Cobb Carter

Fannie Cobb Carter (September 30, 1872 – March 29, 1973) was an American educator, humanitarian, and activist for school integration in the United States.

Early life Fannie Cobb was born in Charleston, West Virginia. She was born the same the year a state constitution was passed to prohibit black and white children from attending the same schools. Daughter to two formerly enslaved people, Fannie began her schooling at a Black school in Charleston on Quarrier Street. Upon the death of her mother, Fannie lived with her grandmother who worked for Charles Lewis,

In the late 1890s, Carter traveled with the Hampton Institute Singers from Hampton, Virginia. She traveled with them throughout Europe, although she was not a singer. She also attended the Hampton Institute for a time.

Adult life Fannie married Emery Rankin Carter in 1911, who was a lawyer in Charleston, West Virginia. They resided in the South Hills neighborhood.

Carter became friends with West Virginia Governor Homer Holt after she called upon him to stop a public hanging of a woman in Fairmont, West Virginia. Carter reportedly said, "Governor, a woman is going to be hanged. You know that a woman never has been hanged in West Virginia. You wouldn't want that to happen in your administration, would you?" This conversation led to the woman's sentence being commuted to life imprisonment.

Career After receiving her undergraduate degree, Carter initially taught in West Virginia, at Kanawha County public schools. There was "quite a commotion" Thomas Miller, State Superintendent of Schools in West Virginia, released her from her contract to organize the teacher-trainer department at West Virginia Colored Institute in 1908, where she stayed for 12 years. The school is now known as West Virginia State University. Fannie was the highest paid Black educator in the state, making $700 a year. In 1925, Carter was named superintendent of the State Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington, West Virginia. She received the position after the death of her husband, Emory Carter. She refused to take the position until the bars that lined the home's windows were removed by the state. She is also honored with a bronze marker from the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, through their National Historic Marker Project.