26 Facts About Trevor Carter

Trevor Carter was a British communist party leader, educator, black civil rights activist, and co-founder of the Caribbean Teachers Association.

Trevor Carter served as the head of equal opportunities for the Inner London Education Authority.

Trevor Carter co-authored the 1986 book Shattering Illusions: West Indians in British Politics.

Trevor Carter was a communist activist, and a member of the CPGB from his arrival in Britain in 1954 until the party was dissolved in 1991.

Trevor Carter was the stage manager of the first British-Caribbean Carnival, held in St Pancras Town Hall, and later a Trustee of the Notting Hill Carnival Trust.

Together his cousin Claudia Jones, and wife, the EastEnders actress Corinne Skinner-Trevor Carter, they helped establish the second-largest annual carnival in the world, London's Notting Hill Carnival.

Trevor Clarence Carter was born in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, in the British colony of Trinidad, on 9 October 1930, the eldest of 12 children of housewife Elene Carter, and her husband, cabinet maker Clarence Carter.

Trevor Carter's views and political beliefs were heavily influenced by some of his teachers who were Marxists, and by his father who was a trade unionist, the combination of which made a strong impression on Carter.

At the age of 14, Trevor Carter left school and worked as a mess boy on a merchant ship; during this time he travelled to New Orleans where he observed segregation.

In Britain, Trevor Carter lived for several years with fellow Caribbean communist activist Billy Strachan, alongside Strachan's family.

Later in life, Trevor Carter recalled the Strachan family fondly, saying that he felt "a true affection in the Strachan family".

Trevor Carter was active in the Caribbean Labor Congress, which historian Bill Schwarz suggests operated independently of the Communist Party, despite being proscribed by the Labour Party and TUC as a "Communist front".

Trevor Carter greeted his cousin, Claudia Jones, when she arrived in the UK after being deported from the US in November 1955.

Trevor Carter admired Jones for her understanding of racial and class issues.

On New Year's Eve 1955, Trevor Carter married Corinne Skinner at Christ Church, Hampstead.

Trevor Carter continued to support and promote the Notting Hill Carnival, becoming involved in the annual celebrations for the remainder of his life.

Sometime during the 1970s, Trevor Carter worked with The Mangrove restaurant, where a group of other activists known as "the Mangrove Nine" met.

Alongside other black activists, Trevor Carter became one of the founding members of the Caribbean Teachers Association, which led him to become involved in the Rampton Report, which found that the British educational system had been failing black students.

Trevor Carter contributed to another government educational reform white paper called the Swann Report as a member of Lord Swann's committee, work for which he was recommended to receive the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the educational authority.

Trevor Carter acknowledged that some black individuals said the Swann Report was racist, but he "consider[ed] this view to be misguided"; he didn't agree with the Swann Report, but considered it constructive.

Trevor Carter joined the Inner London Education Authority as a Senior Education Liaison Officer, before being made their Head of Equal Opportunities.

Trevor Carter was the chairman of the Hackney Community Relations Enterprise, and co-founder of both the Caribbean Teachers Organisation and the Black Theatre Co-operative.

In 1987, Trevor Carter was elected to the central committee of the CPGB at the 40th Congress of the party.

In 1998, Trevor Carter was interviewed for a documentary about Paul Robeson entitled Paul Robeson: Here I Stand.

Trevor Carter died in early March 2008 at his home in Archway, London.

Trevor Carter's funeral was held on 18 March 2008, at St Augustine's Church, Highgate, with a eulogy titled "A Life with Purpose" being delivered by Professor Gus John.