Overcoming poverty and racism, Julia Carson served nearly
two decades in the Indiana legislature and in an Indianapolis
administrative office before winning election to the U.S.
House in 1996. Carson, the first African American and first
woman to represent the Indiana state capital in Congress,
focused on issues that affected working class Americans,
many of which she knew firsthand. “The only thing some
people learn from oppression and hatred is revenge. Others
learn compassion and empathy,” said former Indiana
Representative Andrew Jacobs Jr., Carson’s political mentor.
“From the physical pain of material poverty and the
mindlessly cruel persecution of nitwit racism, Julia Carson
made her choice of hard work, compassion, and a pleasing
sense of humor.”1
Julia Carson was born Julia May Porter in Louisville,
Kentucky, on July 8, 1938. Her single mother, Velma
Porter, moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, to find work as
a housekeeper. Carson grew up poor, attended the local
public schools, and worked part-time, waiting tables,
delivering newspapers, and harvesting crops, among other
jobs. In 1955 she graduated from Crispus Attucks High
School in Indianapolis. A short while later she was married,
and had two children: Sam and Tonya. She divorced
while her children were still young. She later studied at
Martin University in Indianapolis and Indiana University
in Bloomington. In 1965 she was working as a secretary
at a local chapter of United Auto Workers when she met
newly elected Representative Andy Jacobs, who hired her
as a caseworker and district aide. Carson worked for Jacobs
for seven years until 1972, when he encouraged her to run
for office in the Indiana legislature. He recalled sitting in
Carson’s living room for an hour, trying to convince her to
run. “Come on, kid,” Jacobs encouraged. “This is the time
to step up.”2
From 1973 to 1977, Carson served in the state house
of representatives, serving as the assistant minority caucus
chair, before winning election to the Indiana state senate.
She served in the senate until 1990, sitting on the finance
committee and eventually holding the minority whip
position. Throughout her service in the state legislature,
Carson was employed as the human resources director at an
electric company—a job she held from 1973 to 1996. In
1991, Carson won election as a Center Township trustee. As
trustee, she administered government aid payments in central
Indianapolis, earning a reputation for defending the poor
that would last throughout her career.3 Carson successfully
erased the agency’s crippling debt—a $20 million deficit—leaving $7 million in the bank prior to winning a seat in
Congress. “Julia Carson,” observed the county’s Republican
auditor, “wrestled that monster to the ground.”4
When Andy Jacobs retired from the House in 1996
after 15 terms representing a district encompassing
greater Indianapolis, Carson entered the race to fill his
seat. Traditionally moderate, the district was 68 percent
white and 30 percent Black. With Jacobs’s endorsement,
Carson defeated the former district party chair, Ann
DeLaney, in the Democratic primary with 49 percent of
the vote. Political observers maintained that Carson was at
a disadvantage in the general election against Republican
Virginia Blankenbaker, insisting she could not win in
the conservative-leaning, majority-white district. Both
candidates were more liberal than their respective party’s
general positions, supporting abortion rights and opposing
the death penalty. When opponents tried to make her race
a campaign issue, Carson shut the effort down. “I am not
your African American candidate. I am the Democratic
candidate for Congress. I don’t allow my opponents to
stereotype me and confine me to a certain segment of
the population.”5 On Election Day, Carson won with 53
percent of the vote to Blankenbaker’s 45 percent.6
Carson underwent heart surgery shortly after her election
and was sworn into office from her hospital bed on January
9, 1997. She was unable to travel to Washington, DC, until
early March. Her health problems led to speculation she
would not seek re-election in 1998, but Carson quickly
quieted the rumors.7 Carson won re-election four times
by slightly larger margins in her competitive district.
Reapportionment in 2001 added more than 100,000 new
constituents, many of them Republican. Nevertheless,
Carson was re-elected in 2004 and 2006, both times with
54 percent of the vote.8
When Carson claimed her seat in the 105th
Congress (1997–1999), she served on the Banking and
Financial Services Committee (later renamed Financial
Services) and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. In the
108th Congress (2003–2005) she left Veterans’ Affairs
to accept an assignment on the Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee.
Carson had varied legislative interests, ranging from
national issues affecting children and working Americans to
local programs of interest to her Indianapolis constituency.
From her seat on Financial Services, Carson authored
legislation to reform the debt consolidation industry.
Boosting America’s “financial literacy” was one of her chief
goals. To that end, she helped create the Indiana Mortgage
and Foreclosure Hotline to counsel homeowners and
potential buyers about the mortgage process. Carson noted
that Indiana residents had one of the country’s highest rates
of homeownership in 2001, only to see a record number of
foreclosures in 2004. “Homeownership,” Carson declared,
“is the cornerstone of a healthy thriving city.”9 Carson was
a regular sponsor of children’s safety, health, and nutrition
legislation. In 1999 she submitted comprehensive gun safety
legislation, including a provision requiring safety locks on
handguns. “Kids and guns are a deadly combination,” she
noted in 1999. “It makes no sense that it is easier for kids to
operate a handgun than it is for kids to open an aspirin lid.”10
Carson’s work on Transportation and Infrastructure
also allowed her to support local Indiana businesses. In
2003 Carson helped win $11 million in federal funding
for transportation initiatives in Indianapolis, including
highway expansion, street improvements, and augmented
public transportation.11 In 2005 she sponsored the largest
Amtrak reauthorization bill in history—the National
Defense Rail Act. The $40 billion bill provided for the
development of new rail lines including high-speed rail
corridors. Amtrak was also a major employer in Indiana and
housed its largest repair facility near Indianapolis. In 2000
Carson was one of the last House Members to support the
extension of permanent normal trade relations with China.
Carson had been intensely lobbied by President William J.
(Bill) Clinton’s administration to support the bill. But she
hesitated because of China’s questionable human rights
record and because organized labor in the United States
opposed the measure. “I feel like I have been put in a
Maytag washer and put on the spin cycle,” she noted before
the vote. She reluctantly voted in favor of the legislation,
believing that increased foreign trade would benefit
Indianapolis businesses.12
One of Carson’s crowning legislative achievements was
the bill she authored and introduced during the 106th
Congress (1999–2001) to award the Congressional Gold
Medal to civil rights activist Rosa Parks. It was while reading
Parks’s autobiography, Quiet Strength, in early 1998, that
Carson decided that Parks—whose refusal to move to the
back of a segregated bus in 1955 galvanized the modern
civil rights movement—should be awarded the highest
civilian honor bestowed by Congress.13 “I had a lingering
kind of adoration in my own soul for Rosa,” Carson noted.
“I always believed in my heart that it was Rosa who paved
the way for me to go to Congress and to other places. I felt
like it then became my purpose to give her some honor,
to repay her.”14 Carson introduced a resolution to honor
Parks with the medal on February 4, 1999—Parks’s 86th
birthday. Knowing the civil rights icon was watching House
proceedings on her television, Carson ignored a House rule
requiring Members to address only the Speaker pro tempore.
“Mrs. Parks, I am grateful for your steadfastness,” she
declared. Initially, the bill attracted only 40 cosponsors—
primarily Members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Carson began a media campaign on nationally syndicated
radio and television programs, eventually netting 329
cosponsors. On April 20, the House passed the bill, 424 to
1. The Senate unanimously followed suit.15 “This is one of
the best days of my life,” declared a tearful Carson. “Not for
anything I have done to honor her, but the honor Rosa Parks
brought to this whole nation.”16 On June 15, 1999, visitors
packed the Capitol Rotunda to attend the Congressional
Gold Medal ceremony. Carson was among the dignitaries
who spoke at the ceremony, along with President Clinton,
who presented the medal to Parks. Carson later helped her
colleagues pass legislation allowing Parks to lie in honor in
the Capitol Rotunda when she died in October 2005. Parks
was the first woman to be given this honor.17
In late 2007, Carson’s health once again became a
concern. The Representative expressed frustration with
her regular battle with asthma and diabetes. After missing
an important vote due to health problems, Carson noted,
“I understand how an athlete feels when they sit one out
to recover from an injury. The minutes move slowly, and
you want nothing more than to be in for the big game.”18
In October, Carson took a two-week leave of absence to
recover from a leg infection that had forced her to traverse
the Capitol in a wheelchair.19 One month later, Carson
announced that she had been diagnosed with terminal
lung cancer during a follow-up examination of her leg.
Carson succumbed to the disease on December 15 in
her Indianapolis home. She lay in state in the statehouse
in Indianapolis on December 21. “Let’s remember
Congresswoman Carson by doing the people’s work
and fighting for those who don’t have a voice,” said her
grandson, André Carson, who later succeeded her in the
House. “When you talk about Julia Carson, you’re talking
about an American icon. The people’s champ.”20
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]
