Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966) is an American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

area of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Carter founded and led the non-profit

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

solutions corporation

Sustainable South Bronx Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) is a non-profit organization which promotes environmental justice. SSBx was founded by Majora Carter in 2001.Cynthia E. Rockwell, "Breaking the Grip of Poverty", ''Wesleyan'' (Wesleyan University alumni magazine ...

from 2001 onward, before entering the private sector in 2008.

Early life

Carter was born in South Bronx, New York where she attended the

Head Start Program Head Start is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families. The program's s ...

and primary schools. After graduating from the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

, she entered

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in 1984 to study film and went on to obtain a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

. In 1997, she received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

(NYU). While at NYU, she returned to her family's home in Hunts Point, and later worked for The Point Community Development Corporation. While Associate Director of

The POINT Community Development Corporation The POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit community development corporation dedicated to youth development, culture, and the economic revitalization of the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx, from which it takes its n ...

, Carter initiated the development of Hunts Point Riverside Park. Carter was "pulled by her dog into a weedy vacant lot strewn with trash at the dead end of Lafayette Avenue. As the pair plowed through the site they ended up, much to Carter's surprise, on the banks of the Bronx River." From there, Carter secured a $10,000 grant from a

USDA Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

program to provide seed money for river access restoration projects. Over a five-year period she worked with other community members and the Parks Department to help leverage that seed money into more than $3 million from the mayor's budget. The money was used to build the park into the Rudy Bruner award-winning iteration which re-opened in 2006.

Career

Advocacy

In August 2001, after exploring and then declining to engage in a campaign for NY City Council, Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), where she served as executive director until July 2008. During that time, SSBx advocated the development of the

Hunt's Point Riverside Park Hunts Point Riverside Park is a riverside park located in the Hunts Point neighborhood in the South Bronx section of New York City. It is the first new riverside park to be built in the area in over sixty years, and is the first of a planned serie ...

which had been an illegal garbage dump. Carter was a co-founder of the Bronx River Alliance ronxriveralliance.org and SSBx continued to carry on Carter's involvement in Bronx River waterfront restoration projects. In 2003, Sustainable South Bronx started the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program, one of the nation's first urban green collar training and placement systems. Other SSBx projects have centered around fitness, food choices (including the creation of a community market), and air quality. BxReOUTREACH59 small

In 2007, Carter co-founded Green for All with

Van Jones Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American news and political commentator, author, and lawyer. He is the co-founder of several non-profit organizations, a three-time ''New York Times'' bestselling author, a CNN host and c ...

. A December 2008 ''New York Times'' profile called Carter "The Green Power Broker" and "one of the city's best-known advocates for

" but reported that some South Bronx activists (who would not go on record) stated that Carter has taken credit for accomplishments when others should share the credit as well as taking credit for uncompleted projects. Other Bronx activists (who did agree to be named) stated that her recognition was well deserved. Carter was a torch-bearer for a portion of the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

leg of the torch relay of the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. Many portions of the torch relay, including the San Francisco leg, were met with protests concerning the policies of the Chinese government toward

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. Although Carter had signed a contract pledging not to use an Olympic venue for political or religious causes, when she and John Caldera were passed the torch during their part of the relay, she pulled out a small Tibetan flag that she had concealed in her shirt sleeve. Members of the Chinese torch security escort team pulled her out of the relay and San Francisco police officers pushed her into the crowd on the side of the street. Fellow torch-bearer, retired NYFD firefighter Richard Doran, who was making his own personal and political statement by wearing a helmet to refer to the firefighters who died in the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, called Carter's actions "disgusting and appalling" and said that he thought "she dishonored herself and her family". Another torch-bearer, retired NYPD police officer Jim Dolan, agreed with Doran.

Media

Majora Carter's TED talk was one of the first six publicly released talks to launch the TED.com website in 2006. Carter has made appearances in, and/or written, and produced television and radio programs, including

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

's The Black List: Volume 2,

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and oper ...

's Market Place, and PRX's ''

This I Believe ''This I Believe'' was originally a five-minute program, originally hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955 on CBS Radio Network. The show encouraged both famous and everyday people to write short essays about their own personal ...

'' series and has hosted several pieces on urban sustainability with

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chann ...

Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...

. She has been featured in corporate promotional videos and advertisements for companies such as

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

, Frito-Lay, Intel,

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

, Visa,

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

and

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

. In 2014, Carter was the on-camera and voice over host of "Water Blues - Green Solutions", a one-hour documentary on

Green Infrastructure Green infrastructure or blue-green infrastructure refers to a network that provides the “ingredients” for solving urban and climatic challenges by building with nature.Hiltrud Pötz & Pierre Bleuze (2011). Urban green-blue grids for sustainab ...

in several American cities, produced by

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

TV for the Public TV Market. In 2015, Carter played "TSA Agent 1" opposite

Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...

in Ricky and the Flash, directed by Johnathon Demme. From 2007 to 2010, Carter co-hosted on ''The Green'', a television segment dedicated to the environment, shown on the

Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) * Sundance Channel (Iberia) * Sundance Channel (Asia) Sundanc ...

.The Green on Sundance Channel.
Accessed online June 17, 2007 The first season consisted of a series of 90 second op-eds shot in studio. The second season consisted of a series of short interview pieces with individuals taking uncommon approaches to environmental problems. In 2008, Carter and Marge Ostroushko co-produced the pilot episode of the

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

show, The Promised Land (radio), which won a 3-way competition for a

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

Talent Quest grant. The one-hour programs debuted on over 150 public radio stations across the US on January 19, 2009, was renewed for the 2010/2011 season, and earned a 2010

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, but went unsupported by the public radio funding organizations after that period, and has since stopped production. Carter co-authored a white paper on

urban heat island An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day, and is most apparen ...

mitigation and a peer-reviewed article, Elemental carbon and PM(2.5) levels in an urban community heavily impacted by truck traffic. In February 2022 Penguin Random House is releasing Ms Carter's first book
Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One
published by Berret-Koehler Publishers. Majora Carter title Reclaiming Your Community

Majora Carter title Reclaiming Your Community

Consulting

After leaving Sustainable South Bronx, Carter has served as president of a private consulting firm, Majora Carter Group, LLC (MCG). In the June 2010 issue of ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' magazine, Carter was listed as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. In 2014,

B Corporation (certification) In business, B Corporation (also B Lab or B Corp) is a private certification of for-profit companies of their " social and environmental performance." It is distinct from the legal designation as a benefit corporation. B Corp certification is ...

recognized MCG as one of the "Best for the World" according to its ranking among other B Corps of similar size. In 2012, Carter's consulting firm, Majora Carter Group LLC (MCG) accepted

FreshDirect FreshDirect is an American online grocery company and among the first enterprises to sell and deliver perishable foods to consumers without maintaining a retail operation. Established in New York City, the company serves the New York metropolita ...

as a client to help the company and local organizations connect prior to its proposed relocation to the Harlem River Yards in the South Bronx.DNAinfo Activists opposed to the relocation, claimed New York City Government and FreshDirect failed to conduct sufficient environmental review and community outreach. A lawsuit and boycott campaign were initiated to stop the relocation. That lawsuit was dismissed, and a subsequent appeal was also dismissed; both were filed by

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc. ("New York Lawyers" or "NYLPI" il-pee is a non-profit civil rights law firm located in New York City, specializing in the areas of disability rights, access to health care and environmental justice. ...

, an organization Carter founded, opposed FreshDirect's move to the Bronx. Subsequent votes by

Bronx Community Board 1 Bronx Community Board 1 is a local government unit of the city of New York, encompassing the neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Melrose, and Port Morris in the borough of the Bronx. It is delimited by the East River, East 149th Street, and Prospect A ...

and the NYC Industrial Development Agency both voted to approve the move to the Bronx. South Bronx youth development NGO leader Maryann Hedaa stated that Carter "realizes that fighting poverty has to be a partnership between the public interests and the private interests."NY Daily News Regarding the negative attitude among Bronx activists towards Carter's position, Steve Ritz, founder of Green Bronx Machine, noted that "It's much easier to run your mouth than run a business." The project broke ground December 22, 2014, and was scheduled to be completed before the end of 2016. FreshDirect started hiring in the Bronx ahead of its move in anticipation. Consistent with activists' concerns over increased truck traffic as a result of the new FreshDirect facility, a study found that the opening the FreshDirect warehouse "significantly increased truck and vehicle flow, especially for overnight time windows, and that for one traffic monitoring site, resulting changes were not adequately predicted by the facility’s environmental assessment prior to construction."

Tech-Economy Inclusion

In 2007, while running Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter introduced MIT's first ever Mobile fab lab (digital fabrication laboratory) to the South Bronx, where it served as an early iteration of the "maker spaces" found elsewhere today. The project drew residents and visitors together for guided and creative collaborations. In 2013, Carter joined the Advisory Board member of the Bronx Academy of Software Engineering High School. After Co-Founding StartUp Box #SouthBronx in 2012 as a social enterprise to seed diverse participation in the knowledge economy, she launched StartUp Box #QA (Quality Assurance testing services) which assisted in the launch of Mayor Bill DeBlasio's Digital.NYC in 2014. Carter then took StartUp Box to victory at the national Blogher Conference in 2015, winning the pitch contest with $250,000 worth of in-kind services from SheKnows Media. The social enterprise eventually went on to win second place in both the MIT Inclusion Innovation and the Village Capital & Kapoor Capital People Ops Competitions in 2016, (each garnering a $25,000 prize), as well as the Digital Diversity Network's Code Breaker Award in 2016 She is a BusinessInsider.com 'Silicon Alley 100', and her 2006

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

talk was one of 6 to launch that groundbreaking site. Carter is also a co-founder of the Bronx Tech Meetup, which includes 700+ members. She served as a judge for the NYC Office of Digital Media's "Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge".

Awards and honors

* 2020 Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Award * 2017 Visionary Leadership Award - Arts & Ideas * 2016

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

Inclusion Innovation Competition – Finalist * 2016 Digital Diversity Network – Innovation & Inclusion Awards Honoree * 2015

Blogher BlogHer is an American media company founded by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory des Jardins, and Lisa Stone in 2005. It is an online blogger community and holds a yearly conference for women bloggers. BlogHer is owned by SHE Media which is a division of ...

2015 – Winner: Pitch Contest for StartUp Box Quality Assurance B2B Social Enterprise * 2014

Augsburg College Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the u ...

– Honorary PhD * 2013

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

CSE Vision Award * 2013 Honorary PhD:

* 2011 Commencement speaker at Knox College * 2010

for ''The Promised Land'' * 2010 Star Award: International Interior Design Association (IIDA) * 2009 Fellow:

Post Carbon Institute Post Carbon Institute (PCI) is a think tank which provides information and analysis on climate change, energy scarcity, and other issues related to sustainability and long term community Resilience (ecology), resilience. Its Fellows specialize in ...

* 2009

Honor Award The National Building Museum promotes excellence in architecture, engineering, construction, planning, and design. In furtherance of that mission, the Museum instituted an annual Honor Award in 1986 to recognize individuals and organizations that h ...

: Visionary in Sustainability, by the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private Non-profit org ...

* 2008 Named a "visionary" as one of ''

Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...

'' magazine's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing the World" * 2008 Appointed to America's Climate Choices: Panel on Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change:

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

* 2008 Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement: ''

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' * 2008 The Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal: Eleanor Roosevelt Society * 2008 Hollister Award: United Nations

Temple of Understanding The Temple of Understanding is an interfaith organization founded in 1960 by Juliet Hollister and located in New York City. History In its early years, the organization convened large “Spiritual Summits” in Calcutta (1968) and Geneva (197 ...

* 2008 Paul Wellstone Award: Campaign for America's Future * 2007 Rachel Carson Award:

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

* 2007 New York State Women of Excellence Award: Lt. Gov. David Paterson * 2007 Honorary PhD: Mercy College * 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service:

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

* 2007 Lawrence Enersen Award: National Arbor Day Society * 2005 Fellow: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation * 2002 Union Square Award: Fund for the City of New York She is a Fellow of the

New York Institute for the Humanities The New York Institute for the Humanities (NYIH) is an academic organization founded by Richard Sennett in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, writers, and the general public. The NYIH regularly holds seminars open to the publi ...

References

Notes

External links

The Majora Carter Group

The Promised Land Hosted By Majora Carter
*
Majora Carter
Video produced by '' Makers: Women Who Make America''
Majora Carter interviewed on ''Conversations from Penn State''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Majora 1966 births American corporate directors Living people MacArthur Fellows New York University alumni People from the Bronx The Bronx High School of Science alumni Wesleyan University alumni African-American environmentalists