As an assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor, Eunice Hunton Carter achieved incredible success. What personality traits led her to achieve this success?
Her perseverance as well as her confidence. Having her mother as an example and her strong beliefs in what she was doing all added to her success.
I agree and she also had a very strong work ethic, to a fault at times. It almost cost her her marriage but I believe she felt a higher sense of responsibility as a woman in general and more specifically as a black woman.
She was well educated and had a strong role model in her mother, she was wired to make a difference and she was courageous enough to follow her passion.
Eunice was persistent and organized. She was like a dog with a bone - she never gave up and tried different ideas. She was also creative - she was willing to work with a known madam. quite few other prosecutors would have dismissed Polly Adler as a mere women and known prostitute and not worth the time.
She was highly motivated, set goals, extremely intelligent, a risk-taker, perceptive, persistent, and willing to make sacrifices.
Eunice Hunton Carter was intelligent, probing, tenacious, and focused, and these personality traits helped her achieve her success.
Her refusal to quit and her understanding (not acceptance) of the realities of being in her shoes definitely played a major part. At times, reading this felt a bit like reading about Jackie Robinson blazing a similar trail in baseball. The amount of courage it took in both situations is incredible.
Eunice was bold, brave, and headstrong. She was ahead of her time and was a threat to the men in her profession.
Eunice was driven to be more than a wife and mother. There is nothing wrong with being either of those things, but there is no justification for women being denied opportunities to have other roles, as well. Eunice was intelligent, analytical, and completed her education at a time when few women were being admitted to and graduating from law school, especially Black women. She loved her husband and son, but being a wife and mother was insufficient to satisfy her need to be challenged, use her intellect, and contribute to the cause of justice. She was an Asst. DA because she believed in the rule of law, law and order, and wanted to stop the abuse of women who, in virtually every instance, were forced to work in prositution because there were no better alternatives for them . Perseverence, dedication, and resilience were all required to accomplish her goals. And she had to be a skilled negotiator in order to hang on to a husband who didn’t fully understand his wife’s needs. She also had to have tact, composure, and wits to survive in a profession that didn’t readily welcome any women within a culture that still treated AFrican-Americans abominably. Discrimination and segregation were things she had to deal with every single day of her life. And still she refused to compromise her integrity or principles, or give up on her goals. She really is a role model.
1 Like