For James Carter, Sr. Serving the Underserved Was a Calling

James Carter, Sr.’s love for reading, science and medicine blossomed when he was a young boy in Maysville, North Carolina, as he pored over the scientific magazines his mother regularly brought him from the doctor’s home where she was a housekeeper. Sharing these magazines with her son was just one of the ways Irene Carter reinforced the importance of education to her four children, and this simple act undoubtedly helped lay a foundation for his successful career as a physician.

Decades later, in 1983, Carter became the first Black full professor of psychiatry in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, but his achievements and legacy stretch far beyond the Duke campus and health system.

After graduating with honors from North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University), Carter entered the U.S. Army in 1958 as a second lieutenant. He spent four years as a bacteriologist at Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany, where he was eventually promoted to the head of his department.

Carter continued to serve his country with distinction for many years as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, achieving the rank of Colonel, but in 1962, he headed down a new path of service: medical school at Howard University.

Helping People Live Their Best Lives

James "Jay" Carter, Jr. MHS, PA-C

“My father was a ‘people person.’ He always wanted to go into medicine,” his son, James “Jay” Carter, Jr., MHS, PA-C, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke, remembers.  “And I think he really wanted to understand how the mind works. I think that’s what led him to specialize in psychiatry.”

Tedra Anderson-Brown, MD, a mentee and later a close friend of Carter, agrees that his love of people played a role in his career choice. She also suggests his passion for psychiatry derived from his understanding that the human experience is different for everyone and his fundamental belief that everyone, including people who have a mental illness, deserve to live full and rich lives.

“I think it also came out of his faith,” Anderson-Brown adds. “He was truly a servant leader.” A devout Christian throughout his life, Carter earned a master’s in divinity from Shaw University and sometimes prayed with patients at their request.

While at Duke, Carter took on myriad roles, including educator, researcher and clinician at the Duke University Medical Center, supervisor and mentor to psychiatry residents and fellows, staff psychiatrist at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, and senior psychiatrist at Central Prison in Raleigh, to name just a few.