Carlotta Stewart Lai
*Carlotta Stewart Lai was born on this date in 1881. She was a Black educator and administrator.
Carlotta Stewart was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Thomas McCants Stewart and Charlotte L. Harris Stewart. She was the third child and the only daughter, and she attended public school in Brooklyn. Her brothers, McCants Stewart and Gilchrist Stewart, both became attorneys. Her father, Thomas McCants Stewart, was an attorney and writer in New York who was also involved in party politics in the field of voting rights. Her mother was a graduate of Wilberforce University. Lai's maternal aunt was Verina Morton-Jones, a physician, charter founder of the Brooklyn NAACP, and co-founder of the Urban League.
When she was 18, she moved to Hawai'i with her father and stepmother. When her father left Hawaii in 1905, Lai never returned to the U.S. mainland again. Despite not having her family with her in Hawai'i, Lai had a vibrant social life with close friends. Lai attended Oahu College (now Punahou School), participating in the school's literary society and girls' basketball. In 1902, she earned a Normal School teaching certification to teach in Hawai'i's public schools.
She began her teaching career at Sacred Hearts Convent. In 1909, Stewart was the principal of Ko'olau Elementary School in Kauai, where she taught children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. In 1916, Stewart married Yun Tim Lai, a car salesman of Chinese descent, born in 1886 on the island of Kauai. In 1933, Lai became principal of Hanamaulu School, now the site of King Kaumualii Elementary School in Kauai. At Hanamaulu School, Lai was not only the principal, but she also supervised the library and cafeteria, and taught English. Lai's husband died unexpectedly in 1935 during a visit to Hong Kong; they had no children, and she did not remarry.
Lai attended professional conferences of the Hawai'i Education Association and the Kaua'i Education Association. She retired from teaching in 1944, after 41 years of service with the Hawaii Department of Education. Carlotta Stewart Lai died at the Manoa Convalescent Home on July 6, 1952. Correspondence and other papers related to Lai's family history are archived at Howard University, courtesy of a donation by Katherine Stewart Flippin, Lai's niece and a longtime special education teacher in San Francisco, California.
To Become a School Principal
To Become an Elementary School Teacher
