Mildred Louise Hemmons Carter
*Mildred Louise Hemmons Carter was born on this date in 1921. She was a Black airplane pilot, the first Black female pilot in Alabama.
Mildred Louise Hemmons was born to Mamie and Luther Hemmons in Benson, Alabama. Her mother was the town's postmaster, while her father was the foreman of a sawmill. She lived in Tuskegee until her family moved to Enfield, North Carolina. There, her father worked as the all-Black Bricks Junior College business manager. After the school closed during the Great Depression, the Hemmons family moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi. Carter finished high school in Holly Springs at the age of fifteen.
After her family returned to Tuskegee, Carter enrolled in Tuskegee University, where she majored in business. She worked in an office that processed applications for Tuskegee University's Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) branch. Hemmons applied to the program herself but was initially rejected because she had not yet turned eighteen. The following year, she applied again and was accepted. Hemmons graduated with Tuskegee's first class of CPTP trainees. She primarily flew a Piper J-3 Cub that she rented from the school. The month after earning her certificate, Hemmons met First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was visiting Tuskegee to demonstrate support for its pilots.
Hemmons met Herbert Carter in 1939 when they crossed paths on the Tuskegee campus. Herbert later said he was instantly attracted to her but lacked the confidence to ask her on a date. He eventually asked her to a campus dance. Herbert, a cadet in class 42-F of the Tuskegee Airmen, was not allowed to leave the air base or date other Tuskegee students during his training. On weekends, he would arrange to take a plane out for "maintenance flight checks" and meet Mildred, flying her rented plane over Lake Martin. The couple would wave and blow kisses as they flew past each other. After Herbert finished his cadet training, they were married on August 21, 1942, at the Tuskegee Army Airfield chapel.
Carter often flew with Charles Alfred Anderson, Tuskegee's chief flight instructor, who encouraged her ambitions and considered her one of his best students. In 1942, Carter and Anderson traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to sign up for the Civil Air Patrol, making Mildred the first Black woman in the Montgomery Civil Air Patrol Squadron. Due to their race, however, neither Carter nor Anderson was ever called to patrol for the state. Because she was a woman, Carter could not pursue more advanced training through Tuskegee's Civilian Pilot Training Program. Instead, she applied to the Women's Air Force Service Pilots. By the time of her application, she had logged more than 100 hours of flying time. Nevertheless, she was rejected. Carter destroyed her rejection letter, but according to her, it stated that "I was not eligible because of my race. It left no doubt."
During World War II, Carter worked at Moton Field, "the only primary flight facility for Black pilot candidates" in the United States Air Force. She was Chief Clerk of the Quartermaster Corps. In addition to administrative work, she rigged parachutes and operated a bulldozer to clear airstrips. After the war, the Carters traveled across the United States and Europe. Eventually, they returned to Tuskegee. They had three children. Mildred Carter mentored and encouraged younger Black women to become pilots. Her protégés included several women who became flight nurses and aerospace engineers.
Roosevelt Lewis Jr., an airfield manager who, like Carter, was trained by Charles Anderson, said, "Mildred is recognized here in Tuskegee as one of the Tuskegee Airmen." She and Anderson continued flying together into the 1980s. In 1985, when Carter was 64, she had to give up flying due to a broken hip. In February 2011, Carter was declared an official Women's Air Force Service Pilots member. She was also a Designated Original Tuskegee Airman. Mildred Carter died after a long illness on October 21, 2011.
