Ifirst met Elise Carter at a public meeting in spring 2021. Elise sat with her colleague and friend Trinity Walsh in the auditorium of Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, where I had graduated in 1993. The community assembled to talk about a social equity course Elise and Trinity were slated to teach as a high school elective. Enough parents spoke out that night against the course that it was removed from the curriculum. Angry community members echoed legislative soundbites at the mic: They believed that social equity was code for indoctrinating children in critical race theory (CRT).

That’s why when I learned that Elise was named the 2025 recipient of the Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award, I had to talk to her. The award is given to an individual whose activities in Black affa

See Full Page