Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The bestselling author delves into his past and retrieves the inspiring story of his grandmother's extraordinary life
She was brilliant, ambitious, and unafraid to breakbarriers. As the only member of a squad of twenty high-powered lawyers who was not a white male, she devised the strategy that in the 1930s sent Mafia chieftan Lucky Luciano to prison. She achieved so much--but what could she have accomplished if not for barriers of race and gender?
Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter's grandmother, was the daughter of a distinguished African American couple and the granddaughter of slaves. A graduate of Smith College and Fordham Law School, she became a key member of the legal team charged with breaking up organized crime in New York City. By the 1940s, she was one of the most famous black women in America. But at every turn, Eunice encountered prejudice, and her triumphs were shadowed by tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who--together with his friend Dashiell Hammett--went to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed: constantly reinventing herself, she somehow found a way forward.
Moving, haunting, and written with dazzling power, Invisible tells the story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the socialand political expectations of the age. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat, and thanks to her grandson's remarkable book she is once again visible.
Synopsis
The bestselling author delves into his past and discovers the inspiring story of his grandmother's extraordinary life
She was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s--and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city's underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.
Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter's grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. But her triumphs were shadowed by prejudice and tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who--together with his friend Dashiell Hammett--would go to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed.
Moving, haunting, and as fast-paced as a novel, Invisible tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat, and thanks to her grandson's remarkable book, her long forgotten story is once again visible.