When Lawrence Edward Carter was a boy growing up in Dawson — a place he calls “the meanest county to African Americans in American history” — even the minstrel shows were segregated.
As a child, he knew the rope dividing the audience was a symbol of something deeply unjust.
“They don’t look any different from us. One day, I’m gonna tear this rope down,” Carter said last week, before pausing. “Martin Luther King Jr. beat me to it.”
Morehouse College Dean Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. has dedicated his life to sharing the teachings of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Contributed photo)
That early vision of justice — and a chance encounter with King himself — would shape a legacy that transformed Morehouse College.
Now, after nearly five decades of service, Carter — the founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel and a towering moral voice and spiritual guide — has announced his retirement.
He will step down June 30, 2026, concluding an extraordinary 47-year tenure on campus.
“He has been a central figure in shaping the spiritual, moral, and intellectual ethos of the college under the leadership of seven presidents,” Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said. “He has stewarded the chapel as a sacred space for scholarship, global peacebuilding, ethical inquiry, and interfaith dialogue.”
The Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. delivers the benediction during the Morehouse College commencement ceremony May 21, 2023. (Christina Matacotta for the AJC)
Carter, known affectionately as “Dean Carter,” was hired by then-President Hugh Gloster in 1979 and is stepping down during a time of transition for the all-male, historically Black college in Atlanta.
Thomas has also retired, and F. DuBois Bowman, a renowned public health scholar and 1992 graduate of the college, will assume leadership July 15 as the school’s 13th president.
Thomas said the school will soon launch an international search to identify a new dean.
“Undoubtedly, identifying a successor for Dean Carter will be a challenging task,” said Thomas. “Few individuals possess the moral clarity, global vision, and spiritual depth that he brings to this work.”
Carter’s journey to Morehouse began with a moment that felt like divine choreography. As a 10th grader, having moved to Columbus, Ohio, his Sunday school superintendent invited him to hear King preach at Union Grove Baptist Church on Nov. 22, 1959.
Carter was mesmerized by King’s sermon. Afterward, Carter was given permission to explore the pastor’s study. He assumed he was alone, but as he admired the books lining the walls, he was astonished to discover King seated inside, quietly observing him.
“What’s your name?” King asked. “Have you considered Morehouse?”
Credit: Steve Schaefer
After hearing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preach in 1962, Morehouse Dean Lawrence Carter said he “ran back to campus and called my mother: ‘I’m transferring to Morehouse.’” (Steve Schaefer/AJC 2022)
The question planted a seed.Although Carter initially enrolled at what was then known as Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg, he remained drawn to King’s message.
When King came to speak in Lynchburg, in 1962, Carter sat among 4,000 Black attendees packed into the segregated auditorium of E.C. Glass High School.
“It was the greatest speech I’ve ever heard,” Carter recalled about King’s message on the importance of voting. “I ran back to campus and called my mother: ‘I’m transferring to Morehouse.’”
Carter didn’t know at the time that his mother couldn’t afford to send him to Morehouse.
He pivoted. With $34 borrowed from a psychology professor, he boarded a Greyhound bus to Boston, determined at least to attend the school where King had earned his doctorate.
At Boston University, Carter studied under the same theologians who had mentored King — including Dean Walter G. Muelder, who would ultimately sign both of their diplomas.
But just weeks before Carter’s 1968 graduation, Muelder delivered devastating news. King was dead.
Carter and his fiancée walked the streets of Boston in a daze, eventually arriving at BU’s Marsh Chapel, where Carter prayed aloud: “Lord, help me do something significant for Martin Luther King before I die.”
That prayer, he says, was answered threefold: He delivered the first King memorial sermon at Marsh Chapel; served as acting director of BU’s King Center; and, in 1979, was named founding dean of the King Chapel at Morehouse.
Carter arrived at Morehouse with a vision to transform what was originally planned as a multipurpose auditorium into a sacred space rooted in King’s philosophy.
One of his first acts as dean was persuading Gloster to rename the building the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.
“I didn’t want to preside over a museum for battles no longer being fought,” he said. “I want to treat the programming of the chapel seriously. We have to program internationally.”
He introduced interfaith programming, embraced spiritual diversity and encouraged students to explore moral responsibility beyond traditional Christian frameworks.
Under his leadership, the chapel welcomed Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and pagans.
“The emphasis has been on recognizing everybody’s humanity,” he said. Carter also spearheaded the creation and growth of the International Hall of Honor, a gallery of more than 200 oil portraits depicting global moral leaders.
The first — a striking painting of King in his BU regalia — was created by a Korean artist, who quietly added Carter’s own likeness onto King’s sleeve.
“These portraits are our stained-glass windows,” Carter said. “They speak when no one is in the pulpit.”
At 83, Carter remains spirited, resolute and healthy. He plans to co-author his autobiography and a written history of the chapel with his wife.
“I told the Lord ‘If you get me to Morehouse, I will stay until you tell me to leave,’” he said. “I think the Lord is telling me — this is the hour.”
Morehouse College is committed to globalization of the student experience as expressed in the strategic theme “Morehouse Beyond Borders”. While one might think immediately...Read More
