Julia Carson

Julia May Carson (née Porter; July 8, 1938 – December 15, 2007) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Indiana's 7th congressional district from 1997 until her death in 2007 (numbered as the 10th District from 1997 to 2003).

Carson was the first woman and first African American to represent Indianapolis in the U.S. Congress.

She was also the second African American woman elected to Congress from Indiana, after Katie Hall, and her grandson André Carson succeeded to her seat following her death.

Carson was born in Louisville, Kentucky.

Her mother, Velma V. Porter, unmarried and a teenager, moved to Indianapolis while Julia was still a girl and worked as a domestic to support her family.

Julia also worked part-time, waiting tables, delivering newspapers, and harvesting crops, among other jobs to support her family before graduating from Crispus Attucks High School in 1955, as well as while attending Martin University in Indianapolis and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.

She was a member of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.

She married after graduation, and had two children, Sam and Tonya, but divorced Carson while the children were still young.

In 1965, while a single mother and working as a secretary at UAW Local 550, Carson was hired away by newly elected congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr., a Democrat, to do casework in his Indianapolis office.

When his own electoral prospects looked dim in 1972 (which turned out to be a Republican landslide), Jacobs encouraged Carson to run for the Indiana House of Representatives, which she did.

She won election from the central Indianapolis district in 1972, and re-election.

She served as a delegate for four years and rose to become assistant minority caucus chair.

The legislature being a part-time position, Carson also worked as the human resources director at an electric company from 1973 to 1996.

She also once operated a clothing store, which failed and saddled her with debt for several years.

Carson and Katie Hall (a fellow Democrat but from Lake County who also won election that year) became the first African American women to win election to the Indiana Senate; the first African American to sit in that body had been Virginia-born civil rights attorney Robert Lee Brokenburr, a Republican who had died in 1974 and who represented part of Marion County for most of the period 1941–1964.

In 1976, at the urging of fellow Democrats, Carson arranged for prominent local businessman and fellow Democrat Joseph W. Summers to run for her house seat, as she successfully ran for the Indiana Senate.

She won re-election and ultimately served in the Indiana Senate for 14 years, sitting on its finance committee and eventually holding the minority whip position before retiring in 1990.

In 1990 Carson won election as the Trustee for Center Township (downtown Indianapolis), seemingly a step down from her legislative post, but with a considerable budget and administrative responsibilities.

Carson assumed responsibility for running welfare in central Indianapolis, and instituted a workfare program.

During Carson's six years as the Center Township Trustee, she created a $6 million surplus and erased the office's $20 million debt.

The county's auditor (a Republican) noted Carson “wrestled that monster to the ground.” Jacobs proclaimed Carson "not only took cheats off the welfare rolls, she sued them to get the money.”

When Jacobs retired in 1996, Carson ran as his replacement in what was then the 10th Congressional District, and won the Democratic Party's endorsement, 49 percent to 31 percent, despite being heavily outspent in the primary by party chairman Ann DeLaney.

In the general election Carson faced Republican Virginia Murphy Blankenbaker, a state senator and stockbroker who, like Carson, was a grandmother with liberal views on abortion and the death penalty.

Although the district was 68% white and conservative-leaning, each raised similar sums of money, but Carson won, with 53 percent of the vote versus 45 percent for Blankenbaker.

Soon thereafter, Carson underwent double heart bypass surgery on January 4, 1997, which years later produced complications.

Carson was sworn in to office from her hospital bed on January 9, 1997, and could not travel to Washington, D.C. until early March.

Carson won reelection with little difficulty in 1998 and 2000.

Her 2000 campaign attracted a personal appearance by President Bill Clinton that drew thousands to the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

After Indiana lost a Congressional district following the 2000 census, her district was renumbered as the 7th District and included slightly more registered Republicans than its predecessor.

In a heated campaign that led to Carson leaving the stage in protest in the final pre-election debate with Republican public affairs specialist Brose McVey, she won re-election 53 percent to 44 percent.

Her health (including asthma, hypertension and diabetes) became an issue in tighter-than-expected races beginning in 2002.

In 2003, Carson helped win $11 million in federal funding for transportation initiatives in Indianapolis, including highway expansion, street improvements, and improved public transportation.

Carson won re-election by about 11 points in 2004, defeating Republican Andrew Horning and Libertarian Barry Campbell.

She was one of the 31 who voted in the House not to count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.

Notably Carson never lost an election throughout her entire career in both state and federal politics.

Carson won re-election numerous times, although redistricting added 100,000 people, many of them Republicans, to her district.

In 2005, Carson sponsored the $40 billion Amtrak re–authorization bill (the National Defense Rail Act), which provided for new rail lines including high–speed rail corridors.

In 2006, Carson traveled from Washington, D.C. to Indianapolis aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush to appear at the Indiana Black Expo.

Carson defeated Eric Dickerson in the 2006 election 54 percent to 46 percent, a narrow 8-point margin in a year when most incumbent Democrats skated to victory.

In the same election, Democratic challengers toppled Republican incumbents in three Indiana districts much more conservative than Carson's. Carson was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.