Invisible

The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster

By: Stephen L. Carter

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Stephen L. Carter delves into his past and retrieves 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 20 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 fiction, 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 audiobook, her long forgotten story is once again visible.

©2018 Stephen L. Carter (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

A Moving Biography

Stephen L. Carter normally writes suspense novels about black lawyers. This book is his first into the realm of non-fiction. He is writing about his maternal grandmother.

I found this book about Eunice Roberta Hunton Carter (1899-1970) fascinating. Stephen tells what it was like to be an intelligent ambitious black female in the 1920s and 30s. The book opens with the story of the 1906 race riots in Atlanta, GA. Eunice and her family huddled in their house listening to the white mob coming closer and smelling the smoke from the fires as homes were burning. The family moved to New York after the riots. Eunice’s parents were highly educated and worked for the YMCA/YWCA and the NAACP.

I was amazed to learn that Eunice graduated from Smith University with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in just four years. She married a black dentist and had a son. She then went to Fordham Law School. Eunice was the first black woman lawyer in New York and also the first black woman federal prosecutor in the country. She worked with Thomas Dewey (1902-1971) on his Organized Crime Task Force. She was key in bringing down Lucky Luciano. I found what she accomplished and the obstacles she had to overcome almost overwhelming. This is a book everyone one should read.

The book is twelve and a half hours. Karen Chilton does a good job narrating the book. She has the perfect voice for Eunice. Chilton is an actress and audiobook narrator.

Amazing story of truth and struggle

This story was well written and detailed! I learned so much about African Americans who helped establish the future Leadership!

Get to Know Eunice Hunton Carter

The Hunton family found power and success during the darkest period of the Jim Crow era to rise and help lead the fight for civil rights. The struggle for personal advancement, social advancement, political setbacks and racial justice is amplified in the memoir of this incredible woman and her family. I learned so much about so many elite leaders who lived extraordinary lives.

Untold history

This book Uncover history of a woman that was never told. Makes you proud to be a woman. The struggle of all women is in this book,

Love it!! Love HISTORY

The narrator was excellent. She have a great smooth voice and I thought it was actress Vanessa Bell Calloway.

Eunice Carter’s extraordinary life - one for the history books

While the author wants to remedy the invisibility of his extraordinary grandmother, Eunice Carter, it’s ironic that even the title of the book renders her a generic figure: a “black woman lawyer,” unnamed. Probably the publisher’s decision, and a poor one. But at least they published this book. Thanks for introducing me to some heretofore hidden (especially to white folks like me) history.

Another Great Story of Our Lost History

I loved this story! So rich with history (her story)❤
I see a MOVIE soon!!!

1930's politics and being black and too gifted

This was a great story for Black History Buffs. I had never heard of this women. You get a glimpse into the World of what its lke to be very accomplished but limited by Race. This was a time before equal pay and rights for women. Its really ashame that this women who well known at her time is not known today. This is a family as well as a historical story.

Remarkable, Insightful, & Inspirational

Black Excellence
Elite Dark Nation
Dark Nation Tradition, Culture, & Expections
A Divided Political Era
A Exciting Era

Great history lesson...

I loved learning about this great woman and the history of the times offered. If I had any complaint it would be that the narration was too slow.