Subscribe to "In The Arena" on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Stitcher.
Toni Carter has constantly aspired for more. Born in rural Alabama, Carter moved with her parents to Cleveland to escape the Jim Crow treatment they had received in the South. Eventually she left Cleveland to go to school in Northfield, Minn., where she found a vibrancy in life and an education that she had been yearning for. After college Toni Carter moved to St. Paul, married, had a good job, had the “picket fence with a dog and kids” lifestyle that she thought would be the perfect life, but still something was missing.
“I know that it was my ability to have more of a direct impact on what I felt was a community yearning to blossom,” she says. “I found that there were people here in this land of milk and honey who looked like me, who weren’t doing so well.”
Toni Carter has public service in her blood. She began fulfilling her desire to help the community first by running for the local school board. Then she realized that there were more underlying concerns than just student achievement, so she ran for, and won, a position on the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, where she has served four terms across 15 years. When she was first elected in 2005, she was the first Black American to serve on a county board in the state.
She has created a legacy of community development, not only through her own achievements and actions but also through her children. Her son, Melvin Carter III, has been mayor of St. Paul, Minn., since 2018, the city’s first African-American mayor.
While proud of the achievements that her community has achieved, Carter continues to push for progressive change, especially in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“There are so many things that we have been able to change, but there are also so many things that we still need to do, as is observed from the George Floyd killing here in the Twin Cities area,” she explains. Carter sees there are reforms that need to be made within the system of law enforcement, but also through larger social systems that allow everyone to not just survive, but to thrive.
“I felt compelled in working with my community, on behalf of my community, to help those voices be heard and to help those changes that are required to be made. And I still do,” she says.
Listen to the episode as Toni Carter discusses the future of Ramsey County, the community support that has blossomed in the wake of George Floyd’s death and her new adventures with the upright bass.
Previous Guests:
- Harry Black, City Manager of Stockton, Calif.
- John Wetzel, Secretary of Corrections for Pa.
- Alisha Bell, Commission Chair of Wayne County, Mich.
- Mary Ann Borgeson, County Commissioner of Douglas County, Neb.
- Betty Yee, State Controller of Calif.
- Serena DiMaso, New Jersey Assembly Member
- Clay Jenkinson, Governing's Editor-at-Large and Humanities Scholar
- Bryan Barnett, Mayor of Rochester Hills, Mich. and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
- Ryan Coonerty, County Supervisor of Santa Cruz, Calif.
- Lydia Mihalik, Director of Ohio's Development Services Agency
- Chris Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento, Calif.
- Affie Ellis, State Senator, Wyo.
- Beth Niblock, CIO of Detroit, Mich.
- Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif.
- Ed O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation
- Blair Milo, Ind.'s first Secretary of Career Connections and Talent
- Phil Bertolini, Co-Director, Center for Digital Government
- Jo Ann Davidson, Ohio State Representative
- Dow Constantine, Executive of King County, Wash.
- Harry LaRosiliere, Mayor of Plano, Texas
- Rebecca Rhynhart, City Controller of Philadelphia
- Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University
- Mayors Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minn.; Jenn Daniels of Gilbert, Ariz.; Jacob Frey of Minneapolis; and Francis Suarez of Miami, Fla.
- Chris Castro, Director of Sustainability for Orlando, Fla.
- Kim Foxx, State's Attorney for Cook County, Ill.
- Doug Burgum, Governor of N.D.
- Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia, S.C.
- Kristen Cox, Executive Director of Utah Office of Management and Budget
- Acquanetta Warren, Mayor of Fontana, Calif.
- Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville, Ky.
- Themis Klarides, Minority Leader of the Conn. House
