Samuel Moss Carter Papers

Sermons, writings and notes, teaching materials, and personal items provide substantive documentation of the work of Dr. Samuel Moss Carter, an early African American graduate of the Yale Divinity School.

As noted in a letter from Carter's daughter, the donor of the collection, "Dr. Carter's collected works provide a unique and intimate portrait of a dedicated Baptist minister and theologian and reflect the tenor of the country from the late 1930s through the 1970s, and in particular the influence that the Yale experience undoubtedly had on his ministry."

Combining pastoral work with academic work throughout his career, Carter had a particular interest in documenting Black Christianity in the United States. His 1957 Master's thesis was titled "Representative Negro Baptist Preachers" and the dissertation he prepared for a Yale Ph.D degree (not completed) was "The Religion of the American Negro Slave."

The many sermons by Carter and his writings and notes on Black preaching in this collection provide unique insight on the Black church in the mid-20th century. In an interview for a newspaper article published in Richmond News Leader at the time of his retirement as pastor of First Baptist Church of Centralia, Carter indicated that he had noticed four kinds of Black preachers over the years: "The first kind is the kind like up north, who follow the white method. They just stand up there and talk nice. Another is the ones who sing the Gospel, who have what you call 'The Tone.' Then there's the 'emphasis' kind, the kind identified with Virginia. They just know how to emphasize different words, and to just use a lovely emphasis. The last kind is the kind that combines all of that."

Carter was a meticulous keeper of records, saving notes, papers, syllabi, and writings from throughout his long life. In most cases, materials in the collection have been kept together according to the labels on folders that Carter created, though the folders may have contained a fairly wide spectrum of types of material.

Series I, Sermons / Addresses, is divided according to different systems that Carter had in place to file his sermons, including by theme, by a numbered sequence, and by date. Series II, Course-Related Materials, is divided into two sections, "Courses taken" and "Courses taught." While every effort has been made to distinguish between the two types of material, not all documents were well-marked. The Notes of Series III have been organized alphabetically by topic. Again in this series, the lines between topics may be quite blurry, but a sense of Carter's interests shows through clearly. The notes include both handwritten notes and collected articles or newsclippings. The writings of Series IV include a few published items as well as essays written while at Yale Divinity School and other unpublished essays. Series V contains primarily documentation of institutions and organizations that Carter served. Series VI, Personal Items and Memorabilia, includes a small amount of correspondence as well as biographical documentation and photographs, including of his time at Yale Divinity School.