About Us

LAWRENCE EDWARD CARTER SR.,
B.A., M. Div., S.T.M., Ph.D., D.D., D.H., D.R.S., D.H.C .

In 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. privately recruited Lawrence Edward Carter as a 10th grader to come to Morehouse College. Twenty One years later, Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter became the first Dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel in 1979. Today he is a tenured Professor of Religion and College Curator at Morehouse College.

He holds the B.A. degree from Virginia University of Lynchburg in Social Science and Psychology, the M.Div. degree in Theology, the S.T.M. degree in Pastoral Care, and the Ph.D. degree in Pastoral Psychology and Counseling from Boston University.  He did further study at Andover Newton Theological School, The Ohio State University, Harvard University, Georgia State University, New York University, The University of Wisconsin at Madison, Brown University, Spelman College and George Washington University.  He holds certifications in multi-disciplinary clinical training, clinical pastoral education, the editing of historical documents, and community nonviolent training.  He is also a licensed and ordained American Baptist minister.  He was a 1994 Fulbright-Hayes Scholar in Brazil, and twice a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, in 1993 and 1996.

Dean Carter teaches Introduction to Religion, Psychology of Religion, Ethics and Religion, World Religions and The Life and Thought of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Daisaku Ikeda, at Morehouse College. He is preparing to publish his fourth book on Nonviolent Coexistence in the WorldHouse: Building Interfaith Bridges in the Tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Daisaku Ikeda.

Dr. Carter is the founder and fundraiser for Morehouse College’s International Hall of Honor that consists of one hundred forty eight original oil portraits of distinguished leaders in the civil and human rights nonviolent activists. He also founded the five-hundred member Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapel Assistants Preseminarians Program in 1979.  He has raised over two-hundred fifty thousand dollars in scholarship funds for the Morehouse Chapel Assistants.  On April 1, 2000 he founded the WorldHouse Institute for Ethics and Reconciliation on Millennium Sunday, unveiling larger than life busts of Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturbai, gifts from the people of India. 

Dr. Carter is married to Dr. Marva Griffin Carter.  Mrs. Carter is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Music History and Literature at Georgia State University where she also served as Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Music.  The Carters are the parents of one son, Lawrence Edward Carter, Jr.  Young Carter is a sixth generation Georgian and a graduate of Morehouse College, in Economics with a minor in International Affairs. He has also studied at the London School of Economics and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. degree at Strayer University.

Click here to download a partial history of Dean Carter’s speaking engagements and a listing of the international venues of his Gandhi, King, Ikeda Peacemakers Exhibit in PDF format.

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