With Afiya, the Carter family’s story moves beyond a tale of the past, becoming instead a narrative unfolding in today’s America, where cultural, and even local, identities are at the forefront of politics.
North Carolina has emerged as a pivotal swing state. The surge in Black voter turnout in 2020 (it went up 4%) showcased the community’s determination to shape the nation’s future, and Trump only narrowly won. With the 2024 election looming, the stakes for Black women in states like North Carolina couldn’t be higher.
At the heart of this political landscape is Durham—where Afiya and her wife, kynita, live—known as the City of Medicine. Its 36% Black population has significantly influenced the city’s development in education, health care, sports, science, business, and the arts. From the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, their contributions have molded the Bull City into a beacon of hope and progress. Icons like Booker T. Washington praised Durham’s Black leaders, including John Merrick, a former slave who founded Black Wall Street, fostering financial freedom in the Jim Crow South.
Yet Durham’s journey hasn’t been without struggle. Urban renewal projects decimated thriving Black neighborhoods like Hayti, redlining confined Black families and exacerbating economic and health disparities. Despite these challenges, leaders such as civil rights activist Ann Atwater stood tall, working with former Klan leader C.P. Ellis to transform the school system.
Durham’s Black history is its heartbeat, established by visionaries like architect Phil Freelon, who designed the Durham Station Transportation Center and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The flourishing arts scene produced such figures as fashion editor André Leon Talley, painter Ernie Barnes, and jazz singer Nnenna Freelon.
Today, Durham is compared to Brooklyn and serves as a hub of Black achievement and creativity. From the halls of North Carolina Central University to the revived Black Wall Street, the Black community’s spirit of innovation and inspiration is palpable, making it a city where the Carter family and others can thrive. And it’s why, for them, local politics are as important as national.
As the election approaches, Afiya Carter is deeply concerned about such issues as gentrification, the sustainability of minority-owned businesses, and access to education. She actively advocates for these causes, trying to ensure that Black- and women-owned businesses thrive and that students have the resources to succeed in college or trade programs. Afiya has also fought against discriminatory state legislation such as Amendment One, which restricted family definitions in North Carolina, and the “bathroom bill” (House Bill 2), which mandated that people use bathrooms matching the gender on their birth certificate.
Born in New Jersey, Afiya and her siblings spent their early childhood in a culturally rich environment, celebrating traditions like Kwanzaa and later joining a vibrant Muslim community after their mother converted to Islam. “When we moved to Durham, it was definitely different,” Afiya recalls. “My parents had to explain Ramadan and fasting to our teachers.”
