N. 24th Street To Be Renamed For Lester Carter

Dr. Lester Carter poses with then-Mayor Tom Barrett, Ald. Khalif Rainey, then Council President Ashanti Hamilton, Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II and others at his 2018 street renaming ceremony. Photo from the City of Milwaukee Public Information Division.

One of the best-known Milwaukee doctors will soon have a street named in his honor.

The late Dr. Lester Carter will be honored with the complete renaming of N. 24th Street between W. Keefe Avenue and W. Center Street.

The one-mile N. Lester Carter Drive will go past Carter’s long-time pharmacy and through the Amani neighborhood he primarily served.

For 47 years, Carter owned and operated Carter Drug Store, 2400 W. Burleigh St. He was one of the longest-serving African American pharmacists in the country.

“He is sorely missed,” said area Alderman Khalif Rainey to members of the Public Works Committee on Sept. 27. Carter passed away in January 2022 at the age of 90 following complications from COVID-19. “We want to make sure we expressed our appreciation for him and kept his history alive in the Amani neighborhood.”

“For many of us, Dr. Carter was the only doctor that we knew, the only doctor that we needed,” said longtime neighborhood resident Dennis Walton. “Dr. Carter was not only a person that sold you medicine. He was a person that helped you heal… He was our hero. He was an example of what Black excellence was in our community.”

When Carter acquired the pharmacy, the surrounding neighborhood was primarily white, but with the Great Migration, it became predominantly African-American. Deindustrialization, including the loss of thousands of jobs in the nearby 30th Street Industrial Corridor, brought with it poverty.

Walton said honoring Carter with a full street renaming would be a stepping stone to the continuous revitalization of the neighborhood.

In 2018, Carter was honored with the honorary street renaming of N. Lester Carter Drive to the block of N. 24th Street adjacent to the pharmacy. It brought a blue sign and ceremonial name, but left in place the N. 24th Street designation.

Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs said she, along with Rainey and Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II committed to the family at the funeral to introduce a full street renaming.

“Dr. Carter has a special place in my heart,” said Coggs, noting that he was able to offer several remedies to help her mother during a battle with cancer. “This is really history making and well deserved.

“We should have done a full renaming of the street like we are doing today,” said Stamper.

Alderman Lamont Westmoreland, a longtime high school basketball referee, said he went to Carter years ago for a back issue. The pharmacist recommended he try Tumeric. “It’s better than any medicine I have ever taken,” he said.

The pharmacy is now part of the local network of Hayat Pharmacy locations. Carter sold the location to Hayat in 2014, then continued to work at the establishment.

The proposal has been pending before the Common Council since April 2022.

The committee unanimously supported the renaming, with Rainey, Coggs, Stamper and Westmoreland as sponsors. The full council is expected to consider the proposal on Oct. 10.

The renaming will introduce one complication that other recent street renamings have avoided – intersecting with the prior street name. South of W. Center Street, a contiguous portion of N. 24th Street continues for a third of a mile until reaching W. Fond du Lac Avenue. Similar to other street renamings, disconnected portions of the street will continue with the N. 24th Street name.

The most recent full renaming was for Dr. William Finlayson, a famed Black obstetrician and gynecologist whose name replaced much of N. 5th Street earlier this year.

For more on Carter, see our 2021 article.

Related Legislation: File 211930