She was also the second African American woman elected to Congress from Indiana, after Katie Hall, and her grandson André Carson succeeded to her seat following her death.

To help her family, Julia took on various part-time jobs, including waiting tables, delivering newspapers, and harvesting crops.

In 1965, while a single mother and working as a secretary at UAW Local 550, Carson was hired away by newly elected congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr., a Democrat, to do casework in his Indianapolis office.

When his electoral prospects looked dim in 1972 (which turned out to be a Republican landslide), Jacobs encouraged Carson to run for the Indiana House of Representatives, which she did.

She won re-election and ultimately served in the Indiana Senate for 14 years, sitting on its finance committee and eventually holding the minority whip position before retiring in 1990.

[5][6] Carson and Katie Hall (a fellow Democrat but from Lake County who also won an election that year) became the first African American women to win election to the Indiana Senate; the first African American to sit in that body had been Virginia-born civil rights attorney Robert Lee Brokenburr, a Republican who had died in 1974 and who represented part of Marion County for most of the period 1941–1964.

[7] In 1990, Carson won election as the Trustee for Center Township (downtown Indianapolis), seemingly a step down from her legislative post, but with a considerable budget and administrative responsibilities.

Her 2000 campaign attracted President Bill Clinton 's personal appearance, drawing thousands to the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

In 2006, Carson traveled from Washington, D.C., to Indianapolis aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush to appear at the Indiana Black Expo.

Carson won re-election by about 11 points in 2004, defeating Republican Andrew Horning and Libertarian Barry Campbell.

Carson was one of the last representatives to support trade normalization with China in 2000 (because of its human rights record) and opposed the Iraq War resolution in 2002.

The Roudebush VA Medical Center was in her district, and she often visited recuperating veterans and could identify with many of their health problems.

[1] Carson's legislative record included leading Congress to award Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999 and 2005, allowing the civil rights icon to become the first woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capital Rotunda.

[1] Carson also cosponsored, with (Republican) Sen. Richard Lugar, the removal of bureaucratic bottlenecks on child health insurance; and commemorating author Kurt Vonnegut (H.RES.324[12]).

[15] Thousands of Hoosiers paid last respects, visiting the casket and attending an evening ceremony in the Statehouse.

Celebrants included Jacobs, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson (D), U.S. Representative Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.

), U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), Indiana House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend), Indianapolis Mayor Peterson, radio host and Hoosier native Tavis Smiley, and Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Carson was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis; the graveside ceremony included a three-volley salute.

[1] During her life, Carson was named the Indianapolis Star Woman of the Year in 1974 and 1991 and was inducted into the Indiana Public Schools Hall of Fame in 2006.