[1] A lifelong Democrat, Carter helped lead his party's progressive faction, particularly as they opposed the Byrd Organization's policy of Massive Resistance to racial integration in Virginia's public schools.
Carter was a vestryman in his local Episcopal Church, as well as active in the Ruritans, Freemasons, and Virginia Bar Association.
Carter and state senator Armistead Boothe of Alexandria, Virginia became leaders of what some called the "Young Turks", mostly moderates who had served in World War II and realized the economic and social cost of Massive Resistance.
That had begun after the United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (and companion cases including one from Prince Edward County, Virginia) in 1954 and 1955.
[6] As a lawyer, Carter respected the U.S. Supreme Court's authority to promulgate both decisions in Brown, and did not have ambitions for higher office and so did not feel a need to cater to either the segregationist nor integrationist wings of his party.
Meanwhile, Carter had been elected to the Virginia Senate, and although recovering from recent abdominal surgery, appeared to cast his crucial vote in favor of the Perrow Commission plan.
After Carter's retirement, his senate district was represented by attorney Hale Collins of Covington, Virginia, who would hold it for two decades (although after the 1964 census redistricting, Allegheny, Bedford, Botetourt, Buena Vista, Clifton Forge, Covington, Craig and Rockbridge Counties were collectively placed in the 19th senatorial district).