The late Miriam Johnson Carter tore down racial and gender barriers in 1955 as the first African American woman admitted as a student at the College of William and Mary.

Now, nearly six decades later, the Gloucester native is being recognized as part of an exhibit at the university’s Swem Library. "‘The Inevitable Present’: Integration at William & Mary" will be on display through Aug. 13.

Miriam graduated from Philadelphia Normal School in 1929 and began teaching elementary school. But the next year she fell in love with a hometown man, G. Nelson Carter, and in 1932 they married. She set aside her teaching career to be a housewife and helpmate to her husband, working in the office of the family business, Carter Funeral Home. Eventually, the couple had two sons, Frederick and George N. Carter Jr.

But Nelson Carter became the first president of the Tri-County NAACP in 1941, and his political activism began to affect the family business. In 1944, he became i...