AMHERST — Shortly after returning from Ames, Iowa, to be full-time Amherst residents again in 2009, Carlie and Gary Tartakov continued their pursuit of civil rights and social justice by speaking out for a Springfield man wrongly convicted of murder.
“As soon as we came back, we got involved in the Justice for Charles campaign,” Carlie Tartakov says of the efforts she and her husband pursued on behalf of Charles Wilhite, whose first-degree murder conviction was overturned by a jury in Hampden Superior Court in 2013.
“When the verdict came down exonerating him, it was an exciting thing,” Gary Tartakov said.
The Tartakovs, whose community service and activism are aimed at making the world a better place, is earning them the Jean Haggerty Award for community service from Amherst Media at its 46th annual meeting, to be held remotely at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Created in 2009, the award is named after Haggerty, the late producer and board member who was dedicated to the betterment of the community and who advocated for those without a voice and in need. Awardees are individuals or organizations that believe in and demonstrate the importance of community engagement to obtain social change.
“So many people see them as a dynamic duo, a couple that has for years worked together on so many causes important to the communities in which they have lived,” said Artie McCullom, acting president of Amherst Media’s board of directors.
“It feels good to be honored by people you respect,” Gary Tartakov said of receiving the recognition.
“We’re extremely honored and humbled to be recognized by Amherst Media with this award,” Carlie Tartakov said
“We believe that the purpose of Amherst Media, as a community activity, is to bring us together, to help develop our understanding of the world and to share that understanding with the community, in the effort to create a world where everyone can share equally in its opportunities and benefits,” Carlie Tartakov said.
They both came to Amherst separately from California in 1968 during a time of unrest in the country, with the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Coming of age during the civil rights and then the anti-Vietnam War movements, the Tartakovs joined with, among others, the late Randolph Bromery, former chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, to create the first local chapter of the NAACP.
Carlie Tartakov taught in the elementary schools of Granby and then Amherst, beginning at the Amherst Center School before teaching at the newly built Wildwood.
In the 1980s, the couple moved to Ames, where they both taught at Iowa State University. Gary Tartakov is a professor emeritus of art and design, while Carlie Tartakov is an emerita professor in curriculum and instruction.
Since coming back to Amherst, Carlie Tartakov has become co-host of the “Black in the Valley” segment on Bill Newman’s WHMP show. She co-hosts with the Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Smith-Crooks and calls the twice-monthly segment a place to discuss the challenges facing African Americans and people of color, as well as their triumphs.
For years, Carlie Tartakov has taught courses at the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership and serves on the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee. She is also on the Roger Wallace Excellence in Teaching Award Foundation, and is part of the Amherst Neighbors initiative. In the late 1960s, she was also one of the founders of the Amherst A Better Chance program for academically talented young people of color.
While at Iowa State, she received the Virgil Lagomarcino Award for distinguished achievement in the field of education implementing the school’s Dialogues on Diversity program. She was inducted into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame in 2007.
Gary Tartakov is an historian of India’s Dalit art, connecting artistic expression to struggles for dignity and human rights in India. His 2013 book, “Dalit Art and Visual Imagery,” examines the Dalits’ modern response to caste oppression through the use of visual imagery in their struggle for social and economic justice.
In his retirement, Gary served as a Town Meeting member, and over the years has contributed editorials and letters to the editor on race, education and town priorities.
Two scholarships are named in the Tartakovs’ honor at Iowa State University, the Design Scholarship for Study Abroad, and the Promoting Equity in Education Scholarship. In the 1990s, the couple also helped to start the African American Studies Program at Iowa State, a progam that Gary Tartakov was interim director from 2001 to 2003.
Most recently the Tartakovs joined others in the community in the creation of an ad-hoc committee to help put on display the marble Civil War plaques at the Bangs Center. They have raised three children and have six grandchildren.
