By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
Carl Fowler knew he wanted to make a difference — if not in the world, at least in his corner of it. The question was how.
In the summer of 2019, he took a study away course titled "Honestly Remembering Together," which explored racial injustice in America from slavery to present day. The class spent a week in Alabama, where so many pivotal moments of the Civil Rights movement occurred.
While in Montgomery, Fowler and his classmates visited the public defender's office. They learned it hadn't opened until 2015 — 60 years after Rosa Parks took a stand there by sitting, and two years before Fowler came to William & Mary on a football scholarship.
"When you think of the decades and centuries of Civil Rights work in Montgomery, the fact that they just got a public defender's office this century is pretty indicative of how new a lot of this work still is," he said. "That was pretty formative for me."
So much so that it sent Fowler on a new path.
After completing his first year of William & Mary Law School, Fowler is serving a summer internship with the Public Defender's Office in Newport News. He mostly shadows attorneys throughout the day, from the office to the courtroom.
When there are breaks, he takes time to digest all that's going on. The attorneys, he said, have been very helpful with advice and answering questions. He understands the roadblocks and couldn't care less that being a public defender isn't a particularly lucrative career.
"PDs get a really bad rap for a lot of reasons — like, 'How could you defend this person?'" said Fowler, a three-year starter at defensive end and team captain. "But you talk to an actual public defender, somebody who does it for a living, and they love their jobs.
"They care about the work they're doing. And they're really good attorneys."
Coming in with several Advanced Placement credits, Fowler needed only three years to graduate from William & Mary in the spring of 2020 with a degree in public policy. With two years of eligibility remaining in football, he enrolled in law school last fall.
It isn't known for certain how many W&M football players have attended law school while still on the roster. But Jimmye Laycock, who coached the Tribe from 1980-2018, said the only player he had who pulled off that double play offensive tackle Archie Harris in 1986.
William & Mary has had two other athletes in law school over the last three school years — men's basketball player Paul Rowley and men's golfer Preston Ball.
"With all he does, he's amazing," W&M coach
Mike London said of Fowler. "He epitomizes student-athlete to the nth degree."
Fowler comes from a giving environment. His father, Don, was director of development with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and ran a non-profit to help lower-income elementary schools.
His mother, Lauren Holahan, has spent most of her career in special education. His stepmother, Kara McGee, is a physician assistant at Duke specializing in HIV care.
"He grew up in two households where caring people is what he saw, but we don't take any credit," Holahan said. "He made the decisions he's made — that's all about him. I often tell people, most of parenting Carl has been getting out of his way.
"The trip he took to Alabama was really transforming for him. To put together a history of our country's justice system, in the South in particular, there is still a lot of reform work to do in the legal system."
Fowler was raised in Durham, North Carolina, not far from Duke but also in a city with a higher poverty rate than the national average. He attended public schools and graduated from Northern High, where he observed that not everyone had the advantages he did.
"He didn't grow up with money, or anything, but he had a privilege that not everybody did," Don Fowler said. "And he recognized it.
"Since he's been in college, he's at a place that has allowed that [recognition] to grow. William & Mary has been a very special place for him. It's developed his concern for his fellow man."
That came front and center during the challenging year of 2020, in which African-Americans Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and Jonathan Price (to name but four) died at the hands of police.
Last June, Fowler and teammate Michael Jackson organized the Durham-Raleigh March Against Injustice. All proceed went to the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit in Montgomery that provides legal assistance to those wrongly convicted of crimes.
Fowler and Jackson were hoping to raise at least $2,000. They ended up clearing $20,000.
Felecia Hayes, a Black track athlete at W&M, organized protests in Williamsburg. Fowler was one of her biggest helpers.
"Carl is an all-around inspiring guy who makes you want to do more for the betterment of your community," said Hayes, who graduated last month.
"By being an ally to marginalized communities and showing a serious interest in the criminal justice system, it says a lot about his character and his passion for making a lasting impact. The world needs more people like him."
Fowler also is setting a strong example for his 12-year-old sister, Sophie.
"She loves Carl and does everything he does," Don Fowler said. "She's already talking about being a lawyer."
With COVID numbers trending in the right direction, signs are encouraging for a more normal fall. On the football field, Fowler hopes that means a season without interruptions. That would be a refreshing change from last spring, when three of W&M's six scheduled games were canceled.
"There's a lot of ways to say it, but this spring sucked," Fowler said. "It will be really nice to not have that concern of a game being canceled due to COVID hanging over our heads all week."
After a year of remote classes, law school should be more like what Fowler signed up for. Now in his second of three years, he'll be able to choose his classes. He already knows his focus.
"A lot of people come to law school knowing they want to practice law but not what kind," Fowler said. "I came to law school knowing exactly what kind of law I want to practice.
"I'm pretty set on it at this point. Working in this office the short time I've been there has been confirming."
