Mr. Hunter was born in Raleigh. He lived on Hargett Street, three blocks east of the intersection of Hargett and Tarboro Streets, near the Department of Motor Vehicles.  His father died when he was very young. His grandmother raised him.

Mr. Hunter was educated in the Raleigh City School System. He attended elementary school at Hunter Elementary School. He attended Washington School from ninth grade to tenth grade. He entered the newly opened John W. Ligon Junior Senior High School in 1953 and graduated with the Ligon Class of 1955. (Class History)
 

Most students, including Mr. Hunter, walked to school. The walk to Hunter Elementary was six blocks. Washington School was two miles from his home; Ligon was one mile away. He enjoyed the walk with his friends. They would pick up other students along the way. Sometimes there would be thirty students clustered by the time they reached school. Mr. Hunter walked to school daily in all kinds of weather. Perfect attendance was important to him. Sometimes the walk was a lot longer because of social “obligations.”  While at Washington Mr. Hunter had a girlfriend from the Oberlin area, he would walk her home from Washington up Fayetteville Street, then north to the capitol and west on Hillsborough Street to Oberlin Road, a distance of four miles.  He then had to walk back over three miles to his home on Hargett Street, but it was worth it. During his last two years of high school at Ligon his girlfriend lived near Washington School, so his afternoon walks were not quite as long.

Education was important to the Hunter family. Though Mr. Hunter’s grandmother could not read, she knew the letters A, B, C, D and F. Poor grades were unacceptable. Good conduct was also a premium. If Mr. Hunter got in trouble at school, his teachers contacted his grandmother before he got home. She would be waiting at home when he arrived to punish him for misbehaving in school.

Mr. Hunter graduated with the John W. Ligon Junior Senior High School Class of 1955. After graduation he entered the military and served from 1955 until 1978. He is an honored Tuskegee Airman. He retired from the Air Force as a Technical Sergeant. He moved to Miami and had a successful career working for Florida Power and Light as an assistant store keeper. While in Florida Mr. Hunter enjoyed continued friendships with Louis Davis, a 1957 Ligon graduate who served on the Miami police force. Mr. Hunter retired in 1992 and returned to Raleigh to live in his family home.