Robert "Sonny" Carson was a civil rights activist, militant black protestor, and community leader in Brooklyn, New York. Carson gained prominence in the 1960s for organizing protests to gain control of African-American public schools in New York City, particularly Ocean Hill–Brownsville. He wrote a popular autobiography, The Education of Sonny Carson (1972), which was made into a 1974 film. He was described in The Village Voice as "Brooklyn’s Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey". Carson is the father of hip-hop artist Professor X.