Wednesday, May 10, 2023 7:00 PM

Location:
The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library
441 John Lewis Freedom Parkway, NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30307

"Dan T. Carter has long stood as one of the most insightful scholars of the modern South. In this beautifully written new book, he turns his talents to his most fascinating subject yet: a man who first made a name for himself as a vocal champion of white supremacy and then, amazingly, reinvented himself as a celebrated literary author and fake Native American. "Unmasking the Klansman" is a masterful tale well told." -- Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton University

The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and A Cappella Books welcome historian Dan T. Carter for a discussion of his new book, “Unmasking the Klansman: The Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter.”

This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue. Masks are optional.

About the Book

"Unmasking the Klansman" may read like a work of fiction but is actually a biography of Asa Carter, one of the South's most notorious white supremacists (and secret Klansman). During the 1950s, the North Alabama political firebrand became known across the region for his right-wing radio broadcasts and leadership in the white Citizens' Council movement. Combining racism and thinly-concealed anti-Semitism, he created a secret Klan strike force that engaged in a series of brutal assaults, including an attack on jazz singer Nat King Cole as well as militant civil rights activists. Exploring his life during these years offers new insights into the legal maneuvers as well as the violence used by white Southern segregationists to derail the civil rights movement in the region.

In the early 1960s Carter became a secret adviser to George Wallace and wrote the Alabama governor's infamous 1963 inauguration speech vowing "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." When Carter disappeared from Alabama in 1972, few knew that he had assumed a new identity in Abilene, Texas, masquerading as a Cherokee American novelist. Using the name “Forrest" Carter, he published three successful Western novels, including "The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales," which Clint Eastwood made into a widely acclaimed 1976 movie. His last book, "The Education of Little Tree" (a fake biography of his supposed Indian childhood) posthumously became a number one best-seller in 1991.

Author Dan T. Carter uncovered “Forrest" Carter's true identity while researching his biography of Georgia Wallace and in a New York Times' op-ed he exposed Carter's deception. Although the difficulties of uncovering the full story of the secretive Carter initially led him to abandon the project, in 2018 he gained access to more than two hundred interviews by the late Anniston newsman, Fred Burger. These recordings and his two decades of exhaustive research finally brought Asa Carter's story into focus. "Unmasking the Klansman" is the result.

About the Author

Dan T. Carter is the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation Professor Emeritus. The author and editor of more than forty scholarly articles and seven books, including "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South" and "The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, The Origins of the New Conservatism and the Transformation of American Politics." Carter has received eight major literary prizes including the Lillian Smith, Bancroft, and Robert Kennedy awards as well as a special citation in nonfiction from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Brevard, North Carolina.