interview--Acclaimed author Dan T. Carter exposes a vicious racist

“Unmasking the Klansman: the Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter” by Dan T. Carter (NewSouth Books, an imprint of the University of Georgia Press)

There were once a vicious racist, who was convinced that there was an actual Jewish-Communist conspiracy to overtake the world (despite the fact that the Jews were routinely persecuted by the atheist communist government of the USSR). Asa. Carter was a radio commentator, public speaker, and Klan organizer, who had a way with words and could be an excellent storyteller. He also thought all people of color threatened the “real white Americans” who built the USA.

Because of his skill and his dedication to segregation, Asa Carter secretly wrote the inaugural speech for new Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1963. Earlier, he put together a special guerilla force of ruthless and determined Klansmen who would do anything he ordered them to do, from bomb buildings to kill civil rights activists, to viciously assaulting a black man walking along a road and cripple him for life by castrating him. Carter always managed to keep himself from being arrested, but the FBI began to keep track of him.

When it got too dangerous to stay in Alabama (and he could not keep a job) Asa Carter moved to Florida, lost 20 pounds, got a nice tan, grew a moustache, and reinvented himself as a part Cherokee Indian named Forrest Carter (after his hero, Nathan Bedford Forrest). He then became a successful novelist, generating a novel that became the Clint Eastwood movie, “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, and creating an imaginary Indian childhood account that that was a best-seller for years for the University of New Mexico Press!

But he had a terrible problem with alcohol, and it got worse as Carter became convinced someone would discover his true identity. He even came up with an elaborate ruse that Asa died and his “widow” married Forrest, a relative who adopted Asa’s five children. However, when he was drunk, he revealed his animosity for black people, Mexicans, Jews and communists. Asa Carter never apologized for his attitude, changed his mind or repented of his rabid bigotry.

Everyone in the family kept the secret, even on his tombstone. Years later, his wife changed the stone to have his real name on it and was buried next to him.