Asa Earl Carter -- the Forrest Bedford of the Native American literary world?

I was fascinated by a recent public television documentary about a man named Asa Carter who changed his name mid-life name to Forrest Bedford Carter, becoming an author of a controversial memoir, now recognized as a work for fiction, The Education of Little Tree.

Asa Carter, segregationist, aka Forrest Bedford Carter, the Native American author

Asa Earl Carter (September 4, 1925--June 7, 1979), was a devote of  Nathan Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821 – October 29, 1877),  a notorious and racist  lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Like the real Gen. Forrest, Carter was a rabid segregationist and an infamous racist propagandist, as well, in the 1960s. A leader of the (White) Citizens Councils (a group dedicated to opposing desegregation and one that was generally considered to be a front group for the Ku Klux Klan) of North Alabama, Carter was the head of a "klavern" of the Ku Klux Klan and was an unofficial speechwriter for segregationist Governor George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama in 1968 and candidate for the Presidency in 1972.

Since its first publication by Delacorte Press in 1976, the book was quite popular, with many people drawn to its message of traditional, simple living and love of nature. However,The Education of Little Tree was the subject of controversy after the publication of an article years later, on October 4, 1991, by Dan T. Carter (a history professor and distant cousin of Asa Carter) called "The Transformation of a Klansman" in the New York Times. 


Little Tree, it turned out, was a sham -- any student of Native Americans would have known this from the start, but the book found its home with people who wanted to believe what Carter had written.

Originally accepted as an actual work by a Cherokee Indian, The Education of Little Tree ranks as one of the great literary hoaxes of American literature. Carter also published two Westerns, including The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales that actor Clint Eastwood made into the 1976 hit movie The Outlaw Josie Wells (1976). After the Eastwood film was released, the New York Times published the truth about Carter, revealing that "Forrest Carter" was actually Asa Earl Carter, the segregationist. 

Since Carter was part of the Citizens Councils -- originating in 1954 in Mississippi -- and a well-known segretationist writer, I wanted to see if there were any records on him in the Sovereignty Commission. And...

Go to the Main Search Page at


http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/

and plug in Asa Carter.... for two results that will lead you to three links. Be sure to put in the last name, first. Carter...Asa.

I would provide the direct links, but the state library is playing games this days, so you have to bring these up on your own.

Good luck and have fun. Susan

(Not much there, just some newspaper articles and column, but enough to bring some fascinating history to life. sk)

New Retirement Blog -- please drop by and say hello

A quick note to readers of this blog -- you are invited to drop by my newest blog, The Retirement Monologues at http://retirementmonologues.com/, where I am focusing on the latest retirement issues that face many of us as we march on through life. Not financial planning (everyone else worries about that), but fun stuff like what are you going to be doing as you retire. Travel? Go fishing? Write blogs that matter?

Maybe you are going to keep working, maybe you are going to start up a new business in your basement...well, you get the idea. My husband and I are starting into these years by working on our own. No more going to the office and working for someone else.

We're finding that working for ourselves will hopefully extend the years we work -- keeping our brains active and staying engaged.

I will be interviewing lots of people, commenting on related social and political issues, and trying to pass on some of the more unique and interesting aspects of retiring and staying engaged.

So please drop by and say hi. I would love to have your comments on posts and I am always looking for contributed articles to post on this topic. I have targeted this blog  to women's issues, but hey, everyone is invited to drop by and share their thoughts.

Thanks, Susan Klopfer

The Retirement Monologues

More on John Sullivan, the Vicksburg attorney who once worked with Banister's New Orleans detective agency and then "died" after shooting himself in the groin following a hunting trip...after JFK was assassinated.

http://mississippisovereigntycommission.blogspot.com/2008/12/searching-for-information-on-john-d.html

Just put up a "history" of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission (see Pages, at the left). Will be putting up some related links over the next few days.

Here's one -- some "stats" gathered after the murder of Emmett Till, over Mississippi murders...

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd08/062856.png&otherstuff=10|5|0|4|4|1|1|62031|#

Civil Rights & Social Justice News: Real Civil Rights History Beats Out "The Help" and Hollywood's Take on Mississippi

Civil Rights & Social Justice News: Real Civil Rights History Beats Out "The Help" and Hollywood's Take on Mississippi

A true script of what really went on in Mississippi during the modern civil rights era would show, for instance, that professor and social justice advocate John Salter was heavily spied on by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. Check out his name with these variations (for starters, I am sure there are more records tucked away) --

SALTER, JNO. R.
SALTER JR, JNO. R.
SALTER, JOHN
SALTER JR, JOHN
SALTER JR, JOHN R.
SALTER, JOHN R.
SALTERS, JOHN
SALTERS, JOHN R.

Here are a few links to get you started...

Head of Sovereignty Commission sends records to a judge --

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/005502.png&otherstuff=1|73|0|8|1|1|1|5351|#

News clippings -- city wants to query Salter

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/005532.png&otherstuff=1|73|0|16|1|1|1|5380|#

White Citizens Councils meets and talks about John Salter

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/000154.png&otherstuff=1|3|0|11|1|1|1|152|#

Enjoy...

Academic Smearing at its "Unlevel Best" -- Loads of Sovereignty Commission Records

The man who once taught sociology at Tougaloo College under the name of John Salter, a fine academic and brilliant writer who was frequently smeared by the Sovereignty Commission, takes time to reflect.

Hunter Gray to Bear, 6:17 AM (2 hours ago)

I much like Fall in the West. Here in the higher altitudes of the Mountain States,
the air is living-crispy during the days and the nights call for our wolf robe or at least my colorful Pendleton blankets. Occasional rain and some snow slowly bring deer, elk, and moose down into the somewhat lower winter ranges -- not far at all above us right here -- accompanied by lions,bobcats, coyotes, even an occasional wolf. Bears do their final fattening up for their long den-sleep -- which will carry them far feelings-wise from oncoming cold weather with its cutting winds and inevitable snow. But the sky can be as blue as turquoise, the mornings always promising good luck, and the slowly dimming early evenings with their fading sunlight and faint haze and creeping chill have a strangely appealing and mystical feel. The nights can be downright witchy.

For me, it's the Time of my Coming of Age Bear.

http://hunterbear.org/coming%20of%20age%20[western%20memoir.%20htm.htm

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'

Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now almost 12 years old. It contains a great deal of primary, first-hand material on Native Americans, Civil Rights Movement, union labor, and organizing techniques -- and much more. Check it out and its vast number of component pieces. The front page itself -- the initial cover page -- has about 36 representative links.

www.hunterbear.org
----

John Salter and the Sovereignty Commission

Here are several Sovereignty Commission links, to get you warmed up... (Note: Records under Salter and Salters. Remember, these files are ancient and tricky. Always expand out searches, remembering they may come in multiple sets under variations on the name.)

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/000155.png&otherstuff=1|3|0|11|2|1|1|153|#


http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/pages/135250.png&otherstuff=1|73|0|7|1|1|1|5347|#

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/005541.png&otherstuff=1|73|0|21|1|1|1|5389|#


http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd05/039726.png&otherstuff=3|74|2|16|2|1|1|39125|#


http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd01/005496.png&otherstuff=1|73|0|5|1|1|1|5345|#


Tons more files to go through. All fascinating... The main link is at http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/

Don't ever discount the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission

I remember when I first started looking at Sovereignty Commission records. I read a quote, calling the investigators "keystone cops", back when the records were first made public. Reporters had done a quick look through records of prominent people and most likely, because many records had already been pulled and kept away from public view, or stolen, it looked like there was not much available. Thus -- reporters dismisssed the entire batch.

Not a smart thing to do. There is so much in the data base and it's fun just to pull anonymous records and start sniffing around. This evening, I was looking to see if there were any records available for a lawyer by the name of Lanier Foote. No luck so far -- but remember, not everything is indexed, so I will keep looking in the cracks.

But I did pull up this record -- not sure who exactly it is referencing, but take a look at the "research" done by the investigator. This person was obviously experienced, and it is chilling to watch how he was operating...

http://bit.ly/pup8Ma

or http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/result.php?image=/data/sov_commission/images/png/cd02/010877.png&otherstuff=4|7|0|10|1|1|1|10646|#


No -- not all of these investigators were keystone cops...

Remembering Emmett Till; looking through some Sovereignty Commission 'tidbits', getting a feel for the times

Note: I wrote this post last year as the 56th anniversary of young Emmett Till's murder approached, and included some links to Sovereignty Commission files related to his death. In light of Trayvon Martin's murder, I thought that some readers might be interested in more history about Emmett Till. If you don't know about the Sovereignty Commission, it was a state-run spy organization to halt integration, and was formed following Till's murder.

Very few such records actually are in the state's archives regarding Emmett Till, since most of the records were probably boxed up and taken home by sovereignty commission directors and others.

But -- it is still interesting to see what is there. It helps give a feel for the times, if nothing else.

Here are some links -- there are many  more. Remember that you can look up more records yourself by going to
http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/sovcom/namesearch.php

Just search on Till, since there are various ways these records are indexed (i.e., Louis Till, Emmit Till, Emmett Till, etc.)

Negro Leader Critical of Southern Juries, FBI

Signs of Attack Seen by NAACP on State Segregation

Part of a conversation on lynching in Mississippi, mentions Till; tries to place blame of acquittal on a "negro undertaker." Fascinating. I spoke with that person before he died, and that is not the story he told me...

Political cartoon of Mississippi black murder victims, includes Till.

"Crack Mississippi, and you can crack the South. Crack the South, and you can crack the U.S." History professor and Citizens Councils member fears the civil rights movement is the forerunner of Communism.