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)

Related Blogs:


Civil Rights News Releases


The Emmett Till Blog

Who Killed Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Stuart Wexler and Larry Hancock, authors of an upcoming book, "Seeking Armageddon: The Effort to Kill Martin Luther King Jr.," are exploring evidence that members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi were involved.

"It's becoming more and more evident they had the motive, the means and the opportunity to assassinate Dr. King, and in fact, that had been a major goal of theirs for years," Wexler said.

Some proof can be found in FBI and Miami police documents that suggest White Knights members may have helped jam Memphis police radios when King was shot on April 4, 1968.

Vivian is among civil rights leaders gathering today in Memphis to remember

King and to sign their support for legislation that would create a Justice Department unit aimed at solving the unpunished killings from the civil rights era.

The House passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act by an overwhelming margin of 422-2, but the bill has stalled in the Senate, where U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has put a "hold" on the legislation, putting it in limbo. He has cited the cost - $10 million a year to examine civil rights killings before 1970 and $3.5 million to help local law enforcement conduct investigations.

In the '50s and '60s, King was friends with Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers.

In 1963, a member of the White Knights shot Evers in the back outside his Jackson home, and King attended the funeral.

Continued, from the Hattiesburg American

And from Sovereignty Commission records, there were many files kept on MLK and some on the White Knights, too.

Here are a few posts.

A memo on King dated Jan. 18, 1963 from Carl Braden: "...people ... the CORE group are very jealous of Martin's connection with a group like ours ..."

"Reward for the bodies of" Martin Luther King and others...

List of Civil Rights Disturbances in Mississippi over a decade

Memo to governor, Nov. 1957, Martin Luther King to attend meeting in Mound Bayou

White Knights "no cause for concern" to Mississippi Sovereignty Commission

Mississippi Cold Case; Louis Allen

Reward offered in 1964 slaying; efforts to find Louis Allen's killer increase after solving other cold cases

Family members of Louis Allen, a Liberty resident shot to death 43 years ago in what the FBI is investigating as a civil rights-era slaying, are offering $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of his killers.

Allen's namesake grandson, Louis Allen Jr., said family members suspect the killer is alive and that other people were involved.

The Allen case is one of more than 100 civil rights-era slaying under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Louis Allen Jr. said he hopes the reward offered by the Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference will spark more interest in finding justice for his grandfather.

Efforts to solve the case have gained steam, following prosecutions in other civil rights-era cold cases, including two life sentences handed down this summer to James Ford Seale of Roxie in the May 2, 1964, kidnapping of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The teens were beaten and drowned.

Story Continued --

From Sovereignty Commission files, here are several links

Initial report filed by the investigator, A. L Hopkins

Rev. E. H. Hurst is "cleared of blame"

Five more deaths reported; citizens councils says it is not responsible

More links can be found at the Sovereignty Commission website when searching under Lewis Allen ...

The "mysterious killing of the only witness to the murder of a negro by a white man" report by investigator Tom Scarbrough

More files can be found under both spellings. sk

Medgar Evers remembered for achievements

KNOWN TODAY more for his struggles for civil rights in Mississippi and his untimely death at the hands of an assassin than for his writings, Medgar Evers nevertheless left behind an impressive record of achievement.

Medgar Wiley Evers was born July 2, 1925, near Decatur, Mississippi, and attended school there until he was inducted into the army in 1943. After serving in Normandy, he attended Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University), majoring in business administration.

While at Alcorn, he was a member of the debate team, the college choir, and the football and track teams. He also held several student offices and was editor of the campus newspaper for two years and the annual for one year.

In recognition of his accomplishments at Alcorn, he was listed in Who's Who in American Colleges.

At Alcorn he met Myrlie Beasley of Vicksburg and they married on December 24, 1951. He received his BA degree the following semester and they moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, during which time Evers began to establish local chapters of the NAACP throughout the delta and organising boycotts of gasoline stations that refused to allow Blacks to use their restrooms.

He worked in Mound Bayou as an insurance agent until 1954, the year a Supreme Court decision ruled school segregation unconstitutional.

Continued --
* * * * *
The Sovereignty Commission spent years spying on Medgar Evers and here are just a few examples of records you can find ...

Evers Complains to Civil Rights Commission when Madison County black is shot to death by local sheriff

Medgar Evers makes a "strong NAACP address"

1959 File: Evers labeled "Integration Agitator" by Sov. Comm. Spy

Lots more under three separate batches of files ... all equally disgusting.

Sovereignty Records Could Help Solve Cold Cases

Widows of two civil-rights activists slain in the 1960s in 2006 appealed to Congress yesterday to help bring justice in scores of cold murder cases from that era.

To do so, Myrlie Evers-Williams said, would aid surviving families and tell the nation "that these people's lives were not in vain." She testified on the 44th anniversary of the assassination in Mississippi of her husband, Medgar Evers.

Further prosecutions could help the nation understand its history better in order to heal deep wounds and achieve reconciliation, added Rita Schwerner Bender. Her husband, Michael Schwerner, was killed in Mississippi in 1964.

A House subcommittee unanimously approved a bill to authorize spending $13.5 million a year over 10 years for reopening the cases that have gone cold. Of that, $11.5 million would go to the Justice Department and the remainder to help state and local authorities.
* * *
Don't hold your breath, it never happened.

Yet, Mississippi Sovereignty Commission records were used to convict several people for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, as well as Medgar Evers (just not everyone involved).

All of these cases, and many others of murder and terrorism against civil rights activists (and people in the wrong place at the wrong time) have files in the Sovereignty Commission. Here are a few links to help you get started in a journey to learn more about Mississippis cold, warm, warmer and hot civil rights cases--

Sov. Comm. funds "book" on Medgar Evers

Early reports by Medgar Evers of young men killed in Corinth and Philadelphia

Medgar Evers constantly "tracked" by the Commission ... for "exploiting" Delta blacks in this file

Klan on the upswing

The Ku Klux Klan, which just a few years ago seemed static or even moribund compared to other white supremacist movements such as the Neo-Nazis, experienced "a surprising and troubling resurgence" during the past year due largely to the successful exploitation of hot button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime according to the Anti Defamation League (ADL).

(from The Black Voice News)
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When researching the Mississippi Delta for my book, Where Rebels Roost, I often ran into stories about the Klan and its activities. Following the Civil War, President Grant had sent federal troops to restore law and order to many of the most violent areas in the South afflicted by the newly formed group and Grant’s disruptions of Klan activities bought him both friends and foes since most states had either advocated Klan interests or were too intimidated to confront the KKK.

(Interestingly, no information regarding the Klan and its place in Radical Reconstruction is mentioned on the White House “official” web page of presidential history where Grant is described, instead, as having “neither vigor nor reform” and seeming “bewildered.” The site concludes “Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.”)

In the Mississippi Delta, Klan members often stirred violent disruptions. In 1869, for instance, a party of Ku Klux Klan night riders burned a two-story Coahoma County residence belonging to James Alcorn, Mississippi’s first elected Republican governor. Alcorn had previously served in the state legislature of Kentucky and Mississippi, and had risen to the rank of general in the Confederate military service during the Civil War.

The arson also destroyed a valuable steam cotton gin and all of the resident blacks’ quarters, including a smokehouse. The St. Louis Democrat reported: “The cause of this outrage was that General Alcorn…believes that the Republican Party is now the only national party and the only friend of the South. His persecution is an evidence of the intolerant and cowardly spirit of the Mississippi Ku Klux.”

After more stories appeared in newspapers around the entire country, I finally found another account from the Friars Point newspaper that called other reports misleading:

We have refrained from saying anything about the burning … ashamed that such an act of vandalism had been perpetrated in the county, but since the newspapers have taken hold of it we will state the facts. The plantation, which was the scene of the disgraceful act, was not being cultivated by [the] General. It was subject to flood and for that reason was not cultivated. Some trusty freedmen proposed to rent it of him and pay their rent in improvements. The farm was rented. No sooner was it discovered that this had been done than the Ku Klux sallied forth in the night time and burned every house on the premise…. That the hated General … should presume to rent land to freedmen was a little more than the chivalric and sensitive Ku Klux could stand.

* * * * *
There are a host of files on Klansmen and their activities in the Sovereignty Commission files. For instance

An article by Drew Pearson on the Klan and Mississippi, written in 1953

A "Tell All" Report by the Mississippi White Caps

A Sovereignty Commission "report" on the Pike County Klan, Unit 783