Hodding Carter discusses the white moderate reaction to the tumultous events in Mississippi in the late 50's and early 60's, and the harrasment he and his family were subjected to. He discusses segregation, voting restrictions for blacks, white resistence against the changes, the formation of Citizens' Council in Indianola, Mississippi and how the Council influenced the government of Mississippi. He also talks of his father's refusal to join the Council and the subsequent boycott against the Delta Democrat-Times.
Pre-interview (Contact the archive for more information.)
Hodding Carter III
Hodding Carter was born 1935 in New Orleans, Louisiana into a family rooted in journalism. His father, Hodding Carter Sr., was a Pulitzer Prize winner and chief editor and publisher of the Greenville, MS based newspaper, Delta Democrat-Times. In 1959, a few years after Carter graduated from Princeton and completed his service to the U.S. Marine Corps, he returned to Greenville to work for his family's journal. During his eighteen year stint at the paper, Carter was involved in the highly successful presidential campaigns of Lyndon Baynes Johnson and Jimmy Carter. He has served as an anchor and correspondent for numerous political programs for various stations such as ABC, BBC, CBS, and CNN. Currently, he serves as the president, CEO and Trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Akron Roundtable).
Civil Rights Era
Carter and his family encountered many attacks from the white segregationist community during the civil rights era. Their strong stance against Jim Crow Laws resulted in death threats and boycotts for their paper. Carter's family values made a lasting impression on him. Carter employed his journalistic voice to combat the injustices of segregation and advocate civil rights. He later extended his fervor into politics, by helping organize a white and black delegation which traveled to the 1968 Democratic National Conventions and removed the all-white segregationist Mississippi delegation (Hodding Carter Lecture).
Bibliography
- "Hodding Carter III". The Akron Roundtable. Akron Roundtable. N.d. 30 September, 2005. http://www.akronroundtable.org/speakers/individuals/carter.html.
- "Hodding Carter Lecutre". Civil Rights and the Press. S.I. Newhouse. 2003. 30 September, 2005. http://civilrightsandthepress.syr.edu/panelist.html