Asa Earl Carter (4 September 1925 – 7 June 1979) was a Ku Klux Klan leader, segregationist speechwriter, and western novelist. He adopted the pseudonym "Forrest Carter" in 1971 in an attempt to distance himself from his segregationist past, writing successful books such as The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree. His true identity was revealed by The New York Times in 1976, and he died of heart failure after a fistfight with his son in 1979.
Biography[]
Asa Earl Carter was born in Anniston, Alabama on 4 September 1925, and he served in the US Navy during World War II before settling in Birmingham. He worked for the radio station WILD from 1953 to 1955, and he was fired after refusing to tone down his anti-Semitic rhetoric. He went on to found the North Alabama Citizens' Council, becoming a spokesman for segregation; he called for jukebox owners to purge all records from black performer, claiming that the NAACP had "infiltrated" Southern white teenagers with "immoral" rock and roll records. In 1957, he mounted a failed bid for Birmingham police commissioner, losing to incumbent Bull Connor. He also founded the "Original Ku Klux Klan of the Confederacy" militant group and started the monthly white supremacist and anti-communist publication The Southerner. His group committed a spate of violent attacks before he quit the Klan group in 1958 after shooting two members over a financial dispute. That same year, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, but he placed in fifth and last place. During the 1960s, he worked as a speechwriter for George Wallace, coining the famous phrase "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." During his 1968 presidential campaign, Wallace did not invite Carter on board for the campaign, as he sought to tone down his reputation as a segregationist firebrand; Carter later grew alienated from Wallace's liberal turn on race. Carter failed in his 1970 bid to challenge Wallace's re-election as Governor, again placing in fifth and last place with 1.51% of the vote; he demonstrated at Wallace's inauguration in 1971, carrying signs reading "Wallace is a bigot" and "Free our white children".
After losing the election, Asa Earl Carter relocated to Abilene, Texas, changed his name to "Forrest Carter", began calling his sons "nephews", distanced himself from his past, and became a novelist in St. George's Island, Florida and Abilene. He wrote the books The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree while pretending to be an author of Cherokee descent, but, after a Barbara Walters interview on the Today show in 1974, several Alabama politicians identified "Forrest Carter" as Asa Earl Carter. In 1976, The New York Times revealed Carter's true identity. He died of heart failure in Abilene in 1979 at the age of 53, supposedly after a fistfight with his son.