Date & Time
7:00pm EST - 9:00pm EST
About This Event
Klansman to Best-Selling New Age Author - The Strange Life of Asa "Forest" Carter
Unmasking the "Klansman" reads like fiction but is a biography of Asa Carter, a notorious Klansman from Alabama. Carter led a KKK group that committed brutal acts of racial violence, including fire-bombing a Freedom Riders' bus and assaulting Nat King Cole. After avoiding conviction for castrating a Black handyman, Carter became an adviser to George Wallace, writing his infamous 1963 inaugural address. Later, Carter rebranded himself as "Forrest" Carter, a Cherokee Indian, and authored Western novels, including "The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales." His last book, "The Education of Little Tree," became a bestseller despite its fabricated origins. This talk explores Carter's impact on American political culture.
Each ticket includes a free meal (vegetarian and gluten-free options available).
Meal service begins at 6:00 p.m.
Speaker presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.
About This Event
Klansman to Best-Selling New Age Author - The Strange Life of Asa "Forest" Carter
Unmasking the "Klansman" reads like fiction but is a biography of Asa Carter, a notorious Klansman from Alabama. Carter led a KKK group that committed brutal acts of racial violence, including fire-bombing a Freedom Riders' bus and assaulting Nat King Cole. After avoiding conviction for castrating a Black handyman, Carter became an adviser to George Wallace, writing his infamous 1963 inaugural address. Later, Carter rebranded himself as "Forrest" Carter, a Cherokee Indian, and authored Western novels, including "The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales." His last book, "The Education of Little Tree," became a bestseller despite its fabricated origins. This talk explores Carter's impact on American political culture.
Each ticket includes a free meal (vegetarian and gluten-free options available).
Meal service begins at 6:00 p.m.
Speaker presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.
About the Speaker
Dr. Dan Carter, formerly Kenan University Professor at Emory University, was appointed the first Educational Foundation Professor of History at the University of South Carolina in 2000 and became Emeritus Professor in 2009. A South Carolina native, he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1962 and completed his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin and the University of North Carolina. He has served as a professor and visiting scholar at eight other institutions, including the University of Maryland, Cambridge University, and the National Humanities Center.
Carter is the author and editor of more than 50 articles and seven works of history. His first book, "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South" (1970), received the Bancroft Prize, the Anisfield-Wolfe Award, the Lillian Smith Award, and a special citation from the Mystery Writers of America.
His book "When the War Was Over: The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South, 1865-1867" (1985) won the Jules Landry Prize and the Avery Craven Award.
Carter has held fellowships and visiting appointments, including Fulbright professorships in England and Italy, and Cambridge University’s Pitt Professorship. He has lectured throughout the United States and abroad and received an honorary degree from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.
He has been a consultant for television documentaries and docudramas, including NBC's "Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys" and PBS's "George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire," which was nominated for three Emmys. Carter received an Emmy for historical research on a documentary film.
Since retiring in 2009, Carter has lived with his wife, Jane, in Brevard, North Carolina. He continues to give public lectures and publish essays, including his recent book, "Unmasking the Klansman: The Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter" (2023).
Date & Time
7:00pm EST - 9:00pm EST