Unmasking the Klansman, Dan T. Carter
Unmasking the Klansman, Dan T. Carter
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Unmasking the Klansman
The Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter

Author: Dan T. Carter

Narrator: Art Brown

Unabridged: 17 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/19/2023


Synopsis

Unmasking the Klansman may read like a work of fiction but is actually a biography of Asa Carter, one of the South's most notorious white supremacists (and secret Klansman). In the early 1960s Carter became a secret adviser to George Wallace and wrote the Alabama governor's infamous 1963 inauguration speech vowing "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." When Carter disappeared from Alabama in 1972, few knew that he had assumed a new identity in Abilene, Texas, masquerading as a Cherokee American novelist. Using the name "Forrest" Carter, he published three successful Western novels, including The Rebel Outlaw, which Clint Eastwood made into a movie. His last book, The Education of Little Tree (a fake biography of his supposed Indian childhood) posthumously became a number one bestseller in 1991.

Author Dan T. Carter uncovered "Forrest" Carter's true identity while researching his biography of Georgia Wallace and in a New York Times op-ed he exposed Carter's deception. Although the difficulties of uncovering the full story of the secretive Carter initially led him to abandon the project, in 2018 he gained access to more than two hundred interviews by the late Anniston newsman, Fred Burger. These recordings and his two decades of exhaustive research finally brought Asa Carter's story into focus. Unmasking the Klansman is the result.

About Dan T. Carter

Dan T. Carter is the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation Professor Emeritus. He is the author or editor of more than forty scholarly articles and seven books, including Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South and The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, The Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics. Carter has received eight major literary prizes including the Lillian Smith, Bancroft, and Robert Kennedy awards as well as a special citation in nonfiction from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Brevard, North Carolina.


Reviews

Asa Carter was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1925. He was a strong believer in segregation and got involved in politics to try to further the agenda. He was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan before branching off to start his own little Klan cult. His members were involved in attacks against Black peo......more

Goodreads review by Mike

I heard Dan Carter, a Bancroft Prize winner, discuss his new book at our local library a couple of months ago. I was intrigued, bought the book and was not disappointed. Asa Carter was a particularly virulent and obnoxious racist, radio personality and Klansman, who achieved a degree of fame in the 5......more

Goodreads review by Burt

Asa/Forrest Carter led an unbelievable life. First, Asa was a segregationist who penned Governor George Wallace's "Segregation Forever" speech. Then, in the 1970s, Carter assumed a second identity as Forrest, who became a best-selling author. But the past eventually caught up with him. Dan T. Carter......more

"Unmasking the Klansman: The Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter" reveals the complex and contradictory life of Asa Carter, a white supremacist who later reinvented himself as the novelist Forrest Carter. The book uncovers how Asa's violent past with the Ku Klux Klan starkly contrasts with the per......more

Goodreads review by Judy

It is frightening to see how much 2020’s America is like 1950’s and 60’s Alabama. Very relevant to current events. Well researched with extensive footnotes and bibliography.......more