Editing Hodding Carter (section)

==Biography==

===Early life and education===
Carter was born in [[Hammond, Louisiana|Hammond]], Louisiana, the largest community in [[Tangipahoa Parish]], in southeastern [[Louisiana]]. His parents were farmer [[William Hodding Carter, Sr.]] and Irma, née Dutartre.<ref>Something About The Author, vol. 2, Gale Research, 1972, p. </ref> He was valedictorian of the [[Hammond High School (Louisiana)|Hammond High School]] class of 1923. Carter attended [[Bowdoin College]] in [[Brunswick, Maine]] (1927), and the Graduate School of Journalism, [[Columbia University]] (1928).

He returned to Louisiana upon graduating. According to [[Ann Waldron]], the young Carter was an outspoken [[white supremacy|white supremacist]], yet he began to alter his thinking when he returned to the [[United States Southern States|South]] to live.<ref>[http://www.annwaldron.com/work7.htm Waldron, Ann.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060508230523/http://www.annwaldron.com/work7.htm |date=May 8, 2006 }} ''Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist'', Algonquin Books, 1993.</ref>

===Career background===
After a year as a [[teacher|teaching]] [[fellow]] at [[Tulane University]] in [[New Orleans]] (1928–1929), Carter worked as [[news reporter|reporter]] for the ''[[New Orleans Item-Tribune]]'' (1929), [[United Press International|United Press]] in New Orleans (1930), and the [[Associated Press]] in [[Jackson, Mississippi]], (1931–32).

With his wife, [[Betty Werlein Carter|Betty Werlein ]] of New Orleans, Carter founded the ''Hammond Daily Courier,'' in 1932. The paper was known for its opposition to popular Louisiana governor [[Huey Long|Huey Pierce Long Jr.]], but its support for the national [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].

He won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing]] in 1946 for his editorials on intolerance, as exemplified by "[[s:Go for Broke|Go for Broke]]", lambasting the ill treatment of [[Japanese American]] (''[[Nisei]]'') soldiers returning from [[World War II]]. He was a professor for a single semester at Tulane.

===Fighting intolerance===
He also wrote editorials in the ''Greenville Delta Democrat-Times'' regarding social and economic intolerance in the [[American South|Deep South]] that won him widespread acclaim and the moniker "Spokesman of the [[New South]]".

Carter wrote a caustic article for ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazine which detailed the menacing spread of a chapter of the [[Citizens' Councils|White Citizens' Council]]. The article was attacked on the floor of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]] as a "Willful lie by a nigger-loving editor". Carter responded in a front-page editorial:<blockquote>By vote of 89 to 19, the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]] has resolved the editor of this newspaper into a liar because of an article I wrote. If this charge were true, it would make me well qualified to serve in that body. It is not true. So to even things up, I hereby resolve by a vote of one to nothing that there are eighty-nine liars in the state legislature.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010818144158/http://www.asne.org/kiosk/archive/convention/2001/leadership/civilrights.html Roberts, Eugene L.] American Society of Newspaper Editors, July 31, 2004. Last accessed: 1/13/07.</ref></blockquote>

===Personal life===
He had a son [[Hodding Carter III]], born in 1935, who became State Department spokesman during the Carter administration and achieved a degree of notoriety by often appearing on television news.<ref name = McFadden>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/hodding-carter-dead.html|title = Hodding Carter III, Crusading Editor and Jimmy Carter Aide, Dies at 88|last = McFadden|first = Robert D.|date = May 12, 2023|accessdate = May 15, 2023|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|url-access = limited|archive-date = May 12, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230512180309/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/hodding-carter-dead.html|url-status = live}}</ref>

Carter was strongly opposed to the [[Munich Conference]], which ceded [[Sudetenland|the Sudetenland]] to [[Adolf Hitler]]. Carter rushed into [[World War II]] service. While stationed at [[Camp Blanding]] in Florida, he lost the sight in his right eye during a training exercise. He thereafter served in the Intelligence Division and continued his journalistic activities by editing the Middle East division of ''[[Yank, the Army Weekly|Yank]]'' and ''[[Stars and Stripes (newspaper)|Stars and Stripes]]'' in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]], and writing three books.<ref>[http://www.wcs-ddm.org/about_quote.asp?QuoteId=6 Women's Crisis Support] web site. Last accessed: 1/13/07.</ref>

===Politics and the Kennedys===
Carter was an unabashed supporter of the Kennedys and their quest for the American Presidency.

He had dinner with [[Robert F. Kennedy|Bobby Kennedy]] and his family the night before Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Carter had also been working for him "campaigning, making talks, and writing ghost speeches".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web1.millercenter.org/poh/transcripts/carter_hodding_1968_1108.pdf |title=General Services Statement |website=web1.millercenter.org |access-date=2019-10-17}}</ref> 
On a flight home, Carter learned of Kennedy's death and was devastated. A passenger on the plane said, "Well, we got that son-of-a-bitch, didn't we?" Carter responded, "Who are you talking about?" The passenger said, "You know damn well who I'm talking about", to which Carter responded by saying "You're just a son-of-a-bitch", and then punching the passenger in the mouth.<ref>[[Lyndon Baines Johnson]] [[Oral History]], interview, ''ibid.''</ref>