Walter Horace Carter (January 20, 1921 – September 16, 2009) was an American

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Tabor City, North Carolina Tabor City, known as the "Yam Capital of the World", is a town in Columbus County, North Carolina, United States. It is the southernmost town in Columbus County, one of North Carolina's largest counties by land area. It is located just north of ...

, whose paper won a 1953 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and his editorials which opposed them. Filmmaker Walt Campbell's documentary '' The Editor and the Dragon: Horace Carter Fights the Clan'' recounts Carter's account of his newspaper and his personal conflict with the local Klan.

Early life and education

Carter was born on January 20, 1921, in Albemarle, North Carolina. After graduating from high school, the first in his family to do so, he attended the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. At UNC, he worked as editor of the student paper. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, where he saw action in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and the Pacific Theater of Operations.

The ''Tribune'' and the KKK

After the completion of his military service, Carter was hired by the merchants association in

. With the connections he established there, he founded a weekly newspaper in 1946 called the '' Tabor City Tribune''. In the July 26, 1950, issue of ''The Tribune'', Carter wrote "An Editorial: No Excuse for KKK" in response to a July 22 parade by a Klan group through Tabor City, taking a strong stance against the Ku Klux Klan as an example of "outside-the-law operations that lead to

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

s through fear and insecurity" and calling the group "the personification of

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

". The editorial was the first of more than 100 such newspaper pieces that Carter wrote in the three succeeding years expressing his fierce opposition to the Klan and its methods, providing details of rallies and Klan violence. The KKK didn't appreciate Carter's actions, and Thomas Hamilton, Grand Dragon of the Association of Carolina Klans, threatened his paper and its advertisers. Though he found some support in the local community, Carter's views were largely rejected by the community at large, leaving him and his family isolated and often subject to retaliation. His son Rusty, when about four years old, notably asked "The Klan gonna come and get you Daddy?" Carter's reporting led to the involvement of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

into the activities of the local Klan, leading to the convictions on both federal and state charges of many of its members, including Grand Dragon, Thomas Hamilton. Along with Willard Cole's '' Whiteville News Reporter'', Carter's ''Tabor City Tribune'' won the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service citing "their successful campaign against the Ku Klux Klan, waged on their own doorstep at the risk of economic loss and personal danger, culminating in the conviction of over one hundred Klansmen and an end to

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

in their communities."

Personal

After retiring from the newspaper business in the 1970s, Carter moved to

Cross Creek, Florida Cross Creek is an unincorporated community in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is located on Cross Creek, a short stream connecting Orange and Lochloosa lakes. Geography Cross Creek is located at . The community is situated in the ext ...

. After a few decades of fishing and writing about the outdoors (the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

catalogs 12 books published 1980 to 2001), Carter returned to Tabor City and returned to ''The Tribune''. The newspaper is still in circulation today, now called ''The Tabor-Loris Tribune'', and it is owned and operated by parent company Atlantic Packaging Corporation. Carter worked in the newspaper division of Atlantic in Tabor City, N.C., writing his weekly editorials, until a week before his death. Carter died at age 88 on September 16, 2009, of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

while being transported to his Tabor City home from the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

. He was married three times and had three children.

References

External links

at ''Editor & Publisher'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, W. Horace 1921 births 2009 deaths United States Navy personnel of World War II American civil rights activists American newspaper publishers (people) People from Alachua County, Florida People from Tabor City, North Carolina People from Albemarle, North Carolina Activists from North Carolina