| The W.
Horace Carter Project reveals one man’s courage during
turbulent times
On a hot summer night in 1950 Horace Carter watched as three dozen
cars filled with armed, robed and hooded Ku Klux Klansmen made their
way through Tabor City, a small town on the North Carolina-South
Carolina border. It was Saturday night and the noisy streets were
busy as merchants stayed open late to accommodate farm families who
had little time during growing season for needed trips to town. Silence
spread as heads turned to the slowly snaking motorcade. A two-foot
cross of glowing red lights adorned the lead vehicle, and all cars
burned interior dome lights, illuminating the ghostly figures within.
Flyers with an ominous warning were dropped to the street: “Beware
of associating with the niggers, Jews and Catholics in this community.
God didn’t mean for all men to be equal. All are not equal.
. . . We are organizing all over your state and particularly in this
community. . . . When the opportunity knocks on your door, come join
us. Help save our freedom for you and your children in the Carolinas.
There’s not much time left. Hurry to help!”
Horace Carter was twenty-nine years old when the Klan came to town,
and he was the publisher, editor, and primary newsman of the Tabor
City Tribune, a small weekly newspaper he had launched a
few years earlier. Carter’s editorials helped spur the first-ever
convictions and imprisonment of Klansmen for KKK activity. For his
efforts the
Tribune received the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Community Service,
the most prestigious of the Pulitzers—and the first won by
a weekly newspaper. Carter also received widespread recognition and
numerous other awards for his courage in the face of the violent
vigilantes. To commemorate his courage, the Center has organized
the production of Confronting the Klan: The W. Horace Carter Story.
The documentary is funded with private donations and is being produced
by Memory Lane Productions, Incorporated of Durham, North Carolina. Click
here to read more.
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