Major Works
Hodding Carter II
- Man and the River, the Mississippi (1970)
- Their Words Were Bullets: The Southern Press in War, Reconstruction, and Peace (1969)
- The Past as Prelude:New Orleans 1718-1968 editor (1968)
- The Commandos of World War II (1966)
- So the Heffners Left McComb (1965)
- The Ballad of Catfoot Grimes and Other Verses (1964)
- Doomed Road of Empire: The Spanish Trail of Conquest with Betty Carter (1963)
- First Person Rural (1963)
- The Angry Scar:The Story of Reconstruction (1959)
- The Angry Scar:The Story of Reconstruction (1959)
- The Marquis de Lafayette: Bright Sword for Freedom (1958)
- Church in Louisiana and Christ Church Cathedral with Betty Carter (1955)
- So Great A Good: A History of the Epispcopal
- Robert E. Lee and the Road of Honor (1955)
- Where Main Street Meets the River (1953)
- John Law Wasn’t So Wrong: The Story of Louisiana’s Horn of Plenty (1952)
- John Law Wasn’t So Wrong: The Story of Louisiana’s Horn of Plenty (1952)
- Gulf Coast Country with Anthony Ragusin (1951)
- Southern Legacy (1950)
- Flood Crest (1947)
- Winds of Fear (1945)
- Lower Mississippi (1942)
- Civilian Defense of the United States with Colonel Ernest Dupuy (1942)
Biography of Hodding Carter, II
By Jennifer Phillips (SHS)
“The South is so often damned for social backwardness, for reaction entrenched in smugness and lethargy, that it is a pleasure to introduce a young Southerner who represents a totally different school of thought and action.” Saturday Evening Post Feb.23, 1946, on Hodding Carter’s 1946 Pulitzer Prize
William Hodding Carter II, the son of William Hodding and Irma Dutarte Carter, was born on February 3, 1907, in Hammond, Louisiana (USM-McCain Library and Archives). As a young child, Carter spent his summer days with his grandmother in the Mississippi Delta along the Mississippi River. At the age of eighteen, Hodding Carter moved away to attend Bowdoin College in Maine, were he received his B.A. in 1927. Carter then transferred to Columbia University to study journalism for one year before taking a teaching fellowship at Tulane University in 1928. Upon completion of his fellowship at Tulane, Carter began writing for the New Orleans paper, Item-Tribune. He then took a job working as the Night Bureau manager for United Press in New Orleans. His competence and determination brought him to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1930 as the Bureau Manager of Associated Press (Current Biography 1946).
On October 31, 1931, Hodding Carter married Betty Werlein. However, their happiness immediately met with turmoil. In April of 1932, Hodding Carter was fired from his job at Associated Press for “insubordination.” The supervisor who made the decision to release Carter from his position wrote a letter to Carter. Carter says that the letter stated that he “had some good qualities, but I would never make a newspaper man, and I ought not waste any time getting into another business” (Carter 3). The man’s attempt to persuade the young writer from a career in journalism failed miserably. The young couple moved back to Carter’s hometown of Hammond, Louisiana, where they intended to open a daily paper, the Daily Courier. An attack on his abilities had only made the Carter more determined, “We had to prove to our families and ourselves and the man who had written the letter that the letter was wrong.”(Hodding Carter in his biography Where Main Street Meets the River). The main goal of Carter’s Daily Courier was to focus on the wrong doings of Congressman Huey Long. Carter’s newspaper was so strong that “theirs was the only district in the state [Louisiana] that never sent a Long henchman to congress,” (Time Magazine 20May46). Amidst the battle against Huey Long, the Hammond Daily Courier took the time to print such articles as the birth of Hodding and Betty’s first son, William Hodding Carter III, on April 8, 1935 (Current Biography: 1946).
In 1935 Carter attended a literary conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While there, he met David Cohn, a Greenville, Mississippi, writer and author. Cohn convinced Hodding that Greenville needed his talents as an experienced newspaperman. On July 7, 1936, Hodding Carter drew up an outline for his new paper, and, with help from William Alexander Percy, author of Lanterns on the Levee (yet unpublished), the Delta Star was up and running (Waldron 69).
In 1938, Carter and Betty bought out the only other daily in Greenville, the Democrat Times, and merged the two papers to form the Delta Democrat-Times. The paper was a steady success, and Hodding gained more recognition for his talents as a editor and writer.
On September 29, 1938, Neville Chamberlain and Daladier met with Hitler and Mussolini in Munich. On the 30th, the Munich “Peace in our times” Pact was signed. Hodding’s feelings on this matter were so stong in opposition to the pact that he signed with the National Guard (Waldron 87).
In April of 1939, Carter was offered one of the prestigious Neiman Fellowships at Harvard University. After much debate and long conversations with his wife, Percy, and other shareholders of the Delta Democrat-Times, Hodding decided to accept the fellowship. In October of 1939, their second son, Philip Dutartre Carter, was born. In January of 1940, Hodding and Betty set off with their two boys to Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at Harvard, Hodding had time to think about an offer Ralph Ingersoll had made to him–to be the editor of Ingersoll’s creation, PM. On June 1, 1940, Carter reported to work in New York, New York. While Carter did gain some recognition at PM, he wanted to return to the Delta and his newspaper. On September 21, 1940, he was on his way out the door and back to Greenville, Mississippi, to take up his old job (Where Main Street Meets the River).
In November, 1940, the National Guard mobilized, and Carter was, once again, on the move– this time to Camp Blanding, Florida. While there, he became Public Relations Officer for the regiment. He also suffered an accident while training that cost him his sight in one eye. Sent overseas with the war, Carter wrote for the Middle East versions of the patriotic papers, Yank and Stars and Stripes in Cairo, Egypt. In 1945, Hodding Carter received an Honorable Discharge from the United States Armed Services and returned home to Greenville, Mississippi (Current Biography: 1946).
Upon arrival home, Carter took up his fight against Senator Theodore Bilbo. He wrote a series of articles dealing with racial, economic, and religious problems in Mississippi. His editorials were published at a very rocky time in the South, and Hodding’s articles stood apart from other debate and speculation on the status of African-Americans in society at the time. The magazine PM stated in an article published on August 5, 1945, that “The chief reasons for the silence are the fear of being labeled a ‘nigger lover’ or the feeling–even among many of those unsympathetic with such views–that the South should present a united front un racial matters” (Current Biography: 1946). Widely acclaimed and criticized, Hodding received national recognition as a writer when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in May of 1946. In August of ’46, Carter established a second paper, the Delta Star, which received attention when Hodding published an article dealing with the beating–death of a black boy by five white boys (Cox Mississippi Almanac).
Tragedy struck the Carter family on April 27, 1964, when Hodding and Betty’s third son, Thomas Hennen Carter, shot himself while playing Russian Roulette. That same day, Hodding had been hospitalized for separating his retina. He was temporarily blind (Waldron 305).
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill. Hodding continued to contribute editorial to the Delta Democrat-Times, which his son now ran unofficially. He also contributed two articles to the New York Times Magazine dealing with the South’s judicial system and the degradation of the Confederate flag (Waldron 317). In 1965, Hodding gave the very first Carlos McClatchy Memorial Lecture at Stanford University. In June of 1966, when son Hodding Carter III came back from Harvard, Hodding officially handed the paper over to him. Betty and Hodding spent the summer in Maine, trusting “Young” Hodding to take care of the business without his father watching over him.
In 1968, Hodding was asked to give the Lamar Memorial Lectures at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He was so ill that he was unable to speak, and his wife was forced to read from notes he had prepared for himself. He also received the Tenth Annual First Federation Award for his service to Mississippi (Waldron 321). He was not able to travel to Columbia University in 1971 when he received the Columbia University Journalism Award.
Eventually, Hodding Carter’s condition deteriorated even more. On April 4, 1972, Hodding Carter died. Both of his sons wrote editorials about him in the Delta Democrat-Times. The following day. Philip, who runs the paper today, recalled, “We called him Big because he was; Hodding Carter was the biggest of his clan, a legend, first of all in his own tribe.” (Waldron 325).
Hodding Carter
Timeline
- 1907– February 3 — William Hodding Carter II born
- 1925 — Attends Bowdoin College in Maine
- 1927 — Graduates with B.A. from Bowdoin College
- 1928 — Spring Studies Journalism at Columbia University
- Fall — Accepts teaching fellowship at Tulane
- 1929 — Reporter for New Orlean’s Item-Tribune
- 1930 — Night Bureau manager for United Press, New Orleans
- Bureau Manager for Associated Press, Jackson, MS
- 1931– October 31 — Marries Betty Werlein
- 1932 April — Fired for “Insubordination” from Associated Press
- Establishes Daily Courier in Hammond, LA
- 1936 — Hodding and Betty move to Greenville, Mississippi. Delta Star is up and running under Carter’s guidance
- 1938 – – Delta Star merges with Democrat Times: forms Delta Democrat-Times
- 1939 — Fall Works under a Neiman Fellowship at Harvard
- 1940 — Spring Served as Press Editor for the magazine PM, New York
- October — Philip Dutartre Carter is born
- November — Stationed at Camp Balding, Florida, 31st Division Paper
- Loses sight in his right eye during a training exercise
- 1941 — Is stationed in Washington, D.C., Army Bureau of Public Relations
- 1943 — Cairo, Egypt; Writes for the Middle East versions of Yank and Stars and Stripes
- 1945 — Receives Honorable Discharge from Armed Forces
- 28 March — Thomas Hennen Carter is born
- Receives Guggenheim Writing Fellowship
- 1946, May — Receives Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing
- Fall — Establishes newspaper: Morning Star
- 1950 — Carter is given distinction to be the first man in Greenville, Mississippi, to make a long distance telephone call. He calls his father
- 1954 — Marks the fifth year in a row that the Delta Democrat Times wins the Mississippi Press Association’s General Excellence Award
- 1960 — Hodding Carter III takes unofficial control of the Delta Democrat-Times
- 1964– April 27 — Carter is hospitalized for a detached retina in his good eye. His son, Tommy, kills himself while playing Russian Roulette
- 1966–June — Hodding Carter III officially becomes editor of Delta Democrat-Times
- 1971 — Receives the Columbia University Journalism Award
- 1972–4 April — Dies of heart attack in Greenville, Mississippi
- 1996– 6 December — Nominated to the Mississippi Hall of Fame
Reviews
A Review of Kinsman
by Jennifer Phillips (SHS)
Kinsman
“His mother was a yellow girl,
My Uncle’s child they say;
But such is not our greeting when
He comes my way.
The hawk-thin nose; the upflung brow,
Make him my darker mime;
I wonder if he knows it when
He begs a dime?”
Hodding Carter
from The Ballad of Catfoot Grimes and Other Verses
Hodding Carter II is best known for his articles dealing with racism in the South. After all, these articles did win him the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1946. However, Hodding Carter published over twenty novels and books in his life. Many of them dealt with segregation and separation. Most of them were about the South. Hodding Carter II wrote about history, mentality, and himself.
The Ballads of Catfoot Grimes and Other Verses is a compilation of poems and ballads written by Hodding Carter II. Kinsman is one of the many poems written about race relations in Mississippi and other Southern states. This poem is about a white man dwelling on his relationship to a black man. This man also happens to be his cousin–his uncle’s child. No one in the family claims this relationship to the African-American, but they are all shamefully aware of its truth.
This poem hits upon the strong feelings of racism and shame that haunted the South at the time of its publication. Feelings that continue to haunt America, not just the South, today. These feeling are so strong that the man refuses to acknowledge the existence of his own dark-skinned cousin to the public. His sentiment is the same as many Southerners of the time who shied away from the truth for fear of being cast in the shadow of the various labels associated with African American sympathizers of the time. Hodding Carter has attempted to show the good in man. He has attempted to draw from our conscience and force us to realize the wrong doings of our everyday actions or lack of action.
The harsh reality in the poem is the truth of it. In today’s society, we shame our ancestors for their apparent ignorance and blatant disregard for other men. The truth, however, is that we would be in the same boat as they were generations ago–he seems to be asking: do we follow our hearts or do we follow our minds? Hodding Carter had the ability to do both. He realized that society was wrong and that it must be changed. He realized that man was a cruel titan, intent on remaining unchanged– no matter what the cost. He also realized that some things in life are better left unchanged. Instead of insisting upon an immediate change in our society, he forced us to question our actions and our judgment. He realized how devastating forced and immediate change could be to a society and its people. He knew that, given time, the situation would change ourselves and the nation we live in.
Related Websites
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Reviews which tell of Carter’s life in biography by Anne Waldron about the life of Hodding Carter called The Reconstruction of a Racist.
Bibliography
- Carter, Hodding. The Ballad of Catfoot Grimes and Other Verses.Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1946.
- Carter, Hodding. The Winds of Fear. New York: J.J. Little and Ives, 1944.
- Carter, Hodding. Where Main Street Meets the River. New York: Rinehart and Co., 1953.
- Cox, James L.”Profiles of Famous Mississippians.” Mississippi Almanac 1997-1998. USA:James L. Cox, 1997.
- “Carter, (William) Hodding, Jr.”. Current Biography: 1946. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1946.
- “Hodding Carter III elected President of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.” Editorial. Philanthropy News Digest 24 Sep. 1997: 3:38. Available http://fdncenter.org/pnd/970924/001741.html, 24, March 1999.
- “Pulitzer Prize Winners-1946 Journalism: Editorial Writing.”Available http://www.pulitzer.org/archive/database/1946.html, 24 March 1999.
- “University of Southern Mississippi: McCain Library and Archives: Manuscript
Collection.”Available http://www.lib.usm.edu/archives/m005.htm, 23 March 1999. - Waldron, Ann. Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist, Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1993.