Hodding II and Betty Werlein Carter Papers

Hodding Carter II (1907-1972) was born in Louisiana and attended Bowdoin College and the Columbia University School of Journalism. He began his career in journalism in the 1920's as a reporter in Jackson, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Carter and Betty Werlein (1910-2000) of New Orleans were married in 1931, and soon after started their own newspaper, the Hammond (Louisiana) Courier.

With Hodding as editor and Betty as business manager, the Courier consistently opposed the rule of Huey Long. Hodding Carter ran for the House of Representatives in 1935 after Long's death, but was defeated.

In 1936, at the invitation of William Alexander Percy, the Carters moved to Greenville, Mississippi and set up the Delta Star. Two years later the Star was merged to form the Delta Democrat-Times.

Carter was best known after World War II for his editorials, magazine articles, books, and speeches advocating racial justice in the south. Carter's 1946 series urging racial tolerance earned him the Pulitzer Prize. In 1954, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted him a "liar" for his articles on the Citizens' Councils.

The Carter papers document the important events and social movements to which the Carters were witnesses or participants, such as the political careers of Huey Long and Theodore Bilbo, World War II, the Office of War Information, the rise of the Citizen's Councils in the 1950's, the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962, and changes in race relations throughout the country.