Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Hodding Carter Papers #5314, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Hodding Carter of Chapel Hill, N.C., in February 2007 (Acc. 100600).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans--Civil rights--United States.
• Carter, Hodding.
• Carter, Jimmy, 1924-
• Civil rights movements.
• Civil rights--Mississippi.
• Civil rights--United States.
• Community organization.
• Democratic Party (Miss.)
• Editors--United States.
• Greenville (Miss.)--Social life and customs.
• Human rights--United States.
• Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.
• Journalists--United States.
• Knight Foundation.
• Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
• Mississippi--Race relations.
• Politicians--United States.
• Presidents--United States--Election--1964.
• Presidents--United States--Election--1976.
• Presidents--United States.
• Race relations.
• United States--Politics and government--20th century.
• United States--Politics and government--21st century.
• United States--Race relations.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty--History--21st century.

Hodding Carter III was born in New Orleans, La., on 7 April 1935 to journalist and publisher Hodding Carter II and Betty Werlein. He grew up in Greenville, Miss., and graduated from Princeton University in 1957. Carter served in the United States Marine Corps after college and then began working at the Delta Democrat-Times as a reporter, then managing editor, and finally associate publisher. Carter was co-chair of the delegation that ousted Mississippi's white regular Democratic Party delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. He worked in Lyndon Johnson’s presidential campaign in Washington in 1964 and Jimmy Carter’s campaign in Atlanta in 1976. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department spokesman during the Jimmy Carter administration.

In l980, Carter began working in television. He served as host, anchor, panelist, correspondent, and reporter for public affairs television shows on PBS, ABC, CBS, BBC, and CNN. From 1981 to 1994, he was a regular panelist on This Week with David Brinkley . He also was an op-ed columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers across the country.

From 1995 to 1997, Carter held the post of Knight Professor of Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1998, he was named president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. In January 2006, Carter became University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Carter married Patricia M. Derian in 1978. Derian was Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights under President Jimmy Carter. Carter and Derian's family includes seven children and twelve grandchildren.

Papers of Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs in the Jimmy Carter administration, journalist, and university professor Hodding Carter primarily contain Carter's personal and professional correspondence. There are materials relating to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and materials relating to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as well as datebooks, clippings, and other items. Topics include human rights, civil rights, race relations, politics, the Democratic Party, community activism, and other issues.