MSM 575 Betty Carter- Hodding Carter and the Importance of a Free Press

Hodding Carter was the outspoken publisher of the Delta Democrat–Times during the Civil Rights Movement.  In this episode, Betty Carter remembers the firestorm of threatening phone calls her husband's editorials generated. Hodding and Betty Carter moved to Greenville, Mississippi in 1936 and started their own newspaper. Betty Carter discusses the importance of a Free Press and an educated public to Western Democracy. As a newspaper publisher, Betty Carter maintained her faith in the good intentions of most reporters. But she does recall times when the words of her husband, Hodding Carter, were distorted by the press. Because Hodding Carter was such an effective and outspoken critic of segregation, he was often the target of public ire in Mississippi.  Betty Carter describes a time her husband was "burned in effigy" by some angry citizens.   She also praises the Greenville police department for their unwavering protection of all those involved in the Civil Rights Movement.