Hodding Carter III
Encyclopedia
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
best known for his role as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs is the head of the Bureau of Public Affairs within the United States Department of State. Typically, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs is also the official spokesperson of the State Department...
in the Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
administration.
Biography
Carter was born in New Orleans to journalist and publisher William Hodding Carter, IIHodding Carter
William Hodding Carter, II was a prominent Southern U.S. progressive journalist and author. Carter was born in Hammond, the largest community in Tangipahoa Parish, in southeastern Louisiana, to William Hodding Carter, I , and the former Irma Dutartre...
(1907-1972), and the former Betty Werlein (1910-2000). He grew up in Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
, a Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
city which is the seat of Washington County
Washington County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:*Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge*Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge *Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. Carter attended Greenville High School and then transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. He transferred back to Greenville High School and graduated in 1953. He then attended Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, having graduated summa cum laude in 1957. That same year, he married the former Margaret Ainsworth. They had a son, Hodding Carter IV, and three daughters, Catherine Carter, Margaret Carter, and actress Finn Carter
Finn Carter
Finn Carter is an American actress. She is the daughter of former United States State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Hodding Carter III, and his first wife, the former Margaret Ainsworth Wolfe.-Film career:Carter became well known while playing Sierra Estaban Reyes...
(born 1960). The couple divorced in 1978, and Carter that same year married Patricia M. Derian
Patricia M. Derian
Patricia Murphy "Patt" Derian is a United States civil rights and human rights activist, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1977 to 1981.-Biography:...
, then a human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
official in the Jimmy Carter administration and an author on topics relating to foreign policy, civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, and the "New South".
Carter has a brother, Philip Dutartre Carter (born 1939), former publisher of the Delta Democrat-Times, of Greenville, the newspaper started by their father and later publisher of the Vieux Carré Courier and financier of the weekly paper Gambit, both of New Orleans. Another brother, Thomas Hennen Carter (1945 - 1964), killed himself while playing Russian roulette
Russian roulette
Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger...
.
After Princeton, Carter served in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
for two years. In 1959, he began working for the Delta Democrat-Times as a reporter. He was thereafter the paper's managing editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
and associate publisher. He also wrote the book The South Strikes Back. He won the Sigma Delta Chi National Profession Journalism Society Award for Editorial Writing in 1961.
In the 1960s, Carter was involved in civil rights movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
, both editorially and in political action. In 1968, he co-chaired the "Loyal Democrats of Mississippi" that replaced Mississippi's previously all- white delegation to the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
, but later criticized the Delta Ministry
Delta Ministry
The Delta Ministry played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. It was begun in September, 1964, by the National Council of Churches as a civil rights project operating in Mississippi to support the southern black freedom struggle...
(part of the biracial coalition) in his editorials.
In 1964, he worked on Lyndon Johnson's presidential campaign, but Johnson and his vice-presidential choice, U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, received only 13 percent of the vote in Mississippi in the last election held prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Carter also worked on Jimmy Carter's campaign in 1976. President Carter appointed him Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs
The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs is the head of the Bureau of Public Affairs within the United States Department of State. Typically, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs is also the official spokesperson of the State Department...
and State Department spokesman.
Because of the Iran Hostage Crisis
Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
, Carter came into the public eye much more frequently than most of his predecessors and successors.
When Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
was elected in 1980, Carter left his post in the government and moved into television. Up until 1994, he held various positions for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, and PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, including anchor, political commentator, panelist, and reporter. He also regularly wrote op-ed columns for various newspapers including the Wall Street Journal.
Beginning in 1994 he served as the Knight Professor of Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. He resigned the post in 1998 to become the president of the Knight Foundation. He serves on a commission funded by the foundation, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Since then, Carter has lectured at universities all over the country and continued to do freelance work for the television and print media. His most recent position is University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
.