Bedford Forrest Carter was born Asa Earl Carter on September 4, 1925, in Anniston, Alabama, and was the eldest of four children in Oxford, Alabama.

Carter served in the United States Navy during World War II and later returned to the University of Colorado, where he attended naval training school in 1944, and also studied radio broadcasting and political writing. By the late 1950s he was in Birmingham, Alabama, where his political activities included hosting a radio show for the American States Rights Association and providing leadership in the Alabama Council movement. Later, he founded the North Alabama White Citizens Council in Birmingham. He wrote speeches for Lurleen Wallace when she ran successfully for the governorship of Alabama in 1966 and was one of two writers said to be responsible for the words "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" uttered by Governor George Wallace. Although Carter is associated...