Forrest Carter, best-selling author of The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree, was an exalted Cherokee hero of New Age wisdom. As a leader in the Native American cultural revival of the 1970s, Forrest touched millions of readers with his gentle and earthy tales of Indian life.

Twelve years after his death, however, the public learned that Forrest had a hidden past. Forrest Carter was actually Asa ‘Ace’ Carter, violent Ku Klux Klansman and Alabama Governor George Wallace’s principal speechwriter – author of the infamous 1963 inaugural address “Segregation Now! Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!”

Producer Laura Browder, professor of American Studies at the University of Richmond, has been a VFH Fellow and directed several VFH grants, including a 2010 book When Janey Comes Marching Home: Stories of American Women at War. Additionally, her work and writing have been featured on VFH’s With Good Reason radio program and at the Virginia Book Festival.