The Messed Up True Story Behind Klansman Asa Earl Carter s Giant Hoax
By Marina Manoukian/Feb. 11, 2021 12:00 am EDT/Updated: Feb. 13, 2021 12:50 pm EDT
Asa Earl Carter was a white American man who spent the entirety of his life as a racist person, repeatedly going on tirades against Black people and Jewish people. But for the second half of his life, he also adopted an identity that involved pretending he was half-Cherokee and writing romanticized stories about his heritage.
Calling himself Forrest Carter, one of his books,
The Education of Little Tree, became incredibly popular after Carter s death. And despite the fact that Carter was remarkably bad at keeping up his deception, his faux identity wasn t accepted as a hoax until the 1990s.
Seven Bridges Road served as a warm-up song before becoming Eagles final classic-era Top 40 hit. Prior to that, it was a tucked-away cover on a Mike Nesmith-produced album by British folk rocker Iain Matthews.
But the late singer-songwriter Steve Young s best-known track actually began life along a lonesome highway outside Montgomery, Ala.
He was traveling one night with friends Jimmy Evans and Wayne Greenhaw when they stopped to marvel at the moss-covered scene under a full moon. Steve got out on the right-side fender, Evans, who later served as Alabama s attorney general, said in
Surrounded by such beauty, Young said the initial lines came rushing out. Moments like this soon inspired him to give up a 3AM delivery route for Hall Brothers Dairy and focus on music full time.