Reverend Carter, expecting a visit from the Klan after he has dared to register to vote, stands guard on his front porch, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. 1964
“After Reverend Carter had registered to vote, that night vigilant neighbors scattered in the woods near his farmhouse, which was at the end of a long dirt road, to help him if trouble arrived. ‘If they want a fight, we’ll fight,’ Joe Carter told me. ‘If I have to die, I’d rather die for right.’ “He told me, ‘I value my life more since I became a registered voter. A man is not a first-class citizen, a number one citizen, unless he is a voter.’ After Election Day came and went, Reverend Carter added, ‘I thanked the Lord that he let me live long enough to vote."
