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.’”
