Stream now with KPBS+ / Watch Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV
On a hot July night in 1950, Horace Carter watched as thirty cars filled with armed, robed and hooded Ku Klux Klansmen made their way through Tabor City, a small town on the border of North Carolina and South Carolina. The event marked the beginning of two years of turmoil as Carter, Tabor City and the surrounding communities witnessed large Klan rallies, gunplay, abductions, assaults and murders.
Narrated by Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, “The Editor And The Dragon” tells the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning publisher Horace Carter (1921-2009) and his bold reporting on the Ku Klux Klan in the pre-Civil Rights era.
Carter, the 29-year-old editor of the weekly Tabor City Tribune, stood against the Klan and risking life, livelihood, friendships and his family's safety to protest the Klan's racist rhetoric and vigilantism.
His courageous reports and the unwavering integrity of his weekly editorials helped lead to the first FBI investigation of the Klan during that era, and to the arrest and conviction of nearly 100 Klansmen.
Archival footage and interviews with Carter, his family, Tabor City, North Carolina residents, journalists and historians help piece together this dark chapter in American history.
Reviews:
"His journalistic prowess was exceeded only by his bravery.” —INDY WEEK
“This film will inspire its viewers and remind them that Horace Carter’s life is a model to which we should all aspire.” —William R. Ferris, Senior Associate Director, The Center for the Study of the American South
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Credits: Produced by the Center for the Study of the American South, UNC-Chapel Hill. Produced and Directed by Martin Clark and Walter E. Campbell. Written by Walter E. Campbell, Martin Clark, and Tom Vickers. First Editor/Assistant Director is Tom Vickers.
