Jimmy Carter, 39th President Who Became Human Rights Champion, Dies at 100
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States who took the nation through the post-Vietnam era and later became a champion of human rights has died on Dec. 29, 2024 at 100 years old. Serving a single term from 1977 to 1981, and prior to that as governor of Georgia, he represented a time of tumultuous change for America domestically and on the world stage. QUOTE TKTKTK (likely from Carter Center)
During his time in the White House, Carter faced immense challenges ranging from inflation, to the energy crisis, to the continuation of the Cold War in which the Soviet nuclear threat loomed. Carter’s presidency was also hampered by a deep mistrust of government after the country endured the Watergate scandal and faced the Iran hostage crisis at the end of his tenure.
Early Years
According to his official biography, James Earl Carter, was born in Plains, Ga., a small farming community, in 1924 and grew up in nearby Archery, roughly two and a half hours from Atlanta. He earned his bachelor's degree from the U.S Naval Academy in 1946 after serving in World War II as a submariner in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters and later as a lieutenant.
That same year, he married Rosalynn Smith and went on to take over his father’s farm and seed supply company, quickly becoming a community leader. In 1962, he was elected to the Georgia state senate. His first attempt at becoming governor failed in 1966, but a second run in 1970 was successful.
In December 1974, the year Richard Nixon resigned after Watergate, Carter announced his candidacy for president, just months after Vice President Gerald Ford took over the Oval Office. He won the Democratic nomination and eventually the presidency in the 1976 election.
A Political Career Intersected With Civil Rights
Carter came into office as the first southern Democrat elected to the White House since 1844. Even still, he was popular among African Americans, having had a record of supporting Civil Rights causes during his political career. In the Georgia state senate, he was part of an effort to challenge laws that created difficulty for Black people who wished to vote. In his first bid for governor, however, his support of integration brought out supporters of segregationist Lester Maddox, who defeated him. When Carter won the governor’s race in 1970 and Maddox became lieutenant governor, the two men publicly feuded.As governor, Carter declared at his gubernatorial inauguration that ''The time for racial discrimination is over.'' TIME magazine put Carter on its cover in 1971 as a representative of a ''New South'' that embraced integration and civil rights.
In the Carter Center document, Civil Rights During the Carter Administration, 1977–1981, Part 1: Papers of the Special Assistant for Black Affairs, Carter’s work to eradicate racial discrimination in federal programs is documented.
The study cites the “Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Black College Initiative, the Minority Bank Development Program, increased procurement from minority-owned business firms, Carter’s appointments of minority and women federal officials and judges, youth employment and training programs, and the enforcement of affirmative action,” as initiatives that Carter undertook during his presidency, sometimes to his political detriment.
However, Carter’s defense of affirmative action caused him to face national scorn when those policies faced their first constitutional challenge. The case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke caused debate within Carter’s administration over what position to take in an amicus brief for the Court. Carter submitted a handwritten note on a staff memorandum, indicating that he supported the concept of affirmative action but was opposed to strict quotas. Some civil rights advocates wanted support of quotas. The Court’s opinion in Bakke was in line with Carter’s position of supporting the use of race in college admissions but not rigid quotas.
Maintaining his connection to the Georgia civil rights community, which at the time was the center of the nation’s Black leadership, Carter appointed two-term Atlanta mayor Andrew Young U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the first African American to hold the position.
A Tumultuous Presidency
Despite Carter’s championing of civil rights issues, his presidential tenure was marked with many challenges. In 1976, the nation was still recovering from the bruises of Vietnam and Watergate, although an optimistic baby boomer generation had come of age. Still, the 1973 oil embargo led Carter to act to wean America from its dependence on foreign oil. In a 1979 address to the nation now called the “Crisis of Confidence” speech, Carter spoke to Americans about the economic uncertainty they faced, the worst since World War II. The televised speech spoke about energy, but also the nation’s belief in itself. Carter had actually managed to reduce foreign oil consumption by 8 percent, but images of people in long lines at gas stations, increasing layoffs in manufacturing as industries found cheaper labor in other countries, and a general change in cultural attitudes during the 1970s, made him a target for conservatives, who sought to block progressivism and institute their own right wing narratives.Those conservatives were priming their own leaders to remove him from office. The final blow was the 1979 Iran hostage crisis in which a group of students seized the American embassy in Tehran, detaining 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens and holding them for 444 days. The crisis so alarmed the nation that any confidence in Carter had dwindled by the time he and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan campaigned against each other in 1980.Reagan, a favorite of conservatives, swept the election that year after asking voters in the final debate between himself and Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”The hostages were released Jan. 20, 1981, literal moments after Reagan was inaugurated.
The Post-Presidency Years
Historians often argue that Carter’s work after his presidency was more profound than his governance as president.
He established The Carter Center in 1982 to work for the promotion of human rights. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the center. Since leaving the White House, Carter has traveled extensively as a peace negotiator, election monitor and as a human rights activist.
Much of his domestic activism has been in service of the non-profit Habitat for Humanity International, an organization that works to provide housing for underprivileged people around the globe. Carter is often seen actually working with Habitat home construction and sharing his opinions on the issues of the day. The organization honored Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, for their service since 1984.
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On leaving office, Carter loaned his considerable expertise to international missions, including soothing mediating disputes between countries, and advising presidents on disputes and other issues focused on the Middle East. He has been involved in mediating disputes between the U.S. State Department and foreign leaders including North Korean, Kim Il Sung, and Muammar Qaddaffi of Libya.
Carter was also a prolific author once leaving Washington. He was the author of 32 books, including Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (1983), Turning Point (1992), and An Hour Before Daylight (2001). He has also won four Grammy Awards for spoken word albums.
He is survived by sons Jack, Donnel and James Carter, and youngest child, daughter Amy.
