Author’s Note: This article is dedicated to Professor Tom De Palma, who taught me that learning about history could be fun. Also, to Achelle and Andrea, for their friendship.
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History simply does not judge a president by his time in the Oval Office, but also by what he accomplishes after leaving the White House. Like nearly all Americans, ex-presidents are living longer, allowing them the opportunity to continue with agendas begun while president. This is the subject of the 2018 paperback publication of the 2006 book Seconds Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House by Mark K. Updegrove. Unlike former presidents of a century ago, today once a president leaves office he still has many years to polish his legacy.
Washing away the influence of politics, the late George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton went from rivals for the presidency in 1992 to close friends and allies in a number of charities. Arguably no ex-president has done more for his country and humanity in general after leaving the White House than Jimmy Carter. Second Acts examines the post-White House lives and careers of every president since Harry Truman (with the obvious exception of John F. Kennedy). The chapter on Jimmy Carter is appropriately titled “Peacemaker”, as Carter has worked hard to establish peace throughout the world.
Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States of America, serving in that capacity from January 20, 1977 until January 20, 1981. Carter served only one term in office and as president his achievements are still debated. As someone who frowned on the political games that are so much a part of Washington D.C., Carter never created the ties with other politicians that would have enabled him to truly accomplish his agendas. Still, he succeeded more than he was given credit for while in office.
During the 1980 presidential election, Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan for, among other reasons, the American people’s dissatisfaction with how he had handled the Iran Hostage Crisis that cast a shadow over his final year as president. What the public did not know at the time was that Carter had played a significant role in getting the hostages released.
When Jimmy Carter left the political scene in 1981, he went on to achieve possibly the greatest second act in recent American history. This included creating the Carter Center, a non-profit organization aimed at improving the quality of life throughout the world. The Center’s greatest achievement is its support of Habitat for Humanity, an organization created in 1976 by Linda and Millard Fuller to build comfortable, affordable homes for those in need. Carter has also written 32 books, all but two after leaving office. In 2003 he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia, the eldest son of James Earl Carter Sr. and Bessie Lillian Carter. Carter Sr. had served in the Georgia state legislature, foreshadowing his son’s later political career. Young Jimmy entered Plains High School in 1937, graduating in 1941. During his four years in high school, Jimmy was an exceptional student. Even though teenage Jimmy could frequently be found with his face in a book, he was also a good athlete and played on the high school basketball team.
Upon high school graduation, Jimmy went on to attend Georgia Southwest College and then Georgia Institute of Technology before entering the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1943. While at the academy, Jimmy meet Rosalynn Smith. Rosalynn was a friend of Jimmy’s sister Ruth. The couple were soon dating, fell in love, and married following Jimmy’s graduation from Annapolis in 1946. The marriage of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is one of the great love stories among American presidents, a partnership based on respect and friendship and not just political convenience. Throughout his political career and long after, Rosalynn has been the biggest influence on Jimmy’s life.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married on July 7, 1946 and would have three sons and one daughter. Jack Carter was born in 1947, James Earl Carter III in 1950 and Donnel Carter in 1952. The couple’s only daughter (and possibly the best known of the Carter offspring), Amy Lynn Carter, was born October 19, 1967. As of 2019, the Carters have 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In May of 1953, James Earl Carter Sr. passed away. Jimmy, at the time training to be an engineering officer onboard the submarine Seawolf, was released from active duty from the Navy so that he would be able to take over the family business. Jimmy would remain in the Naval Reserve until 1961, when he left the service permanently.
The Carter family moved back to the small town of Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy took over the family peanut business. As his military pay and inheritance from his father was not substantial enough for Jimmy and his family to live elsewhere, for a year the Carter family lived in public housing. These modest living conditions gave Jimmy Carter knowledge of the working class that would prove invaluable when he entered the world of politics and beyond.
Carter entered the political arena in 1962 as a Georgia State Senator. Yet, even before he stepped into the political world, Carter found himself at the center of racial tensions that were aflame in the south during the early 1960s. He was a firm believer in racial equality and supported the integration of schools in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 anti-segregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. When Carter refused to join the local White Citizen’s Council, members boycotted his peanut warehouse. Jimmy proved popular with a majority of voters and was reelected to office in 1964.
Jimmy Carter’s personal and political beliefs were rooted in his strong Christian values. Carter had been raised a Baptist, and returning to Georgia had put him back in touch with his spiritual roots. With the exception of Rosalynn, Christianity has been the guiding force in Jimmy’s life. Even as president, Carter would frequently teach Sunday school, passing down his love of God to the next generation.
With his strong spiritual beliefs and racial injustices taking place around him, Carter decided that he could stay silent no longer. As a member of the Baptist Church and chairman of the Sumter County school board, Carter used his standing in the community to speak out in support of school integration and other issues important to him. Yet knowing in his heart that there was more that he could do, with Rosalynn’s savvy political advice, Jimmy ran for the state senate and won.
In 1966, Jimmy Carter ran for governor of Georgia. As a third-party candidate, he lost the governorship to the more conservative leaning Democrat Lester Maddox. Having lost the office of governor – but far from defeated – Carter returned to his peanut farm and planned his campaign for the 1970 election. It was during this period that Carter became a born-again Baptist, finding spiritual comfort in Evangelical Christianity.
Jimmy defeated Republican Hal Suit in the 1970 election and was sworn in as Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971. Lester Maddox, Carter’s fellow Democrat and the man who had defeated him in the 1966 election, was sworn in as lieutenant governor. Segregationists thought they had an ally in Carter when they cast their votes for him and felt the new governor had betrayed them when Time magazine ran a cover story on the governor in May 1971 called Carter’s “Progressive New South”. Some voters had expected their new governor to be a more conservative leaning one like they had had in Lester Maddox and were angered when Carter said in his inaugural speech that “the time of racial discrimination is over…No poor, rural, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job or simple justice.”
Jimmy Carter served as Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. As he would later as president, Carter shied away from political games with the downside being that many politicians found him difficult to work with. In his four years as the state’s governor, Carter still made some important policies for Georgia.
During an appearance in Columbus, Georgia on July 8, 1971, Carter spoke of his intention to establish the Georgia Human Rights Council. In a news conference a week later, Carter said that he planned to cut back on spending in an attempt to reduce the state’s 57 million deficit. The year 1972 saw Carter request that the state legislature fund the Early Childhood Development Program and prison reform. In April 1972, Carter traveled to Latin America to establish a possible trade agreement for Georgia.
Carter worked very hard as governor on civil rights reform. He increased the number of black people in Georgia as government employees, judges and board members. He hired Rita Jackson Samuels to consult him on the potential appointments of black people in the state government. Despite protests by the Klu Klux Klan, Carter placed a portrait of fellow Georgian Martin Luther King Jr. in the capitol building. On January 31, 1973, Carter appeared on television with Reubin Askew, the governor of Florida, to propose a constitutional amendment to make it illegal for busing with the intention of accelerating school integration. He endorsed bills that would make comparable the aid the state provided for both wealthy and poor school districts, and set up community centers for handicapped children. Under Jimmy Carter, the appointment of state officials and judges was based on experience and ability, not the influence of politicians.
At the completion of his first term as governor, Jimmy Carter was ineligible under Georgia to run for reelection. This sat well with Carter, as he had set his sight on a new goal: President of the United States. Carter announced his intention to run for president as his time in the governor’s office was nearing its end.
As part of his carefully planned campaign for a presidential run, Carter published Why Not the Best? Jimmy Carter: The First Fifty Years in 1975. It was the first of 32 books that he would write over the next four decades. Why Not the Best? was a memoir in which Jimmy wrote about his childhood, military career, the importance of his Christian faith in his life and the values instilled in him by his parents.
Carter built his presidential campaign on his image as a political outsider. He was not one of the Washington elite. After America’s failure in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, the public had lost faith in the people in Washington. Carter campaigned on the promise to restore America’s faith in the office of president, one tarnished by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Upon winning the Democratic nomination in July 1976, Carter needed to find a running mate. He found one in Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale. Carter’s opponent in the Republican party was President Gerald Ford. Ford had become vice-president under Richard Nixon following the resignation of Spiro Agnew, in the wake of political scandal. When president Richard Nixon himself resigned in the aftermath of Watergate, Ford was sworn in as president.
Gerald Ford was not a popular president. After assuming office, Ford had used his presidential powers to pardon Richard Nixon of any criminal activity connected to Watergate. Ford had also caused a bit of national anxiety when in a televised debate between him and Jimmy Carter, the incumbent president had stated that the Soviet Union did not pose a great threat in eastern Europe. The American people went to the polls in November 1976 and Jimmy Carter won the election with over 50% of the popular vote. Carter also received 57 more electoral votes than Ford.
On January 20, 1977, Jimmy Carter was sworn in as the 39th president of the United States. Over the next four years, Carter would create policy both popular and unpopular. He would achieve great success and equally great failure.
Carter’s image as a political outsider had played a big part in his winning the presidency. Once in office, this one-time asset turned into a handicap. Carter had plenty of ideas in the area of social reform (one of his great strengths), but in the wake of Watergate both the House and the Senate were not reluctant to oppose the president. Carter would all too often criticize his Washington colleagues and bring his agenda directly to the public. Frequently unwilling to work with the lawmakers in Washington D.C., Carter was often unable to get his concepts turned into laws. That being the case, Carter’s approval rating with the American people began to decline as early as 1978.
As a champion of human rights, Jimmy Carter had his greatest success rate as president (and in his post presidency) in foreign affairs. During his first year in office, Carter worked with Panama to sign a treaty that gave Panama control of the Panama Canal in 1999. In 1978, Carter played a major part in the creation of the Camp David Accords, a monumental achievement that brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the bargaining table at Camp David, Maryland, which lasted 13 excruciating days (well documented in White House Diary, a 2010 book written by Carter that contains most of the daily diary entries he made while president). The meeting resulted in a treaty ending the war that had raged between the two nations since the founding of Israel in 1947. It was Carter’s dedication to the peacemaking process that made the Camp David Accords a reality.
President Carter’s greatest failing in international relations (as it was seen at the time) began on November 4, 1979 when a mob of Iranian students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took the staff hostage, holding them for a period of over a year. The students claimed to be protesting the United States’ actions in allowing the former shah, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, into the States for medical treatment. Carter’s handling of the first real conflict between the United States and a terrorist organization was seen as a failure by the American public.
Hoping to avoid bloodshed, Carter attempted at first to negotiate for the hostages release without military involvement. After months of failure in negotiating, in April of 1980, Carter ordered the first military action to be taken against Iran. In what turned into a colossal disaster in the desert, a plane and helicopter crashed shortly after taking off. As the military craft burned in the desert sand, Carter’s chances of re-election in the coming November went up in flames with them.
The hostages were finally released on January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. Not to take anything away from Reagan, who was one of the most popular, iconic and greatest presidents of the 20th century, the belief that the hostages were released on inauguration day because the terrorist did not wish to tangle with the new president is myth. Jimmy Carter played a more active and effective role in his negotiations with the terrorists than was commonly known at the time. In White House Diary, readers can get an in-depth look at the tense negotiating between the president and the Iranian terrorists, and Carter’s tenacity up until the day the hostages were released, Carter’s last in office. Much of the negotiating at the time was top secret and unknown by the American public. Jimmy Carter was the man responsible for the release of the hostages.
The American public’s belief that President Carter had failed in his negotiations with the terrorists coupled with the crippling economy (due in no small part to an ongoing energy crisis) cost Jimmy Carter a second term. The Republican nominee, the charismatic ex-actor and former governor of California, Ronald Reagan, easily won the election in November 1980. In a televised debate between Carter and Reagan, when the latter had asked the public, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” and “Is America as respected throughout the world?” and the American people felt the answer was no, Jimmy Carter had all but lost the election.
After handing over the presidency to Ronald Reagan (who served two terms from January 1981 to January 1989, before handing the baton to his vice-president George H.W. Bush), Jimmy Carter returned to Georgia. In 1982, Jimmy and Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, a nonprofit organization established to help promote human rights, relieve suffering and raise the quality of life in more than 80 countries. One of the many achievements of the Center was its role in finding cures for illnesses around the globe, especially Guinea worm disease, which saw a decline from 3.5 million cases in 1996 to 35 in 2015. The Center has consulted in 96 elections in 38 countries since 1989, keeping corruption out of the electoral process, and worked to resolve conflict in countries like Haiti, Ethiopia and North Korea, while lending a hand to human rights advocates around the world. The Center’s greatest achievement is its work with Habitat for Humanity, the not-for-profit organization that has been building homes for the poor since 1976. To this day, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter help in the construction of one home per year. No small feat, as the former president and his wife are both now over 90 years old. For his work with the Carter Center, Jimmy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
During his post-presidency, Jimmy Carter has been a prolific author. In 1982, Carter published his third book, Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President, an account of his term in office and a defense of the decisions he made. Jimmy and his daughter Amy collaborated on a children’s book in 1995 called The Little Baby Snoogie-Fleejer. A Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War, a work of fiction, was published in 2003. Two books, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006) and We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (2009), dealt with issues in the Middle East. The before mentioned (and highly recommended) White House Diary saw print in 2010. Carter’s deep religious faith has been the subject of several of his books, including Living Faith (1996), Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith (1997), Faith & Freedom: The Christian Challenge for the World (2006) and Faith: A Journey for All (2018).
While not writing books or helping to build houses, Jimmy Carter has served as a diplomat during a number of conflicts over the last several decades. In 1994, President Bill Clinton asked Carter to negotiate with North Korea to bring an end to their development of nuclear weapons. Between 1995 and 1996 Carter addressed the issue of violence in Africa’s Great Lakes region and participated in summits in Egypt and Tunisia. Carter was one of several peace and human rights activists who joined Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa in July of 2007 to announce their involvement with the Elders, an organization of public figures who work towards peace and human rights. As an Elder, Carter was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and worked towards equal rights for women and girls.
Jimmy Carter’s accomplishments as President of the United States were far greater than he received credit for at the time, and with some degree to this very day. In has been unquestionably though during the 38 years since leaving the White House and putting Washington D.C. behind him that Carter has had his greatest successes. Arguably, no other former president in recent American history had achieved as much after vacating the Oval Office as Jimmy Carter. He is not through, either.
~ by Michael Goth