RETRO REPORT: Remembering Jimmy Carter

Photo via: Piotrus/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Opinion writer, Ava Jelepis, honors the late former President Jimmy Carter and dives into his political career beyond the Oval Office.

Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter Jr.) was born in Plains, Georgia, on Oct. 1, 1924, the first president born in a hospital. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a farmer and a businessman and his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, was a nurse.

In 1928, the Carters moved to a farm at Archery, about three miles west of Plains. Carter was raised there with his younger siblings, Gloria, Ruth and Billy. They grew peanuts, sugar cane, cotton and corn to sell. They also raised livestock and vegetables for themselves. 

Like his father, Carter quickly became a businessman. James Earl Carter Sr. was one of the first farmers in the area to focus heavily on selling peanuts, and when Carter was as young as five years old, he would help his father sell them. Carter would sell peanuts on the streets for a nickel per bag, earning about one dollar daily.

Growing up on the farm during the Great Depression helped shape Carter. He learned many business skills from his father and developed a good work ethic, as some of the jobs on the farm were enjoyable while others were physically exhausting. Though Carter attended school and church in Plains, he considered his home to be Archery. 

After graduating from Plains High School as valedictorian, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College in 1941 and transferred to Georgia Institute of Technology (colloquially known as Georgia Tech) the following year. He then fulfilled his childhood dream and enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy. Carter received his degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946, graduating in the top tenth of his class. In the Navy, he served in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as a submariner and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. 

Carter was also chosen for a nuclear submarine program and assigned to Schenectady, New York. There, he worked at Union College in nuclear physics and reactor technology. He served as the senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the second nuclear submarine, Seawolf. 

Just weeks after graduating from the Naval Academy, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. They had known each other for most of their lives. Smith’s parents were neighbors of the Carters, and Carter’s mom helped deliver Smith in 1927 when Carter was 3 years old. Despite knowing each other for all of their lives, their romance didn't start until 1945. The following year, they married in Plains.

After their wedding, they moved to  Norfolk, Virginia, for Carter’s Naval assignment. This is where Rosalynn had their first child, John William “Jack” Carter, in 1947. They moved around frequently because of Carter's deployments, which took him to Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Hawaii. However, they eventually settled in New York. During this time, Rosalynn gave birth to James Earl “Chip” Carter III and Donnel “Jeff” Carter.

In 1953, Carter's dad passed away, so he resigned from the Navy and returned home to his family to help run the peanut farm. He took over Carter Farms and became a pillar of the community. He taught Sunday School at the local Church and served on county boards supervising the library, hospital authority and education. 

In 1962, he was elected to the Georgia Senate and became chair of the Democratic Governor's Campaign Committee. During his two terms in the Georgia State Senate, he stood up for civil rights and helped repeal laws that were made to discourage African Americans from voting. 

In 1966, Carter ran for governor but was defeated by Lester Maddox, a known segregationist. Because of the lack of support given to Carter by white segregationists, the second time he ran for governor, he kept quiet about racial issues. However, after he won the election and became Georgia's governor in 1971, he made very clear where he stood on racial matters and declared, “The time for racial discrimination is over,” during his inauguration speech. The views that he expressed in his speech gave him national coverage. 

Carter became the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional elections. Late that year, he announced his candidacy as president. Unfortunately, his announcement was somewhat irrelevant despite the national coverage of his inauguration speech three years prior. Even the newspaper in Georgia ran an article  the next day with the headline "Jimmy Who Is Running For What!?" However, since he was running post-Watergate, a time in which most Americans had lost some trust in the government, he used being unknown to his advantage. America was looking for someone outside of the government's circle, and that is who Carter was. 

Carter’s slogan was "A Leader, For A Change.” He ran for president with the same determination he had from a young age helping his father on the farm. He used the fact that he was unknown to his advantage, expressing that he would be able to “clean up the mess in Washington.” As other candidates dropped out, Carter was left in the race despite not winning a majority of delegates in the primaries.

After winning the first ballot nomination, he selected a senator from Minnesota, Walter Mondale, as his running mate. Carter was running against Gerald Ford, the first unelected president in the United States who took the position after Richard Nixon stopped following scandals. While Carter tried to tie Nixon’s fault to Ford, Ford did his best to portray Carter as inexperienced. 

In the end, the election results were very close. Ford could not escape the image of  Nixon, and Carter became the 39th President of the United States in 1976. Carter became TIME’s Man of the Year in 1977, the year he was inaugurated as President.

Some of Carter’s accomplishments as President include creating the Department of Education, his achievements in domestic affairs, improving the environment by expanding the national park system, and appointing more women, African American and Hispanic people to jobs in the Government. However, due to reasons such as inflation, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and his family scandals, Carter was only elected for one term, defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980. 

After his presidency, Carter did not stop serving the public. Starting in 1984, Carter volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, leading the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project. He also taught at colleges and continued teaching in Sunday Schools. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “undertaking peace negotiations, campaigning for human rights, and working for social welfare.” These are just a few of Carter's accomplishments post-presidency, and he set a new standard for all presidents to reach after their term. 

On Nov. 19, 2023, Rosyalnn died at age 96 with Carter at her side. They celebrated their 77th anniversary that summer and are the longest-married presidential couple. Rosalynn helped Carter begin his campaign from the very beginning and was a women's rights and mental health advocate.  

Carter turned 100 on Oct. 1, 2024, the first president to ever do so, as well as the longest-lived President. Later that month, Carter was able to fulfill his wish by living long enough to vote for former Vice President Kamala Harris by mail-in vote while in hospice care. 

On Dec. 29, 2024, Carter passed away peacefully at his home in Plains, surrounded by his family. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter. Carter went from a boy selling peanuts for a nickel a bag in Plains to a man who served as President and continued serving the public long after his term. Though Carter is gone, his contributions to America will live on for ages.