Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones in his family home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, December 29, 2024. The White House announced on Monday that Carter’s funeral service will be on January 9 in Washington, D.C., and President Biden will deliver a eulogy. The day has been declared an international day of mourning.
Carter was the oldest former US President. Elected in 1976, Carter served a single term, during which he cemented his legacy as a leader for peaceful foreign policy. His most significant accomplishments included brokering a peace deal ending the 31-year war between Egypt and Israel, normalizing relations with China, and giving Panama control over the Panama Canal.
Carter’s dedication to peace did not stop after he left office. In 1994, nearly two decades after he first occupied the White House, Carter held talks with North Korea’s leader, Kim Il Sung, over the country’s nuclear developments. He wrote many letters to foreign dictators requesting the release of American hostages and even traveled to North Korea in 2010 to free Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American held in custody for illegally entering the country.
In 2008, he met with the leader of Hamas to discuss peace in the Middle East between Palestine and Israel. At the time, this meeting was regarded as highly controversial as the US considered Hamas a terrorist organization.
In 1982, just one year after leaving office, he founded the Carter Center, an organization that sought international peace by monitoring foreign elections and fighting to eradicate disease. The center successfully reduced the number of cases of the Guinea Worm from three million worldwide in 1986 to just 14 in 2021.
In 1999, President Carter was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his dedication to global peace and unity. Just three years later, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Domestically, Carter was dedicated to expanding diversity opportunities. Though he did not have the chance to appoint a Supreme Court Justice while in office, he did appoint future Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Washington Court of Appeals—a position that enabled her eventual elevation to the highest court by President Clinton. Carter appointed a record 29 women to higher court positions. Prior to his time in office, only two women had ever held district court positions.
Carter evoked controversy in 2009 when he condemned Americans for treating Obama with racist prejudice and noted that many of his adversaries disapproved of the President simply because he was Black.
Carter’s legacy is a potent reminder that peace and goodwill are direct links to longevity. Though it may have cost him reelection, Carter never faltered in his dedication to achieving global unity and spreading prosperity to everyone.
