The 39th president of the United States left office in 1981, and on Dec. 29, he left the world from Plains, Georgia, his birth city. Jimmy Carter was not just the 39th president; he accomplished far more in his 100 years on Earth than a lot of people will.
Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and returned home during the civil rights movement, which he grew to support. Carter was strongly against racial segregation and became an activist for the Democratic Party.
Jimmy Carter served as a Sumter County Board of Education board member from December 1955 to January 1963. In 1955, he was selected to fill a vacancy on the county school board, a seat his father once held for many years. In July 1960, he became the school board’s chairman, where he would be motivated to go even further and run for Senate.
In 1962, Jimmy Carter ran for Senate in Georgia with a clear goal: to protect public school systems and allow them to be racially integrated. Carter relied heavily on radio and print media to campaign. He ended up serving in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1967.
The Georgia gubernatorial election was held in 1966. The Democratic Party had three notable candidates: Ellis Arnall, a former governor; Lester Maddox, a businessman; and Jimmy Carter, a state senator at the time.
In the initial primary, Arnall secured a plurality but not the required majority, leading to a runoff with Maddox. Maddox won the runoff. In the general election, however, no candidate achieved a majority, so it was up to the Georgia General Assembly to select a winner, which they selected Maddox.
Although Carter lost the election, he gathered positive attention for his strong showing in the Democratic Party. Four years after losing in 1966, Carter ran and won the Georgia gubernatorial election in 1970. He defeated Republican Hal Suit in the general election by focusing on uniting Georgia amid racial and economic tensions.
Carter served as governor from 1971 to 1975 until his successful bid for the presidency. He focused on being an outsider from the Washington establishment, appealing to voters disillusioned by the Watergate scandal. He also successfully appealed to rural and Southern voters as a moderate Southerner.
Carter focused on issues like government transparency, human rights, reducing corruption, and even his Baptist faith, making him the only Baptist U.S. president.
Carter faced President Gerald Ford in the general election, who struggled with controversies, including his pardon of Nixon. Carter won 297 electoral votes and 50.1% of the popular vote, making him the 39th president of the United States.
Unfortunately for Carter, he lost his reelection campaign in 1980 against President Ronald Reagan.
Besides politics, Carter was also a great writer, having written over 30 books. In 2002, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book “An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood.”
Also, in 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifelong dedication to human rights, which was reflected in his presidency and post-presidency work with The Carter Center, which was founded by Carter and his wife Rosalynn to promote peace, health, and democracy worldwide.
Up until his final days, Jimmy Carter lived a long and fulfilling life dedicated to helping others. Back in Plains, Georgia, Carter left an enduring legacy of compassion, peace, and humanitarianism.
