Former President Jimmy Carter dies at 100
celebrated champion of human rights, dies at 100
The 100-year-old was the only U.S. president from Georgia.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Passes Away at 100
ATLANTA (Dec. 29, 2024) — Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
There will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains, Georgia. The final arrangements for President Carter’s state funeral, including all public events and motorcade routes, are still pending. The schedule will be released by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region at https://jtfncr.mdw.army.mil/statefunerals/.
Members of the public are encouraged to visit the official tribute website to the life of President Carter at www.jimmycartertribute.org. This site includes the official online condolence book as well as print and visual biographical materials commemorating his life.
The Carter family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307.
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Media Notes:
All logistics and credentialing related to coverage of the official ceremonies will be handled by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region. The Carter Center is not credentialing media to cover official ceremonies.
Rights-cleared photos and video of President Carter’s life, provided by The Carter Center and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, will be available at www.jimmycartertribute.org/downloads.
Contact: media@cartercenter.org
The Carter Center
Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.
A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. source
Former President Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, whose post-presidential work as a humanitarian set a modern standard for the kind of legacy presidents can craft after their time in the White House, has died at 100 years old.
“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the Carter Center announced Sunday in a social media post.
His son Chip Carter said in a statement that he was a “hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.”
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs,” Chip Carter said.
The Carter Center said public observances will be held in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private internment in Plains. A final schedule is still being formalized and will be released at this link, the Carter Center said.
The public is encouraged to visit the Carter Center’s official tribute website for President Carter, where an online condolence book as well as materials commemorating his life are available. In lieu of flowers, President Carter’s family is asking for donations to be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE, Atlanta, GA, 30307.
Turning 100 on Oct. 1, 2024, President Carter reached a milestone as the longest-living U.S. president that no other person to hold the title has reached. He is the only president from Georgia.
Carter went on hospice care in February 2023, and lived another 22 months at home in his cherished Plains, Georgia, a testament to his advocacy of hospice as comfortable and dignified end-of-life care. His passing follows over a year after the death of his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at 96 years old. The couple forged the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history, an iconic love story as well as an enduring political and philanthropic partnership.
Carter was president from 1977-81, a one-term executive whose time in the White House was marked by an ambition for more peaceful relations with the world at a time of high Cold War tensions, but also economic stagnation and geopolitical challenges.
His term’s highs included a masterstroke in diplomacy with the ushering of a landmark Middle East peace deal, the Camp David Accords. However, rampant inflation and world events – the Iran Hostage Crisis chief among them, as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – hindered his standing as the nation’s commander in chief.
He was soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 re-election bid – but rather than marking the end of Carter’s public life, it paved the way for the humanitarian contributions that would define him far more than anything he accomplished in office.
He and Rosalynn established the Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982, an organization through which the former president would do much to, as he hoped for in his inaugural address, see that “the nations of the world might say that we had built a lasting peace, based not on weapons of war, but on international policies that reflect our own most precious values.”
The Carter Center’s work over the years has touched on advancing human rights, forging peace talks in some of the world’s most devastated conflict zones, promoting democracy and observing elections throughout the world, and disease prevention and eradication – including a decades-long campaign that has resulted in the near-elimination of Guinea worm.
Carter’s personal volunteerism and service to community were also noteworthy. He worked for decades with Habitat for Humanity, participating on a build as recently as 2019 even as he was recovering from a fall at his home that required 14 stitches and gave him a black eye. And he was famous for his Sunday school lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
Crowning his post-presidential humanitarian legacy, in 2002 Carter was named the Nobel Peace Prize honoree. The Nobel committee highlighted his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
President Carter once said, “We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes – and we must.”
Early beginnings
James Earl Carter, Jr. was born in rural Plains, Georgia on Oct. 1, 1924 to James Earl Carter, Sr. and Lillian Gordy Carter. Famously, the family business was peanut farming, and the Baptist Church was another mainstay of his upbringing.
After growing up as a farmhand and promising student, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern and Georgia Tech before heading to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. In one of his life-defining moments, the previous summer he had been home from the academy and noticed his sister Ruth walking with a friend, Rosalynn Smith. He asked Rosalynn out – and quickly fell in love with her, with his first proposal famously refused by Rosalynn because she had promised her father, on his deathbed, she would finish college before getting married.
But it did not deter their love story – roughly a year after that first date, they were wed on July 7, 1946.
Married life, the military, and his road to politics
The couple mainly spent their first married years in Norfolk, Virginia. Jimmy was in the Navy and assigned to the USS Wyoming. The day before Independence Day in 1947, they had their first son, John Williams, whom they named after Rosalynn’s grandfather. In 1950 while stationed in Hawaii, James Earl III was born and named after Jimmy and his father, James Earl Sr. Two years later, Donnell Jeffrey became their third boy. It would be 15 years before they had their only baby girl, Amy Lynn in 1967.
In one 1952 episode that has taken on legendary status in recent years, then-Lt. Carter led a team in cleanup efforts at the world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown in Canada. He left the Navy in 1953 upon the death of his father, returning to Plains to take up the reins of running the peanut farm.
Back in Plains, Jimmy and Rosalynn operated the farm and a seed and supply store called Carter’s Warehouse. He slowly built a profile as a community leader and, in 1962, embarked on his remarkable political life with a successful run for the Georgia Senate. After serving two terms, he ran unsuccessfully for governor – but came back in four years’ time and became Georgia’s 76th governor.
Governor Carter & presidential campaign
Carter was inaugurated on Jan. 12, 1971, and famously declared in his address, “The time for racial discrimination is over.”
It was an outspoken declaration that caught many observers by surprise. As a white legislator in an Old Confederacy state, he had been more muted on civil rights issues earlier in his political rise and at times positioned himself as a conservative Democrat. While there were signs of Carter’s more sympathetic racial attitudes – such as his advocacy for educational reorganization as a state senator, considered a step toward desegregation – he also endorsed during the 1970 gubernatorial campaign “local control” over federal intervention, which biographer Jonathan Alter has described as a “code-word campaign.”
As governor, Carter pursued reforms of Georgia’s education system as well as the state bureaucracy, extending to his own appointments – another signal in his turn toward promoting equality.
“He appointed more women and minorities to his own staff, to major state policy boards and agencies, and to the judiciary than all of his predecessors combined,” the New Georgia Encyclopedia states.
He also advanced mental health as a priority – at the urging of Rosalynn, for whom the issue became a life-defining cause – in a way that was ahead of his time, in 1971 creating the Governor’s Commission to Improve Services for Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped Georgians on which the future first lady would serve.
Jimmy Carter announced his presidential candidacy in December 1974 – more than a year away from the 1976 Democratic primary. Almost a complete unknown to the rest of the country, Carter was initially “dismissed as an absurdity by the elders of his party” the New York Times reported at the time.
His campaign was aided first by the decision of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey to not seek the nomination, and then Carter rose past other, more well-known candidates such as California Gov. Jerry Brown and Alabama Gov. George Wallace thanks to dogged grassroots campaigning highlighted by the “Peanut Brigade” of nationwide volunteers, as well as a reputation as as the “rock & roll” candidate that helped him crack the national consciousness.
Carter was also one of the first Democrats to court a coalition with Black voters in the wake of the 60s civil rights era. He forged an alliance with Martin Luther King Jr.’s family and capped the 1976 Democratic Party convention with a closing speech from Martin Luther King Sr., MLK’s father, and sharing a moment with Coretta Scott King.
“As I’ve said many times before, we can have an American President who does not govern with negativism and fear for the future, but with vigor and vision and aggressive leadership, a President who’s not isolated from the people but who feels your pain and shares your dreams and takes his strength and his wisdom and his courage from you,” he said upon accepting the Democratic nomination. “I see an America on the move again, united, a diverse and vital and tolerant nation, entering our third century with pride and confidence, an America that lives up to the majesty of our Constitution and the simple decency of our people. This is the America we want. This is the America that we will have.”
The White House
On Nov. 2, 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected the 39th president of the United States, defeating incumbent Republican Gerald Ford – who had ascended to the presidency on Richard Nixon’s resignation – with 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240.
In office, the optimism of Carter’s Democratic acceptance speech met the hard realities of international affairs and economic headwinds.
The economy was in recession when he took office, and inflation was a deep thorn in his administration’s side throughout his term. He targeted inflation early in his presidency, but it spiked – arguably, outside of his control – every year of his term, to more than 13% by 1980.
The 1979 oil crisis – largely stemming from shortages after the Iranian Revolution and punctuated by images of gas stations with no gas and Americans waiting in long lines – underscored the economic frustrations that undermined Carter’s re-election hopes.
On Nov. 4, 1979, 66 American diplomats and citizens were also taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran, and Carter’s inability to resolve the crisis – the failed rescue mission Operation Eagle Claw in April 1980 resulted in eight dead American servicemen – dealt a serious blow to his political standing.
Additional challenges included the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March of 1979, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan later that year in December.
Capturing the difficult mood of the time, a 1979 address of Carter’s would become somewhat infamously deemed the “malaise” speech, as he spoke of a national “crisis of confidence.”
Carter’s tenure as president was, however, also marked by a number of accomplishments. He created two new cabinet-level departments – the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He sought warmer relations in Latin America, and – while not without political controversy – achieved a diplomatic priority with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which gave Panama control of the Panama Canal.
And the Camp David Accords – a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in large part negotiated personally by Carter – remains to this day one of the most significant achievements in the long, tumultuous Arab-Israeli peace process.
Carter also made strides for Black enfranchisement, making good on many of his promises to the Kings who helped him rise to the presidency. Carter opened government contracts to Black-owned businesses and appointed record numbers of Black citizens to executive and judicial posts. He steered more public money to historically Black colleges and opposed tax breaks for discriminatory private schools. He also helped establish government observances of King’s birthday and enabled the federal historic site in Atlanta encompassing King’s birthplace, burial site and the family’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Perhaps counterintuitively, a large component of Carter’s economic policy would appear conservative by today’s politics. He deregulated several industries, such as trucking and airlines – for which he actually has been praised in recent years by some conservatives – and his plan to fight inflation announced in early 1980 called for a huge slate of federal spending cuts.
Inflation would subside greatly in the years when he would have served a second term, but in the end, Carter’s popularity had diminished too greatly with the American people by the time of the 1980 election. He lost his bid for a second term in the White House to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide.
The return to Georgia
“As I return home to the South where I was born and raised, I am looking forward to the opportunity to reflect and further to assess – I hope with accuracy – the circumstances of our times,” he said in his farewell address. “I intend to give our new president my support, and I intend to work as a citizen, as I have worked in this office as president, for the values this nation was founded to secure.”
He may not have realized it in that moment, but it would be that work as an ordinary citizen that secured his place in history more than any of the events in office that he faced – which he noted in the same address often are “controversial, broad in scope, and which do not arouse the natural support of a political majority.”
Carter, at 100, lived longer than any other former president. And his marriage to Rosalynn is the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history. He is survived by his three sons, daughter and 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Once, in an interview with USA Today, Carter revealed what he hoped his legacy would be. The quote is telling – touching on the universalist humanitarian themes that drove his political ambitions, but not forgetting the personal humility and devotion to community and family that endeared him to so many.
“Human rights and peace are two things I would like to be remembered for,” he said. “And of course, being a good grandfather.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story. source
Jimmy Carter dies at 100: Tributes pour in, memorials planned for Atlanta, DC
Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States who dedicated much of his life to humanitarian causes, died in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, his family announced Sunday.
The former president was known for his work with philanthropic organizations like Habitat for Humanity and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
In the White House from 1977 to 1981, Carter negotiated the landmark Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, transferred the Panama Canal to Panamanian ownership, dramatically expanded public lands in Alaska and established formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Carter had been in ailing health during the past decade and had been in hospice care for more than a year when he died.
Keep up with live coverage from the USA TODAY Network as tributes to Carter pour in from around the world.
Biden on Jimmy Carter: ‘The world lost a remarkable leader‘
On Sunday night, President Joe Biden honored his “dear friend” Jimmy Carter, pointing to his accomplishments as president and his time as Georgia’s governor.
“This is a sad day, but it brings back an incredible amount of good memories,” Biden said during remarks in Christiansted, Saint Croix, where the president is currently on vacation. “Today, America and the world, in my view, lost a remarkable leader.”
Biden was on the phone with Carter’s family before delivering remarks, he added.
The president shared his fondest memory with Carter, saying it was when he first endorsed his candidacy for president.
“My fondest memory of Jimmy Carter was when he grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘I need you to help me with my campaign,'” Biden said. “I said, ‘I’ve only been around a couple years, Mr. Governor.'”
Biden said he wasn’t sure whether he would make a difference in supporting Carter’s candidacy, but the then-Georgia governor said he would.
“I told him when I was endorsing him, that it was not only his policies, but his character, his decency, the honor he communicates to everyone,” Biden said, adding that he also appreciated how “very kind” Carter was to he and Jill Biden after his son Beau Biden died.
Biden later commended Carter as a “model of what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose” and how he treated people with respect.
“Jimmy Carter is an example of just simple decency,” Biden said. “And I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for.”
Biden added: “Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone that needs something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or where they talk? I can’t.”
– Rebecca Morin
Harris says Carter’s ‘life is a testament to the power of service’
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that “Jimmy Carter’s life is a testament to the power of service — as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, the 76th Governor of Georgia, and the 39th President of the United States. He reminded our nation and the world that there is strength in decency and compassion.”
Harris also reflected on Carter’s efforts to protect the environment, promote government transparency and work toward peace around the world.
“I had the privilege of knowing President Carter for years. I will always remember his kindness, wisdom, and profound grace. His life and legacy continue to inspire me — and will inspire generations to come. Our world is a better place because of President Carter,” Harris said.
Jimmy Carter told his son, Chip Carter, earlier this year “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” in the 2024 election the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The Carter Center confirmed to USA TODAY the former president voted by mail for the vice president in Georgia.
− Marina Pitofsky and Sarah D. Wire
Obamas reflect on Carter’s faith, ‘decency’
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama on Sunday remembered Carter’s commitment to his faith, reflecting on his decades of teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia and the worshippers who flocked to the church.
“Some who came to hear him speak were undoubtedly there because of what President Carter accomplished in his four years in the White House – the Camp David Accords he brokered that reshaped the Middle East; the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including nominating a pioneering women’s rights activist and lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench; the environmental reforms he put in place, becoming one of the first leaders in the world to recognize the problem of climate change,” the Obamas said.
“Others were likely there because of what President Carter accomplished in the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history,” they said, noting “But I’m willing to bet that many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.
Bushes say Carter ‘dignified the office’ of the presidency
Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush on Sunday said Carter “dignified the office” of the presidency during his lifetime of service.
“James Earl Carter, Jr., was a man of deeply held convictions. He was loyal to his family, his community, and his country. President Carter dignified the office,” they said.
“And his efforts to leave behind a better world didn’t end with the presidency. His work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations,” they added.
− Marina Pitofsky
Clintons say Carter worked for ‘a better, fairer world’
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday praised Jimmy Carter for his efforts for “a better, fairer world.”
“Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life,” the two said in a statement. “Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others— until the very end.”
The Clintons met Carter in 1975 and were “proud, early supporters of his Presidential campaign,” they said in their statement. Bill Clinton said he was proud to have presented Carter, and his wife Rosalynn, with the Medal of Freedom in 1999.
Bill and Hillary Clinton in the statement highlighted his work throughout his political career, from state senator, to president and to his efforts post presidency.
Bidens reflect on Carter’s ‘compassion and moral clarity’
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden in a statement said “America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” in the wake of Carter’s death.
“Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well,” the president and first lady said.
“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe.”
− Marina Pitofsky
Trump says Americans owe Carter ‘a debt of gratitude’
President-elect Donald Trump shared in a post on Truth Social that “Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History.”
“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” he added.
Trump frequently criticized Carter on the campaign trail. For example, earlier this year he told a crowd of supporters in Wisconsin “Jimmy Carter is the happiest man because Jimmy Carter is considered a brilliant president by comparison,” while criticizing President Joe Biden.
Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, pays musical tribute to his grandfather
Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s eldest grandson, shared a musical tribute to his grandfather on Sunday, simply sharing a link to a performance of Jason Isbell’s song “Last of My Kind.”
The chorus of the song tells listeners “I’m the last of my kind, Try to find another just like me, You’ll be looking for a real long time.”
− Marina Pitofsky
Jimmy Carter funeral: Former president’s viewing arrangements, planning underway
Citizens across the globe praised former President Jimmy Carter as family members prepared for a memorial journey from Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., before returning for burial at his home in south Georgia.
According to the Carter Center, public memorial observances will take place in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C., for the 39th president of the United States, who died Sunday at 100.
Final arrangements for Carter’s state funeral are pending, with a formal schedule to come from the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region. The Carter Center urged members of the public to visit the official tribute website, which includes an online condolence book and other materials commemorating the life of the nation’s longest-living former president and only one to reach the century milestone. source
Former President Jimmy Carter dies at 100 years old
James Earl Carter, Jr., the 39th President of the United States and 76th governor of Georgia, has died at 100-years-old. Known from boyhood as Jimmy, Carter rose from the dusty peanut fields of Plains, Georgia, to the White House. After his presidency, Carter dedicated himself to public service, working tirelessly for peace in the Middle East, and helping to house millions of people around the globe through his work with nonprofit builder Habitat for Humanity. For decades, he was a celebrated Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Carter was married to his wife Rosalynn for 77 years before she died on Nov. 19, 2023.
Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital, where his mother worked as a nurse. His father, like generations of Carter men before him, was a cotton farmer who did not graduate high school. But the elder Carter was thrifty and operated a successful general store. When the future president was four years old, the family bought some cotton farming land in nearby Archery. Their neighbors were black sharecroppers. Archery did not have electricity until 1938.
Carter spent his boyhood working the family farm and going to school. As a teenager, his father entrusted his eldest son with one acre of farmland. On it, Carter grew, packed and sold peanuts, his first foray into the business he would later depend upon. Carter also broke the family trend of leaving school early. He attended Plains High School in 1941, where he developed a life-long love of reading and learning.
After high school, Carter enrolled at nearby Georgia Southwestern College in Americus. The next year he transferred to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, and in 1943 Carter earned admission into the Naval Academy. It was while attending the Academy that Carter fell in love with Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister’s. The pair married shortly after Carter’s graduation in 1946. They were inseparable ever after. Carter’s Naval career spanned nine years, and the Carters lived on both coasts during his various deployments in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. While Carter was training to serve as an officer on one of the Navy’s first nuclear submarines, tragedy struck. His father died. The Carters returned home to Plains.
celebrated champion of human rights, dies at 100
Hard work brought the Carters through tough times in Plains. His father, who had served in the Georgia House of Representatives and ran a thriving business, was successful, but he also had many heirs and forgave debts. Jimmy and Rosalyn, now with three sons in tow, lived for a year in public housing, the only president to do so. With his engineering background, Carter set out expanding the family business, and with Rosalynn’s help, they grew successful. By 1961, Carter was a prominent man in the community and Chairman of the Sumter County school board, where he spoke in favor of school integration, stoking the ire of the local White Citizens Council who boycotted his peanut warehouse. But Carter pressed on. In 1962 he ran for state Senate, and after proving the initial vote was fraudulent ran in a second election and won. In 1966, after a failed bid for Governor, Carter found solace and new direction in his faith. He also plotted his future political career.
Carter won his 1970 bid for governor, and on his inauguration the next year he declared, “the time of racial discrimination is over,” shocking Georgians accustomed to the state’s long tradition of racist leadership. The statement also shocked many segregationist Georgians who had supported Carter, particularly after Carter endorsed segregationist Lester Maddox for Lieutenant Governor. Carter later called his campaign, during which he leaned into the anxiety many white Georgians felt over civil rights, the most shameful period of his life. But Carter’s inauguration did mark him out as a new kind of southern politician, and he was featured in Time magazine as a progressive “New South” governor. Carter and Maddox spent the next four years feuding. Carter worked to accelerate school integration, even as he slimmed down Georgia’s bureaucracy. Using his engineering background, he vetoed dam projects along the Flint River after personally reviewing the plans.
Georgia’s constitution limited him to a single term, and Carter’s time in federal office would be equally short. He ran successfully for president in 1976, with Republicans still reeling from the Watergate scandal that had pushed Richard Nixon out of the White House and marred Gerald Ford’s political future. Carter’s team came to Washington with little experience on the national stage, which stymied much of the policy progress the new president hoped to achieve, including a failed attempt at universal healthcare. As the oil crisis dragged the economy into a slump, the revolutionary government in Iran took 54 American citizens hostage and held them for 444 days. Carter went into his reelection campaign with little to show for his efforts, a struggling economy, and more than a year of foreign policy embarrassment. A charismatic former actor and governor of California, Ronald Reagan, swept Carter out of the White House in a historic landslide.
Again facing political failure, Carter now turned squarely to public service. In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, through which the former president worked to advance human rights and ameliorate suffering around the world. The previous year, Carter began working on peace in the Middle East, and over the decades met with both Israeli and Arab leaders, easing tensions and paving the path of peace. In the 1990s, Carter was a key figure in brokering peace throughout eastern Africa. Carter joined Nelson Mandela and other world leaders to work on peace and human rights, working in Darfur, Sudan, Cyprus, Korea, and the Middle East. Outside of politics, generations of Americans might best recognize Carter wearing a hard hat, due to his decades-long service with Habitat for Humanity. Even in the final year of his life, before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of American public life, you could often find Carter, hammer in hand, helping to build homes.
His activity in domestic politics was often quiet, preferring to work with presiding administrations as an overseas ambassador for peace and human rights. Carter passed on chances to run again for president in both 1984 and 1988. In 1992, when asked, Carter spoke favorably of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton as a potential candidate for the White House. Carter spoke at Clinton’s nominating convention and was frequently consulted by the fellow Democratic president. Carter frequently criticized Republican administrations, criticizing George H. W. Bush for his response to Hurricane Katrina and Donald Trump for his immigration policies.
Jimmy’s Carter’s post-White House life was based in his small hometown of Plains. There he and Rosalynn were active members in the community. Jimmy Carter frequently taught Sunday school at Marantha Baptist Church, his classes often drawing large crowds of admirers. Even as the prevailing political winds in Plains made Carter’s political views unpopular, he was widely adored by the community, which in his lifetime made his boyhood farm in Archery and part of the Plains High School museums to the president’s long life and diligent work helping other people.
It is for his service to others that Carter will be most remembered. In his personal life, he was a man dedicated to family and faith. In his public life, he lived out the promise of his faith by serving others, in Plains, across America and across the globe. source
Former President Jimmy Carter, celebrated champion of human rights, dies at 100
Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president known as a champion of international human rights both during and after his White House tenure and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his lifetime of dedication to that cause, has died at 100, ABC News has learned.
Carter’s death was also announced by the Carter Center on X, which posted “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia.” The Carter Center also shared a tribute site for the late president.
Carter, whose wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96, is survived by the couple’s children — John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip) and Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff); and their daughter, Amy Lynn.
“Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian,” President Biden said in a statement in reaction to Carter’s death. “With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe.”
Calling him “a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism” and “a great American,” Biden said he was “ordering an official state funeral to be held in Washington, D.C. for James Earl Carter, Jr., 39th President of the United States, 76th Governor of Georgia, Lieutenant of the United States Navy, graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and favorite son of Plains, Georgia, who gave his full life in service to God and country.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Carter “one of our most humble and devoted public servants” who “personified the true meaning of leadership through service, through compassion, and through integrity.”
“May his memory be a blessing and an enduring reminder of what it means to truly serve,” Schumer’s statement concluded.
“President Carter served during times of tension and uncertainty, both at home and abroad. But his calm spirit and deep faith seemed unshakeable,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement, in part. “As Jimmy Carter is reunited with his beloved Rosalynn, our thoughts and prayers are with their children, Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the millions of Americans whose lives were touched by his service.”
“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement, adding that he and wife Melania urged everyone to keep Carter’s family “in their hearts and prayers.”
Carter had endured several health challenges in recent years. In 2019, he underwent surgery after breaking his hip in a fall. Four years earlier, Carter was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma that had spread to his brain, though just months later, he announced that he no longer needed treatment due to a new type of cancer therapy he’d been receiving.
In February of 2023, the Carter Center, the organization founded by the former president to promote human rights worldwide, announced that Carter, with “the full support of his family and his medical team,” would begin receiving hospice care at home.
“After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” the Carter Center said in a statement.
Carter attended the public memorial service for his late wife on Nov. 28, 2023, some nine months after the announcement that he’d entered hospice care. Frail and in a wheelchair, he didn’t speak at the memorial. Instead, his daughter, Amy, spoke on his behalf, reading from a letter Carter sent to Rosalynn some 75 years earlier, when he was away serving in the Navy.
“My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I have been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are,” the letter read, in part. “While I am away, I try to convince myself that you really are not, could not be, as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you, I fall in love with you all over again.”
The son of a Georgia peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter first appeared on the national political scene in 1976 with a toothy grin and the simple words that would become his trademark: “My name is Jimmy Carter, and I’m running for president.”
Among his administration’s most notable achievements were the Camp David Accords, which Carter brokered between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978, and that led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year. Carter’s time in office also saw the first efforts toward developing a U.S. policy for energy independence.
Though political pundits of the era predicted he would be remembered as an average, one-term president, it’s often been observed that Carter’s reputation became more distinguished after he left the White House. He continued to champion international human rights and peace efforts, prompting Time magazine to declare in 1989, just eight years after the end of his presidency, that Carter “may be the best former president America has ever had.”
Peanut farmer to politician
James Earl Carter Jr. was born in Plains, Georgia, on Oct. 1, 1924, to James Earl Carter Sr., a peanut farmer and businessman, and Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse who famously became known as ‘Miss Lillian.’ Though he was the first American president born in a hospital, Carter was raised in a farmhouse without indoor plumbing or electricity.
Carter graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1946 and after spending seven years as an officer — he volunteered for submarine duty and was honorably discharged in 1953 — he returned to farming. He began his political career in 1962 when he was elected to the first of two terms as a state senator in Georgia. During his tenure, he promised to read every bill that came to a vote, even taking a speed-reading class to keep up.
After an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1966, Carter fell into a spiritual crisis, emerging as a born-again Christian. He later recalled this period as one that changed his life dramatically, saying on the campaign trail: “Since then, I’ve had an inner peace and inner conviction and assurance that transformed my life for the better.”
Armed with this renewed energy, Carter launched an aggressive gubernatorial campaign and won the office in 1970.
Carter announced his bid for the presidency in December 1974 as his term as governor of Georgia was ending. A relative unknown, Carter won early victories in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He became more well-known as he steadily picked up delegates and beat back challenges from Rep. Morris ‘Mo’ Udall and U.S. Sen. Henry M. Jackson to secure the nomination.
In November 1976, Carter defeated President Gerald Ford with 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 241 to become the 39th president.
Energy and economy
From the moment of his inauguration, Carter set a different tone in Washington. He avoided formality, taking the oath of office as ‘Jimmy’ instead of ‘James Earl’ Carter. He and the first lady even walked the mile-and-a-half inaugural parade route to the White House, rather than ride in a limousine.
Once in the Oval Office, Carter continued to bring a common touch to the presidency. He discontinued limousine service for presidential staff and even personally controlled the schedule of the White House tennis courts. As America weathered an energy crisis, Carter ordered his staff to turn the White House thermostats down in the winter and up in the summer, an energy-conscious practice he continued throughout his public career.
Focus on foreign policy
Carter struggled with domestic policies, fighting near-record highs in inflation and unemployment. Among his few victories was the establishment of the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, the latter in response to a continued energy shortage at the time.
Yet, while his domestic policies drew criticism, Carter found widespread success in foreign affairs. His administration attracted worldwide praise for distinguishing itself with a firm commitment to international human rights. Unlike his predecessors, Carter did not hesitate to criticize repressive right-wing regimes, saying in a 1977 commencement speech at Notre Dame, “Because we know that democracy works, we can reject the arguments of those rulers who deny human rights to their people.”
The Iran Hostage Crisis and the end of an administration
The largest stain on Carter’s foreign policy record came in November 1979, when a group of Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took hostage 52 American citizens. The militants demanded the return to Iran of the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from the U.S., where he was seeking medical attention, to stand trial.
Carter initially responded to the crisis by cutting diplomatic ties with Iran and blocking imports from the country. But when those measures failed, in April 1980, he ordered a secret armed rescue mission. It ended in disaster when several American helicopters malfunctioned and two aircraft collided, killing eight U.S. servicemen.
MORE: Video Jan. 20, 1981: The Iranian hostage crisis ends
The hostages were freed Jan. 20, 1980, after 444 days in captivity. Perhaps as a final insult to Carter, Iran released the hostages just minutes after President Ronald Reagan had been sworn in. The new president sent Carter to Germany to greet the hostages.
Post-presidency legacy of public service
It wasn’t until years after he left the White House that many came to appreciate Carter. The former president embarked on a new phase of his career in public service, devoting his days to peacemaking and humanitarian efforts.
“He has made the post-presidency an institution that it had never been before,” said historian and author Steve Hochman, who helped establish the Carter Center. “He has been the most successful, most influential former president in American history.”
Among the organization’s many efforts, the Carter Center helped spearhead a successful campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease, a debilitating parasitic infection spread by drinking water contaminated with the worm’s larvae. In 1986, the disease affected 3.5 million people per year in 21 African countries, but by 2017, it had been reduced by 99.99%, to just 30 cases, according to the Carter Center.
Carter told ABC News in 2015 that his goal was to eradicate the disease entirely. “I think this is going to be a great achievement for — not for me — but for the people that have been afflicted and for the entire world to see diseases like this eradicated,” Carter said.
Carter also became the highest-profile supporter of Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit devoted to creating affordable housing. The Carters personally helped to build, renovate and repair 4,390 homes in 14 countries, according to the organization, which also called Carter and wife Rosalynn “two of the world’s most distinguished humanitarians.”
Guided by ‘deep Christian faith’
In addition to his extensive humanitarian work, Carter wrote more than two dozen books after leaving the White House, including “Keeping the Faith: Memoirs of a President” (1982), “An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of My Rural Boyhood” (2001), “The Personal Beliefs of Jimmy Carter” (2002), and “Faith: A Journey for All,” (2018). He also wrote poetry collections, as well as a fictional work about the Revolutionary War, titled “The Hornet’s Nest” (2003).
Carter referenced his Christian faith in the opening lines of his presidential inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1977, quoting the biblical Old Testament call “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
Carter’s faith and seemingly limitless energy manifested themselves as he taught at his church’s Sunday school in his Plains, Georgia hometown, where congregants lined up to attend. He was also known for walking the length of every plane on which he traveled – he always flew commercial – to shake hands with every passenger.
Yet behind Carter’s easygoing Southern manner was an iron will and inexhaustible determination. Biographer Douglas Brinkley recalled the 39th president as “a kind of military man” who never seemed to get tired.
“I mean,” Brinkley noted, “the Secret Service nickname for him was ‘Dasher’ because he could move around so much.”
Jimmy Carter’s commitment to the principles that defined his life was, again, expressed in his presidential inaugural address: “Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved,” Carter declared. “The powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.”
ABC News’ Patricio Chile and Christopher Watson contributed to this report. source
Trump, Biden react to death of former President Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter died at his home in Georgia on Sunday at the age of 100
President-elect Trump and President Biden reacted to the death of former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday, with Trump saying, “we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” and Biden honoring his “dear friend.”
Carter, who was the 39th president of the United States and a peanut farmer whose vision of a “competent and compassionate” government propelled him into the White House, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday at the age of 100.
“I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.
“Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers,” the incoming president added.
Former President Jimmy Carter discusses his cancer diagnosis during a press conference at the Carter Center on August 20, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. Carter confirmed that he has melanoma that has spread to his liver and brain and will start treatment today. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
Trump later wrote that although he “strongly” disagreed with Carter philosophically and politically, he realized that the former president “truly loved and respected” the U.S. and all it stands for.
“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” Trump said. “He was truly a good man and, of course, will be greatly missed. He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office.”
Also weighing in was President Biden, who said, “the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman, and humanitarian.”
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces new sanctions against Iran in retaliation for taking U.S. Hostages, Washington, D.C., USA, photograph by Marion S. Trikosko, April 7, 1980. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well,” Biden wrote. “With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe.”
Biden referred to Carter as a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism.
He also said he and his wife will cherish seeing Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, together, noting that the love between the two is the “definition of partnership,” while their leadership is the definition of “patriotism.”
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter speaks to the congregation at Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in his hometown of Plains, Georgia on April 28, 2019. Carter, 94, has taught Sunday school at the church on a regular basis since leaving the White House in 1981, drawing hundreds of visitors who arrive hours before the 10:00 am lesson in order to get a seat and have a photograph taken with the former President and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. (Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We will miss them both dearly, but take solace knowing they are reunited once again and will remain forever in our hearts,” Biden said. “To the entire Carter family, we send our gratitude for sharing them with America and the world. To their staff – from the earliest days to the final ones – we have no doubt that you will continue to do the good works that carry on their legacy.
“And to all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility. He showed that we are great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong,” Biden added.
Vice President Kamala Harris called Carter’s life “a testament to the power of service,” whether it was as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, Governor of Georgia or President of the United States.
“I had the privilege of knowing President Carter for years. I will always remember his kindness, wisdom, and profound grace. His life and legacy continue to inspire me — and will inspire generations to come. Our world is a better place because of President Carter,” she added. “Doug and I send our love and prayers to the Carter family.” source