On December 29, 2024, at age 100, Jimmy Carter died, leaving behind a powerful legacy that can be summarized by the Carter Foundation’s motto: “Waging Peace . . . Building Hope.” Those goals shaped Jimmy Carter’s long life—and he credited Jesus with empowering his commitment to peace and hope. In Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith (Three Rivers Press), Carter wrote, “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
Jimmy Carter showed us what faith looks like when it’s lived in a life of public service. Although he thought of himself as a dyed-in-the-wool evangelical, his example is an inspiration to all Christians. “To me,” he wrote in Faith: A Journey for All (Simon & Schuster), “Jesus Christ is not an object to be worshipped but a person and a constant companion.” This intimate faith was always at the forefront of Carter’s life, guiding his actions as much when he was president of the United States as it did before and after his time in office.
Most Americans, however, did not consider him to be a strong or successful leader during his one-term presidency (from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981). His time in office was overshadowed by an energy crisis, war in Afghanistan, rising inflation, and the hostage situation in Iran. By the time his first term ended, many voters were disenchanted with him.
Today, however, we recognize Carter’s lifelong integrity and courage. His work since he left the Oval Office shines with his dedication to both human rights and his faith. His life reminds us what God requires of us: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, which Carter quoted at his inaugural address).
Life before the presidency
Born on October 1, 1924, Carter grew up on his parents’ peanut farm near Plains, Georgia, the oldest of four children. His parents were strict, but they were also proud of their son as he developed into an enterprising young man. His father paid him for the work he did on the farm, and by the time he was 13, Carter had saved enough to buy five houses—at the Depression’s rock-bottom prices—which he then rented to area families who needed cheap housing. Meanwhile, Carter attended the public school in Plains. He loved to read, and his mother encouraged him to do so.
His mother, Lillian Carter, had trained as a nurse, and her example helped shape Carter’s lifelong concern for other human beings. At the time, segregation was a rigid barrier, but Mrs. Carter nevertheless used her nursing experience to teach Black women how to care for their own bodies and raise healthy children.
Jimmy Carter grew up playing with Black children. Geneva Idlette, a Black woman who worked on the Carter farm when Carter was a boy, remembers a time when a teenage Carter scolded a white congregation. “He was speaking in the pulpit, so he looked out and didn’t see any Blacks out there, so Jimmy Carter puts his Bible under his arm and he walks out. And said, ‘When y’all get it integrated, I’ll come back,’ ” she said.
After graduating from high school, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Eventually, in 1946, he earned a bachelor of science degree from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
The year before he graduated, while on leave from Annapolis, he began dating a friend of his sister’s. Her name was Rosalynn Smith, and she was only 17 years old when Carter fell in love with her. He quickly proposed marriage; she refused. During his final semester at Annapolis, Rosalynn visited him, and he proposed again. This time, she accepted, and they married the same summer Carter graduated.
While the Carters were starting their family—they would eventually have three sons and a daughter—Jimmy Carter became a submariner. He served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rose to the rank of lieutenant. On one occasion, when his submarine was moored in Bermuda, he and his crew received a party invitation from the island’s officials. The invitation only included white crewmembers, while the Black men on board were excluded. Carter refused to attend the party, and thanks to his influence, everyone on the submarine also boycotted it.
In 1953, Carter’s father died from cancer. The family farm was in trouble. Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia to take over the farm.
Carter’s first year as a peanut farmer was a hard one. A severe drought damaged the harvest, and the year’s net profits totaled just $187. Rosalynn had a hard time adjusting to life on the farm. And once again, Carter found himself in conflict with racism.
The Supreme Court’s landmark case declaring school segregation unconstitutional, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, took place that year. Black people across the South were rising up against centuries of oppression—and many Southern white people were not happy about it. When white businessmen organized the White Citizens’ Council to fight against desegregation, Carter was the only white man in the region who refused to join.
Jonathan Alter, who wrote one of Carter’s biographies, His Very Best (Simon & Schuster), says, “A delegation representing the council confronted Carter at his warehouse one day, with one member even offering to pay his five-dollar membership fee. Carter was so angry that he walked over to his cash register, pulled out a five-dollar bill, and declared: ‘I’ll take this and flush it down the toilet, but I am not going to join the White Citizens’ Council.’ ”
Despite these challenges, Carter built the family farm into a prosperous enterprise. At the same time, he worked to make the community around Plains, Georgia a better place for all its members. He served on several civic boards, and in 1955, he successfully ran for the Sumter County Board of Education.
A few years later, when a seat in the Georgia State Senate opened up, Carter ran for the office—and ultimately won the election. During his two terms in the state senate, he helped get rid of laws designed to discourage Black Americans from voting.
In 1966, Carter planned to run for United States Congress. Instead, however, he decided to challenge Lester Maddox in the run for Georgia governor. Maddox was an ultraconservative and a firm believer in segregation. Carter lost the election, but almost immediately he began to campaign for the 1970 gubernatorial election. This time, Carter won, and at his inauguration, he called for the end of segregation.
As governor of Georgia, Carter also promoted environmental protection and greater educational funding. He hired both women and Black people as staff members. “I personally feel the Bible says all people are equal in the eyes of God,” he said years later.
In December 1974, Carter announced his run for president. At the 1976 Democratic Convention, he won the primary, and on November 2, 1976, by a narrow margin, he was elected president.
Jimmy Carter’s presidency
Despite his low public approval scores, Jimmy Carter’s presidency had significant achievements, both around the world and at home in the United States. His administration was responsible for the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal treaties, a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union; it also inaugurated diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Among his administration’s domestic accomplishments was the establishment of the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, as well as environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
As president, Carter spoke openly about his faith. He introduced evangelical terms such as born again into politics—but evangelicals quickly deserted him, thanks to his progressive policies. Randall Balmer, who wrote a biography of Carter titled Redeemer (Basic Books), says that for white evangelicals, the issue that drove them away from Carter—and motivated them to become a political force—was segregation. When the federal government refused to grant tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University and other colleges still practicing racial discrimination, white evangelical leaders blamed Carter.
Meanwhile, Carter was advocating for universal health care, cuts in military spending, and increased taxes on the rich. In an interview for the PBS special, American Experience: Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Carter’s vice president, recalls that when Carter’s advisers encouraged him to be more conservative in order to rebuild his popularity. “He didn’t want to hear that. He didn’t want to think that way and he didn’t want his staff to think that way. He wanted to know what’s right,” he says.
In one of his books, Why Not the Best (University of Arkansas Press), Carter explained that he had not gone to Washington to “get along or negotiate.” In a reference to Christ’s actions in the Gospel of Matthew, Carter said he wanted to throw the “moneychangers” out of politics’ “temple.” He wanted, he wrote, to bring back “integrity and competence” to the federal government.
Carter paid a price for his integrity. White evangelicals—who, during the 19th century, had championed abolition, prison reform, and women’s rights—now aligned themselves with the more conservative Republican party. In the 1980 presidential election, they voted Carter out of office, electing Ronald Reagan in his place.
A life of humanitarianism
After leaving office, Carter remained active as a public servant. He served as a freelance ambassador for international missions, and he advised multiple presidents on Middle Eastern and human rights issues. He also taught Sunday school for many decades, until 2020. Perhaps his biggest achievement, however, was the Carter Center.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded the Center in 1980, and today, the nonprofit organization continues to work around the globe to resolve conflicts, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease. In Faith: A Journey for All, Carter wrote that when he and Rosalynn decided to build the Center, they agreed on a few basic principles: “That it would be nonpartisan, not afraid to risk failure on projects that were worthwhile, and eager to let local people take credit for any successes.” Over the years, Carter and the Carter Center took part in conflict mediation in 13 regions of the world, including North Korea (1994), Sudan and Uganda (1995, 1999), and the Near East (2003–present). Under Carter’s leadership, the Center also sent 115 missions to observe and ensure fair elections in 40 nations around the world.
The Carters used their foundation to build a better world for all people. Thanks to their dedication, thousands of African villages now have health-care delivery systems; international standards for human rights are stronger; many mental health services have improved, while the stigma against people with mental illnesses has diminished; and new public health approaches are controlling diseases in Africa and Latin America (including Guinea worm disease, which has been reduced by 99.99 percent, making it likely to be the first human disease since smallpox to be completely eradicated).
In 1984, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter led a group of Habitat for Humanity volunteers, working alongside 19 families in need of housing, to renovate an apartment building in New York City. Each year after that, the Carters spent a week somewhere in the world, working with hammers and saws to create housing for people in need. They continued to volunteer with Habitat until 2020, when their advancing age forced them to retire from this particular activity. The Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter Work Project continues to be an annual Habitat event, even without the Carters’ physical presence.
In 2002, the Nobel Committee honored Carter’s long career in public service. The Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
The Carters continued their work together until they were in their 90s. Finally, however, the time came for them to rest; both Carters entered hospice in 2023. Later that year, after 77 years of loving marriage, Rosalynn Carter died. “The best thing I ever had happen in my life was when she said she’d marry me,” Carter said.
Jimmy Carter’s legacy
Jimmy Carter may not have been regarded as a strong president while he was in office, but historians today recognize that the task he faced as president was enormous. Richard Nixon’s actions and resignation had shaken the United States, and as president, Carter had to deal with the aftermath. His other challenges included an energy crisis, Soviet aggression, conflict in the Near East, and, perhaps most of all, Americans’ new mistrust of politicians. Despite all that, Carter remained true to his ideals. Today, political historians praise him for shaping the way America sees its role in world affairs. He revived the practice of presidential mediation in disputes between other nations, and he insisted that the United States lead the world in protecting human rights.
But if many Americans doubted him while he was in office, they came to love him in the years since then. Few former presidents have been as universally admired for their integrity and commitment to humanity as Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s voice remains in the world in the form of the 32 books he wrote. The example of his long and loving life also stays with us, and his message to us today is as urgent and powerful as ever. “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices,” he said in his Nobel lecture. “To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.”
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