Former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jimmy Carter died on December 29th, 2024, at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old and the longest-living president in U.S. history. Despite a single turbulent term in office from 1977 to 1981, Carter distinguished himself as an especially active former president over the last 44 years. Some of his accomplishments include the establishment of the Carter Center to support human rights and global health, publication of dozens of books, and engagement with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to broker a lasting peace.
Nuclear Engineer, Peanut Farmer, and Governor
James Earl (Jimmy) Carter Jr. was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia to parents Lillian and James Sr., who owned a successful peanut farm.[i] Carter graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and went on to work as a nuclear engineer on one of the Navy’s first nuclear submarines.[ii] Although he aspired to one day lead the Navy,[iii] he left the service to take over his family’s farm in 1953 following the sudden death of his father.[iv]
Upon returning to Plains, Carter began his political career, first serving on his county’s school board and then winning a bid for state senator in 1962. After an unsuccessful race in 1966, he won Georgia’s gubernatorial election in 1970. Stu Eizenstat, Carter’s policy advisor, described how “he ran very much on personality, on making state government honest and making it work… He campaigned ferociously, indefatigably.”[v]
Though remembered for his personal integrity, he was also a calculated politician. “He had lost [the Governor’s race] in 1966 to Lester Maddox, the avid segregationist, and he was determined to get a substantial slice of that white conservative vote,” recalled Eizenstat.[vi] His speeches on the campaign trail called for “law and order” and against welfare spending.[vii] He also limited his appearances in front of Black voters and even courted the support of known segregationists.[viii]
Upon his victory, though, he pulled a bait-and-switch. In his state inaugural address, he announced “that the time for racial discrimination is over… No poor, rural, weak or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.”This bold stance for racial equality in the segregationist South earned him national recognition. TIME Magazine ran a cover story on then-Governor Carter beneath the header “Dixie Whistles a Different Tune.”[ix]
“Jimmy Who?” “President of What?”
In 1976, Carter was an unknown entity in Washington. He shocked many – including members of his own family – with his announcement to run for president. When Carter told his mother, she reportedly responded, “president of what?”[x] Even his own hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, got in on the joke, running the headline “Jimmy Who is Running for What?”[xi]
Carter had a plan, though. The unlikely candidate began in a (then) unlikely place: the streets of Iowa.
Presidential candidates mostly ignored Iowa’s primary contests before the 1970s. Carter realized, however, that winning the primary’s first contest could provide the momentum he needed to win the nomination, as was the case for the little-known South Dakota Senator George McGovern in 1972.[xii] Carter walked the streets of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Ames, handing out fliers and shaking hands.[xiii] He established satellite offices and hired field organizers in Iowa, establishing the template for the modern primary campaign.[xiv] His relentless organizing won him the state, and eventually the nomination of the Democratic Party, upsetting and the Washington favorite Birch Bayh.[xv]
Carter went on to narrowly oust President Ford in the election of 1976. Though Ford was the incumbent candidate, it was also his first time running for the position, as the respective corruption scandals of Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon elevated Ford to the vice presidency in 1973 and then the presidency in 1974. The two candidates had similar policy stances, both advocating for smaller government and supporting progressive social causes, including the Equal Rights Amendment.[xvi] Between the two of them, though, Carter appeared to be the true Washington outsider. This outsider status was especially valuable in the period after Watergate and the Vietnam War, when trust in government had hit a record low (and has since never recovered).[xvii] Many voters, weary from the chaos, looked to Carter to turn the page.
“With President Carter’s firm hand on the helm, the ship of state will once again sail a true and steady course, all the crooks and liars and thieves who somehow got control of the government during the turmoil of the Sixties will be driven out of the temple once and for all,” wrote Hunter S. Thompson in his endorsement of Carter for Rolling Stone.[xviii]
Many voters agreed. Carter earned 297 electoral college votes to Ford’s 240 and was inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States in January 1977.
“A Crisis of Confidence”
In 1977, “Saturday Night Live” aired in its second season a sketch in which the newly inaugurated “Jimmy Carter,” portrayed by a drawling, polka-dot tie-clad Dan Ackroyd, answers a phone helpline, tending to the questions of everyday Americans. The live audience howled as Ackroyd’s Carter calmly explained to fellow citizens how to un-jam letter sorters and get through bad acid trips. (“Do you have any Allman Brothers?”)[xix]
The “Ask President Carter” skit played into the then-popular perception of Carter as a highly competent and detail-oriented man of the people, the nuclear engineer, and the peanut farmer.
This perception did not last.
Multiple oil shocks in the 1970s stifled growth while raising prices. This phenomenon puzzled economists, who coined the term “stagflation” to describe the paradoxical crisis of simultaneous hyperinflation and unemployment. Citizens looked to the White House for a solution to their economic woes, but the Carter Administration failed to present a uniform policy.
Hobart Rowan described in the Washington Post Carter’s approach as a “series of up-and-down, ad-hoc actions and juggled forecasts, most of them wrong. One day it would be tax reform; the next, tax cuts. First, zero-based budgeting and a balanced budget; then, record budget deficits.”[xx]
Carter knew he would need to re-frame perceptions of the economy if he wanted any chance of re-election in 1980. In one of his most memorable acts as president, Carter delivered the “Crisis of Confidence” speech on national television in July 1979. In the address, he claimed that America’s problems went beyond energy and economic crises – instead, they were soul-deep.
“We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation,”[xxi] Carter said.
The speech was initially lauded and led to an 11-point bump in his approval ratings.[xxii] Critics, however, viewed it unfavorably and accused the President of blaming citizens for their own problems.[xxiii] Some even dubbed it his “Malaise Speech,” a nickname that stuck. The address is now remembered as one of his weakest moments as president.[xxiv]
Despite economic woes, Carter racked up several achievements. The most notable of these was his mediation of the Camp David Accords in September 1978. This treaty built the framework for lasting peace between Egypt and Israel, two countries that had been at war four times over the prior three decades.[xxv]
Carter prioritized human rights, signing the Refugee Act into law in 1980 and resettling 207,000 refugees in the United States that year, many of them fleeing postwar Vietnam and Cambodia.[xxvi][xxvii] His Presidential Directive 30 cut off foreign aid for human rights-abusing countries, including murderous dictatorships in Argentina and Paraguay.[xxviii][xxix] Other victories included returning the Panama Canal to Panama,[xxx] and being the first sitting president to decry South African Apartheid.[xxxi]
Domestically, Carter created FEMA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Education.[xxxii] To improve productivity, root out corruption, and prevent conflicts of interest among federal employees, he signed the Civil Service, Inspector General, and Ethics Acts of 1978.[xxxiii] Carter also made Native Americans a priority, signing the Indian Child Welfare Act[xxxiv] and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.[xxxv] He was also one of the earliest presidents to take action on the environment, implementing environmentally conscious energy regulations and even installing solar panels on the White House.[xxxvi][xxxvii]
However, ahead of the election of 1980, many of these successes were overshadowed by a new all-consuming crisis. On November 4th, 1979, Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran during the revolution against the U.S.-backed Shah.[xxxviii] The Iranian students held more than fifty American diplomats hostage inside the embassy.[xxxix] A rescue mission in the spring of 1980 failed, leaving eight service members dead,[xl] and Americans began to lose faith that Carter could get the hostages back home.
Support for Carter buckled under the weight of the ongoing hostage crisis as well as the toll of stagflation. On election night, he lost to California Governor Ronald Reagan in a landslide, winning a mere 49 electoral votes.[xli] In his concession speech, Carter said, “I’ve wanted to serve as president because I love this country and because I love the people of this Nation. Finally, let me say that I am disappointed tonight, but I have not lost either love.”[xlii]
The hostages were released on the day of Reagan’s inauguration after 444 days of captivity. Last year, the New York Times revealed that a Reagan supporter, in hopes of securing himself a cabinet position, encouraged Middle Eastern leaders to delay the hostages’ release in hopes of improving Reagan’s chances.[xliii]
“Waging Peace”
Despite the ignominious end to his presidency, Carter had a momentous post-presidency. While many previous “one-termers” took a step back from political life, Carter immersed himself in humanitarian efforts and community service.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded the Carter Center in 1982 with the main goals of “waging peace” around the world and improving global public health.[xliv] One of the Center’s missions has been combatting “neglected” infectious diseases.[xlv] Its efforts have nearly eradicated the Guinea Worm, a parasite that once plagued millions, and made huge gains toward eliminating river blindness.[xlvi][xlvii] The Center’s diplomatic achievements include observing 125 elections across 40 countries[xlviii] and facilitating in peace negotiations across the world through its conflict resolution program.[xlix]
All these efforts earned Carter the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, an honor that has been bestowed upon only four U.S. presidents.[l] He is the only one to receive this award after leaving office. In his acceptance speech, he took the opportunity to spread a pacifist message.
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil,” he said in his lecture, “but no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”[li]
One of Carter’s favorite organizations was Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing for low-income families. The Carter Center’s official partnership with the organization led to the building or renovation of nearly 4,500 homes across 14 countries.[lii] He continued to volunteer for the organization well into his nineties, to the admiration (and occasional amusement) of others. A video of him sporting a black eye and red bandana while handling a power drill one day after receiving medical attention for a fall in his home went viral in 2019.[liii]
Carter also wrote dozens of books, reflecting his wide array of interests and hobbies. Some highlights include “The Art of the Fishing Fly,” “Faith: A Journey for All,” and a children’s book called “The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer,” for which his daughter, Amy, provided the illustrations.[liv]
As a civilian, Carter continued his efforts to bring together Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a lasting peace. In Carter’s memoir “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid,” he issued a sharp critique of the Israeli leadership, labeling the continued occupation of Palestinian lands in harsher terms than most other U.S. policy leaders before him had dared.[lv] He also condemned Israel’s continued encroachment in the West Bank, the mass imprisonment of Palestinian civilians, and interference in the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2004, and 2006 (which the Carter Center was tasked with observing).[lvi]
“Israeli leaders have embarked on a series of unilateral decisions, bypassing both Washington and the Palestinians.”[lvii] Carter wrote. “Utilizing their political and military dominance, they are imposing a system of partial withdrawal, encapsulation, and apartheid on the Muslim and Christian citizens of the occupied territories.”[lviii]
Underlying Carter’s focus on the conflict was conviction as a devout Baptist that one day the lands he considered sacred would no longer be in a constant state of violence.
“The spilled blood in the Holy Land still cries out to God—an anguished cry for peace,”[lix] he wrote.
Carter never lived to see this peace he so longed for.
We close the century of Carter as a nation more divided than ever, and as a world that is quicker to conflict than it is to resolution. Nevertheless, Carter refused to give up on the world’s most intractable issues, “waging peace” with energy and relentlessness into his old age. In doing this, he never stopped appealing to our common humanity. A spirit like his can never be replaced, but much can still be learned from its example.
Jimmy Carter, the humble peanut farmer-turned-cunning politician and tireless humanitarian, is mourned by his four children (Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy), 11 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and millions of Americans.[lx]
Photography was provided at the courtesy of the Carter Center. A special thanks to Matt Plaus, Stelio Louka, and Tyler Engler for their editorial support with this piece.
[i] “Jimmy Carter: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center,” October 4, 2016, https://millercenter.org/president/carter/life-before-the-presidency.
[ii] “Lieutenant James Earl Carter Jr., USN,” accessed December 30, 2024, http://public1.nhhcaws.local/browse-by-topic/people/presidents/carter.html.
[iii] Ben Bradford, “Ordinary Man,” Landslide (NPR, March 21, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/03/20/1230188425/landslide-ordinary-man.
[iv] “Lieutenant James Earl Carter Jr., USN.”
[v] Bradford, “Ordinary Man.”
[vi] Bradford.
[vii] Bradford.
[viii] Christopher Alston, “President Jimmy Carter’s Legacy on Race,” WABE, February 21, 2023, https://www.wabe.org/president-jimmy-carters-legacy-on-race/.
[ix] TIME, “The Nation: New Day A’Coming in the South,” TIME, May 31, 1971, https://time.com/archive/6877505/the-nation-new-day-acoming-in-the-south/.
[x] Bradford, Ben, “Ordinary Man,” Landslide (NPR, March 21, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/03/20/1230188425/landslide-ordinary-man.
[xi] Bookman, Jay, “The Most Important Thing Jimmy Carter Did for Georgia,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, n.d., sec. Opinion.
[xii] Bradford, “Ordinary Man.”
[xiii] Jonathan Alter, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, First Simon&Schuster hardcover edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020).
[xiv] Bradford, “Ordinary Man.”
[xv] Bradford.
[xvi] Ben Bradford, “Outsider,” Landslide (NPR, March 21, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/03/20/1230188425/landslide-ordinary-man.
[xvii] Gallup Inc, “Trust in Government,” Gallup.com, September 26, 2007, https://news.gallup.com/poll/5392/Trust-Government.aspx.
[xviii] Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’76,” Rolling Stone (blog), June 3, 1976, https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/fear-and-loathing-on-the-campaign-trail-76-46121/.
[xix] Ask President Carter – SNL, 1977, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-68iTvhWNB0.
[xx] Hobart Rowen et al., “Lesson: Carter’s Mistakes,” Washington Post, March 16, 1980, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1980/03/16/lesson-carters-mistakes/a6951f4b-4f0b-43e7-9df1-1e2b34c2dc66/.
[xxi] “Crisis of Confidence | American Experience | PBS,” accessed December 30, 2024, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carter-crisis/.
[xxii] Gal Beckerman, “What Made Jimmy Carter Such a Strange President,” The Atlantic (blog), December 30, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/jimmy-carter-malaise-morality-100/681185/.
[xxiii] Ron Lieber, “Jimmy Carter Was Right About Materialism but, Alas, Wrong About Us,” The New York Times, December 30, 2024, sec. Your Money, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/your-money/jimmy-carter-legacy-materialism.html.
[xxiv] Beckerman, “What Made Jimmy Carter Such a Strange President.”
[xxv] “Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations – Office of the Historian,” accessed December 31, 2024, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/camp-david.
[xxvi] “Refugee Act of 1980,” National Archives Foundation, accessed January 4, 2025, https://archivesfoundation.org/documents/refugee-act-1980/.
[xxvii] Samantha Power, “Opinion | Samantha Power: The Conscience of Jimmy Carter,” The New York Times, December 30, 2024, sec. Opinion, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/opinion/samantha-power-jimmy-carter.html.
[xxviii] Office of the Historian, “Presidential Directive/NSC–301,” accessed January 1, 2025, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v02/d119.
[xxix] Power, “Opinion | Samantha Power.”
[xxx] Bureau of Public Affairs Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, “Panama Canal Treaty of 1977” (Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs.), accessed December 30, 2024, https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/wha/rlnks/11936.htm.
[xxxi] Power, “Opinion | Samantha Power.”
[xxxii] Don Moynihan, “Jimmy Carter as Public Manager,” Substack newsletter, Can We Still Govern? (blog), December 29, 2024, https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/jimmy-carter-as-public-manager?publication_id=492324&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=3r9eo9&utm_medium=email.
[xxxiii] Moynihan.
[xxxiv] James [D-SD Sen. Abourezk, “S.1214 – 95th Congress (1977-1978): Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978,” legislation, November 8, 1978, 1977-04-01, https://www.congress.gov/bill/95th-congress/senate-bill/1214.
[xxxv] “Native Perspectives on the 40th Anniversary of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act | Smithsonian Voices | National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian Magazine,” accessed December 30, 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2018/11/30/native-perspectives-american-indian-religious-freedom-act/.
[xxxvi] “Jimmy Carter’s Energy Policy Legacy,” Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA | CGEP, accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/jimmy-carters-energy-policy-legacy/.
[xxxvii] “The Forgotten Story of Jimmy Carter’s White House Solar Panels » Yale Climate Connections,” accessed December 31, 2024, https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/02/the-forgotten-story-of-jimmy-carters-white-house-solar-panels/.
[xxxviii] “Operation Eagle Claw | ASOMF,” March 7, 2021, https://www.asomf.org/operation-eagle-claw/.
[xxxix] “The Iranian Hostage Crisis – Short History – Department History – Office of the Historian,” accessed December 30, 2024, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/iraniancrises.
[xl] “Operation Eagle Claw | ASOMF.”
[xli] “Presidential Election of 1980 – 270toWin,” 270toWin.com, accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.270towin.com/1980_Election/.
[xlii] “Remarks on the Outcome of the 1980 Presidential Election | The American Presidency Project,” accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-outcome-the-1980-presidential-election.
[xliii] Peter Baker, “A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-Election,” The New York Times, March 18, 2023, sec. U.S., https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html.
[xliv] “The Carter Center – Waging Peace. Fighting Disease.,” The Carter Center, accessed December 30, 2024, https://www.cartercenter.org/index.html.
[xlv] Jason Beaubien, “Jimmy Carter Took on the Awful Guinea Worm When No One Else Would — and He Triumphed,” NPR, December 29, 2024, sec. Goats and Soda, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/23/1158358366/jimmy-carter-took-on-the-awful-guinea-worm-when-no-one-else-would-and-he-triumph.
[xlvi] Charles Schmidt, “Jimmy Carter, Who Has Died at Age 100, Spared Millions of People from Guinea Worm, a Debilitating Parasite,” Scientific American, accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/jimmy-carter-who-died-at-age-100-spared-millions-of-people-from-guinea-worm/.
[xlvii] Power, “Opinion | Samantha Power.”
[xlviii] “Carter Center Accomplishments,” The Carter Center, accessed January 1, 2025, https://www.cartercenter.org/about/accomplishments.html.
[xlix] “Conflict Resolution Program,” The Carter Center, accessed January 1, 2025, https://www.cartercenter.org/peace/conflict_resolution/index.html.
[l] “This Day in History: Four Presidents – and a VP – Received the Nobel Peace Prize,” whitehouse.gov, December 10, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/12/10/day-history-four-presidents-and-vp-received-nobel-peace-prize.
[li] “2002 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture by Jimmy Carter,” The Carter Center, accessed January 1, 2025, https://www.cartercenter.org/news/documents/doc1233.html.
[lii] “Habitat for Humanity Mourns the Death of Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter | Habitat for Humanity,” accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.habitat.org/newsroom/2024/habitat-humanity-mourns-death-former-us-president-jimmy-carter.
[liii] Aris Folley, “Jimmy Carter Back to Building Homes for Habitat for Humanity One Day after Fall,” Text, The Hill (blog), October 7, 2019, https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/464705-jimmy-carter-back-to-building-homes-for-habitat-for-humanity/.
[liv] “The Little Baby Snoogle- Fleejer | University of Arkansas Press,” accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.uapress.com/product/the-little-baby-snoogle-fleejer/.
[lv] Jimmy Carter, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006).
[lvi] Carter.
[lvii] Carter.
[lviii] Carter.
[lix] Carter.
[lx] “Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Passes Away at 100,” The Carter Center, accessed December 29, 2024, https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2024/statement-on-president-jimmy-carter-122924.html.