Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States, and with that came a contentious one-term presidency that is often remembered alongside his humanitarian work and progressive thinking. While Carter’s humanitarian work post-presidency did help garner him a more positive public perception; many still do not know the full extent Carter committed himself to his causes, and even more do not how forward Carter was about a lot of his thinking for his time. Dying at the age of 100 last month, Carter throughout his long life, was a man led by faith and a dedication for what envisioned would better the world. He was a humanitarian first and foremost, and this dictated most of what he did, from his political career, to his presidency, to his work after the fact. An unknown peanut farmer from Georgia ascending to the rank of presidency doesn’t happen often, and with all the discourse and history surrounding Carter, I do believe as time goes on his character will be remembered more favorably.
Carter was born in rural Plains, Georgia with a home that had no electricity or running water. In his rural upbringing, and unlike his pro-segregationist father, Carter grew racially tolerant. Despite his racial tolerance, Carter in his career, had a complicated relationship with civil rights. He has said some prolific statements and has done some great actions for the civil rights movement, but he has purposely received the support of pro-segregationists for political positions. In his early political career, he was fairly quiet on segregation and racial issues, but during his time as senator he did help repeal laws that harmed African Americans from voting. Unfortunately, when he was running for Georgia governor, he intentionally piqued the support and endorsement of pro-segregationists, including segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace in an appeal to uneasy white voters. Carter actually doubled down on him not denouncing the racists later in an interview. Although he did later win the governorship with questionable ethics, in his inauguration speech as Georgia governor, he famously declared, “The time for racial discrimination is over.” Now came a new era of Carter’s racial politics, one that didn’t pander to segregationists for votes. During his time as governor, Carter appointed a large number of African Americans to state positions, and hung a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Georgia state capitol building. When Carter became president, he again appointed a record number of African Americans and other minority groups to various positions.
During his time in office, Carter signed two departments into effect, and one of them was the Department of Energy. In a time when energy and environmentalism wasn’t a popular and leading issue, Carter made it a focus of his presidency. He signed numerous acts that would address sustainable energy and environmental concerns, as well as acts that would regulate our dependency on different energy supplies like oil. He notably signed an act that protected 56 million acres of Alaskan wilderness. Carter also advocated for Americans to make sacrifices to preserve energy. Like driving less and the thermostat program he ran, which regulated the temperatures of thermostats in public buildings to reduce fuel consumption. Carter also put solar panels on the white house, which his successor, Ronald Reagen, immediately got rid of, as well as Carter’s thermostat program. During the last year of his presidency, 1981, he was made aware about the effects fossil fuels have on carbon dioxide levels, but didn’t have enough time left in his presidency to respond.
Carter’s work after his presidency is very positively held and has retroactively gained him a lot of good will. Carter viewed and arbitrated human rights and humanity as something that exists above politics after his presidency. This devotion to humanity led him in 1982 to starting the Carter Center, with a slogan that reads, “Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.” The Carter Center is a non-for-profit organization that has administered alleviation on threats to human health, democracy, governments, and political peace. The Carter Center has overseen 100 elections in 39 countries, and has been a positive figure in various international issues; like in 1994, when The Center brokered a 4 month ceasefire in the Balkans when there was ethnic violence occurring. The organization has also been crucial in fighting against diseases in second and third world countries. To counter the preventable parasitic River Blindness disease, the Carter Center has distributed over 500 million medications for it, Ivermectin, as well as health education about the disease. One of Carter Center most impactful actions was its near elimination of the Guinea Worm disease. When Carter first got involved with Guinea Worm campaigning in 1986, there were 3.6 million cases of it, and now there have only been 14 confirmed cases in 2024 (data is yet to be finalized). There has only been one disease completely eliminated, Smallpox, but Guinea Worm has the potential to join the one line list. Carter also got involved in Habitat Humanity for over 30 years. He and his wife, according to the Habitat for Humanity, have worked with 108,100 volunteers, renovating, building, or repairing more than 4,447 homes in 14 countries.
Carter left behind a legacy that redefined what a president is capable of after his term. His progressive thinking, attitude, and respect for human rights has been foundational for his title of, “Too good of a person to be president.”
