Jimmy Carter: Model and Inspiration

Former President Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024. Previously, his family reported he had fulfilled a desire to live long enough to cast an absentee ballot for a woman of color to become an American president. It should not surprise us that it was important to Carter that he take this personal action. As president he attempted to establish the foundation for a lasting peace in the Middle East and he enforced the Voting Rights Act. His life on the national and global stage had a parallel that all of us can emulate. He was dedicated to ending poverty by working with and serving the poor, and he promoted ending racism by addressing segregation in his daily life.

Jimmy Carter was a politician who talked honestly about what he believed was best for America. He was a master politician who overcame what appeared to be impossible odds to advance his political career. His secret was to promote and live a life based on integrity, a belief in the equality of all human beings. As both governor and president, he took leadership of America seriously, rather than solely focusing on advancing his political career. As a former president, he supported and promoted what he believed both presidents and citizens should do.

In his January 1977 presidential inaugural address, he repeated a statement he made in his 1971 inaugural address as governor of Georgia, “The time for racial discrimination is over.” But this time he added, “No poor rural white 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.”

As president, Carter worked to make his civil rights agenda a reality. In 1979, he established the Department of Education. On the occasion of signing the legislation, he said “Education is our most important national investment. Every citizen has a vital, personal stake in this investment. Our ability to advance both economically and technologically, our country’s entire intellectual and cultural life depend on the success of our great educational enterprise” (US President, Georgia native Jimmy Carter’s educational legacy | Macon Telegraph).

His commitment to having the Federal Government support the needs of non-whites and poor Americans was based on his understanding that all people are “created equal.” It meant ending racism and creating a global community based on human rights.

In the first year of his presidency, Carter addressed the graduating class at Notre Dame University with a negative critique of American foreign policy. He proposed abandoning the strategies of military force and covert action. Rather, he called for a foreign policy based on promoting human rights and shared humane purposes. He believed that American support for international human rights is the best way to counteract the goals and power of oppressive governments.

In 2020, when African American George Floyd died in Minneapolis, due to a white policeman pinning him on the ground, Carter responded with a public statement. At the age of 95, he reflected, “As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans” (Former President Jimmy Carter’s statement on the death of George Floyd | CNN Politics).

His 2020 statement ends with a challenge that deserves our response: “In my 1971 inaugural address as Georgia’s governor, I said: ‘The time for racial discrimination is over.’ With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later. Dehumanizing people debases us all; humanity is beautifully and almost infinitely diverse. The bonds of our common humanity must overcome the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

“Since leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and I have strived to advance human rights in countries around the world. In this quest, we have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence. People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy. We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”

A lot has happened since Carter wrote those words in 2020. As Americans grieve Jimmy Carter’s death, we are also grieving that ending racism seems more difficult to achieve than it did in 1971, or 1977, or even 2020 when Carter said, “The time for racial discrimination is over.” There are voices in social media, at school board and local government meetings, and in national politics who feel empowered to promote a future for America that is not “a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”

In 2020, the final sentence in his statement was, “We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this.” This is a haunting statement. Today there are vocal citizens who do not share Carter’s vision of equality. Some of them even proclaim that America is for white people. Others nominate, promote, and vote for a candidate who makes disparaging comments about people who are different from him. Today, the challenge is for each of us to become better than we are and, equally important, to encourage all Americans to be better.

Carter’s words and actions as president are inspiring. Beyond that, it is his interactions with the people in Plains, Georgia, and the members of the Plains Baptist Church that speak to all Americans who long for the day when racism is no more. Carter’s family had attended the church for three generations. In 1965, he broke with the racist beliefs of the white people in the town and church. He argued against and then voted against a resolution to ban African Americans from attending the church. The vote was 54 to 6 in favor of the banning. As Carter later explained, he was not very persuasive. The “no” votes were his own, four members of his family, and one other person.

Carter was not deterred. He continued to engage his neighbors and friends. In the fall of 1976, the church's ban was challenged by an African American man, Rev. Clennon King. The twelve members of the Board of Deacons met secretly in late October and voted to uphold the ban. On Sunday, November 14, at a meeting where all the members could vote, there were 120 votes to integrate and 66 to remain segregated. The New York Times reported, “President‐elect Carter, attending church with his family, spoke in favor” of lifting the ban. “He had apparently been instrumental in behind‐the‐scenes efforts to work out a solution to the crisis ...” (Carter's Church to Admit Blacks and Keep Minister | New York Times).

This is where President Carter is an important model and inspiration. He confronted racism as an individual just like I am an individual. I expect there will be many times in the next four years when I am tempted to think, what does it matter what I do? Why should I say something when it probably won’t make any difference anyway? Or why should I make a public protest? Or why should I seek out others to support or work with when there is little chance for immediate success? Or why should I send a donation to another candidate or organization that believes as Carter did? The answer is that Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024 and left the rest of us to continue the work to end racism.