Jimmy Carter, Former U.S. President, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies At 100

Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president, who was also the nation's oldest living president, died on Sunday at age 100.

Prior to his life in politics, Carter was a peanut farmer and a U.S. Navy lieutenant. He was elected governor of Georgia in 1970 and U.S. president in 1976.

James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, and was the eldest son of Bessie Lillian Carter and James Earl Carter Sr.

Carter had three younger siblings: Gloria Spann, Ruth Stapleton and Billy Carter.

Carter attended Plains High School in 1941 and briefly studied engineering at Georgia Southwestern College before transferring to the Naval ROTC program at Georgia Institute of Technology. Carter earned admission to the Naval Academy in 1943 and graduated in the top 10 percent of his class.

Carter was assigned to serve on the USS Wyoming in 1946. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1952 before resigning in 1953 to manage his family farm following the death of his father.

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Carter’s career in politics began when he served as chairman of the Sumter County Board of Education in the early 1960s. Within eight years, Carter became governor of Georgia, where he championed government efficiency, ecology and continued desegregation in the South.

Carter defeated incumbent Republican Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. presidential election and remains the last Democrat to win the majority of the Southern states in the general election.

During his one term as president, Carter created 8 million jobs and cut the budget deficit despite near-record inflation and interest rates. He established the Department of Education, strengthened Social Security, appointed record minority applicants to federal jobs, expanded national parks and combatted an energy crisis by proposing a plan to decrease the consumption of petroleum and increase the use of nuclear power.

In addition, Carter championed human rights, helped bring peace between Egypt and Israel, completed a nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union and improved diplomatic relations with China.

As a presidential candidate and as president, Carter also supported the LGBTQ community at a time when few public officials did. For example, in 1978, Carter urged California voters to defeat Proposition 6 (aka the Briggs Initiative), which would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in the state's public schools. Voters rejected the anti-gay and lesbian measure by more than 1 million votes.

When Carter ran for reelection in 1980, he was the first Democrat to endorse a gay rights plank in the party's platform.

A combination of domestic economic trouble, extremely high inflation and a hostage situation at the U.S. embassy in Iran weighed on Carter’s popularity among the U.S. electorate, and he was defeated by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election.

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Following his stint in the White House, Carter focused his efforts on championing human rights causes around the world. Carter and his wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982 with the goal of alleviating human suffering and advancing human rights initiatives. Over the years, the Carter Center has promoted and supported global democratic elections and worked to reduce and treat the spread of disease in impoverished regions. Carter was also well-known for his volunteer work supporting Habitat for Humanity.

Twenty years after he left office, Carter earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts in peace, democracy, human rights, and social and economic development.

Carter is the author of 30 books, including the 2006 New York Times Best Seller “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” Carter’s passion for music was portrayed in the 2020 documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.”

Carter is survived by his children Amy, Jack, Donnel and James Carter. His wife Rosalynn died on Nov. 19, 2023 at 96.

Contributors: Elizabeth Balboa, Anthony Noto
Photo: Jimmy Carter in 1977, Photo by Bernard Gotfyd, courtesy Library of Congress