Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and 76th governor of Georgia, died on December 29, 2024 at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old.
His lifelong career stretched from a peanut farm in rural Georgia to the White House to the international stage. From farm boy to often-criticized president to respected champion of democracy and human rights, the soft-spoken Carter was known throughout his life for his tireless work ethic and unwavering personal conviction.
Don't miss HISTORY Remembers President Jimmy Carter Wednesday, January 1 at 10/9c on The HISTORY® Channel. Available to stream the next day on January 3.
Family Farm, Early Naval and Political Career
James Earl Carter, Jr. was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. When he was four, his family moved to his father’s peanut farm in nearby Archery. There, the Carters lived self-sufficiently without electricity or running water. Jimmy, as he was nicknamed, would live on his father’s land until he went to college in 1941.
Studious and quiet, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and married Rosalynn Smith soon after. The couple traveled around the country during his various naval deployments. During his time in the U.S. Navy, Carter became an officer, served aboard a Naval submarine and assisted with the cleanup of a nuclear reactor in Canada, an experience he later credited with informing his anti-nuclear stance.
In 1953, his naval career ended with the death of his father and he headed home to Georgia to oversee his father’s farm. He followed his state legislator father’s footsteps in another regard when he decided to run for Georgia state senate in 1962. Though he initially lost, he contested the results after learning a local political boss had pressured voters at the polls and thrown away some votes. The election results were thrown out and Carter became a Democratic state senator.
Term as Georgia Governor
He rose in the state Democratic party and was re-elected in 1964. After losing a contentious 1966 gubernatorial bid, he won in 1970 after running a campaign that painted him as a conservative Democrat.
Carter’s gubernatorial term focused on an ambitious consolidation of state government. He spearheaded criminal justice reform and bolstered education. He spoke out publicly against racism, condemning it in his inaugural address, and made a point of hiring Black cabinet members and appointing Black judges.
Since the state constitution prohibited consecutive gubernatorial terms, he didn’t need to run for re-election. Instead, he turned his attention to the national stage.
Though he was considered an obscure outsider, his very unfamiliarity carried a unique appeal to voters in the wake of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon’s resignation and the Vietnam War. Carter also had a savvy campaign strategy: Get to voters before anyone else. Before most other candidates had even thrown their hats into the arena, he had campaigned in 37 states and traveled over 50,000 miles.
Carter's Presidency
It paid off: The dark-horse candidate won the 1976 election against incumbent Gerald Ford on a moderate, populist platform that promised justice, governmental reform, transparency and job growth. He was inaugurated on January 20, 1977.
Carter wanted to repair the divisions in American society and rebuild trust in government. But his presidency was marked by a series of crises and more distrust. His desire to reorganize the executive branch and his unwillingness to play by the unspoken rules of Washington created a contentious relationship with Congress.
His domestic victories seemed few and far between: deregulating transportation, creating the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. But he struggled to help the nation as it faced down stagnation, inflation, recession and an oil crisis. He was criticized for making a television appearance in a sweater in an attempt to encourage energy conservation.
His challenges in the international arena were fodder for his political opponents. Carter clashed with the USSR, entering into a renewed arms race after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and negotiating the unpopular SALT-II treaty. He negotiated a treaty that ceded the Panama Canal, too, a move characterized as “giving away” the canal.
Also unpopular was Carter’s planned withdrawal of troops from South Korea, which he eventually walked back in the face of intense criticism. But he was applauded for helping broker the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, a victory he saw as his most significant achievement in office.
Iran Hostage Crisis
During his presidency, Carter was seen as ineffective and inflexible. He was also unlucky, governing during a turbulent moment in American history. He faced down his biggest crisis starting November 4, 1979, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took about 70 Americans hostage. Fifty-two of them would remain in the embassy for 444 days as Carter attempted to secure their release.
At first, his approval ratings soared, but his deliberate approach to diplomacy, and a disastrous rescue attempt in 1980, earned him public scorn. It also botched his hopes for reelection, and he lost handily to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980. The hostages were released minutes after Reagan’s 1981 inauguration.
Carter's Post-Presidency Career and Impact
Many presidents retreat from the public eye after their term of office, but not Carter. During his decades as a former president, he became a champion for global charitable causes, human rights and diplomacy. He personally intervened in diplomatic disputes, including a nuclear standoff with North Korea, worked with Habitat for Humanity, and remained deeply Christian, serving as a church elder and teaching Sunday School at his home church in Georgia.
Among his most ambitious work was through the Carter Center, which he founded in 1982. Devoted to human rights issues, the center has observed over 100 elections, strengthened public health in developing countries, and all but eradicated guinea worm disease, a tropical disease that affected an estimated 3.5 million people per year in 1986. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of work on behalf of peace, democracy and human rights.
What drove the former president, who remained active to the end? “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something,” he told reporter Jim Wooten in 1995. “My faith demands that I do whatever I can, whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. It isn’t difficult.”
