39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and Founder of The Carter Center

Jimmy Carter | Biography

Longest-living President of The United States

• By Ojasbi
• Update : September 14, 2021

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Jimmy Carter was the 39th US President, honored with The Nobel Peace in 2002.

Who Is Jimmy Carter? 

Jimmy Carter is an American former politician, entrepreneur, and altruist. He was designated as the 39th president of the USA from 1977 to 1981. He served as a Georgia State senator (1963 to 1967) and as Georgia’s 76th governor (1971 to 1975), both as a Democrat. Carter has stayed active in political and social causes after leaving the presidency. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his role in co-founding The Carter Center.

Early Life and Education

Jimmy Carter, whose full name is James Earl Carter Jr., was born on 1 October 1924, in Plains, Georgia, United States. He attended Plains High School, which was an all-white school. In 1946, after finishing his engineering studies at Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Institute of Technology, Carter stepped over to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. 

His father, James Sr., was a farmer who owned a tiny plot of the farm and a warehouse. However, on the other hand, his mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, was a nurse practitioner who breached racial barriers to provide health coverage to women of color. Carter was a curious boy who avoided strife as a kid and idealized the outlay time for dad-son games and hobbies. 

Additionally, he was dispatched to Schenectady, where he researched reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College and was trained as the senior member for the pre-commissioning unit of the second nuclear submarine.

Career

Navy

Carter enrolled in the fiercely regulated Naval Academy in the United States, which recruited him to begin his education in the summer of 1943. In contrast to the academy’s culture of aggressive hazing of newcomers, he was a good student who was reserved. Carter was commissioned as an ensign after graduating 60th out of 820 midshipmen in 1946 with a bachelor of science degree.

Carter was sent off to toil for submarines by the Navy, and like more or less every individual working in the military, he too had to travel a lot throughout the early years of his career. He relocated to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after completing a drill program in Norfolk, Virginia, where he worked on the USS Pomfret as an electronics officer. Similarly, in 1952, Carter was tasked alongside Admiral Hyman Rickover on designing a nuclear submarine program. He became thoroughly impressed by the talented and highly rigorous Admiral, whom he claims seemed to have the most significant influence on his growth. “I believe Rickover had the greatest impact on my life, second to my father,” he said. 

Rising in Georgia

He retired from his naval commission and settled in Georgia with his family after his father died in 1953. Carter carried on with his father’s farms and started operating the Warehouse with the support of his wife. His political career rose to prominence almost inevitably because of his service on county councils, monitoring schools, the library, and hospital jurisdictions. It made him win an election on the Sumter County Board of Education in 1955, subsequently becoming the chairperson.

Carter ran for governor in 1966 by momentarily contemplating a quest for the United States House of Representatives. He vehemently opposed busing to incorporate public schools, resisted public appearances with Black leaders, and deliberately wooed the vote of a handful of well-known white supremacists. He ousted Carl Sanders for governor of Georgia in 1970.

He gradually adapted to the progressive principles he had advocated initially in his career upon being elected governor. He called for an end to prejudice in general, raised the percentage of minority officials in state government by 25%, and campaigned for education and justice reform.

While running for governor of Georgia, he marked out among all the younger generation of southern governors by advocating and addressing environmental issues, good governance, and the elimination of racial barriers.

President

Carter, who had been building momentum, paid particular attention to the mainstream political dynamics of the 1970s. Carter realized the Democrats required a pragmatic face to seize the presidency in 1976 after Republican Richard Nixon won in the 1972 presidential election. Carter made a point of saying that the next president had to be a political opportunist. And, to his detriment, he was undoubtedly the least certainly well-known of the ten presidential candidates in 1976. Nevertheless, Carter’s transparency benefited him well throughout growing tensions with mainstream politicians.

On 12 December 1974, he announced his run for President of the United States; he was declared as President of the United States on 20 January 1977. The Panama Canal Treaties, the Camp could Accords, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, the SALT II Treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of US diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China were his administration’s significant policy milestones. In addition, he battled for human rights across the world.

He introduced a strategic energy policy and deregulated domestic petroleum prices to stimulate the economy to combat environmental catastrophe. He pressed for government transparency by transforming the bureaucracy and liberalizing the trucking and airline industries. 

Once operating as a Georgia banker in the summer of 1977, Bert Lance, the Office of Management and Budget representative and one of Carter’s former confidants, was convicted of money laundering. As Carter remained by Lance, many criticized his so-called moral qualms. Moreover, the populace’s confidence in Carter’s leadership potential had collapsed to an all-time low. 

Awards and Books

Throughout his career, Carter has been nominated for and won several ‘Grammy Awards.’ In 2019, 2016, and 2007, he won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album (includes poetry, audiobooks, & storytelling). Likewise, in 2002, he was jointly awarded ‘The Nobel Peace’ for his decades of a cumulative process to seek diplomatic solutions to foreign conflicts, advancing human rights and democracy, and nurturing economic and social development.

Carter has also published 32 novels, many of whom have recently undergone revised editions. ‘Why Not the Best?’, ‘A Government as Good as Its People’, ‘Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President’, ‘Negotiation: The Alternative to Hostility’, ‘The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East’, ‘Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life’, written with Rosalynn Carter,’ An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections’, ‘Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age’, ‘Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation’, ‘Always a Reckoning, and other Poems’, ‘The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, illustrated by Amy Carter’, ‘Living Faith’, ‘Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith’, ‘The Virtues of Aging’, ‘An Hour before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood’, ‘Christmas in Plains: Memories’, ‘The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture’, ‘The Hornet’s Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War’, ‘Sharing Good Times’, ‘Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis’, ‘Palestine Peace Not Apartheid’, ‘Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope’, ‘A Remarkable Mother’, ‘We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work’, ‘White House Diary’, ‘Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President’ as general editor, ‘NIV Lessons from the Life Bible: Personal Reflections with Jimmy Carter’, ‘A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power’, ‘The Paintings of Jimmy Carter’, ‘A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety’, ‘The Craftsmanship of Jimmy Carter’, and ‘Faith: A Journey for All’ are his works as an author.

Personal Life 

While on leave during the summers of 1946, Carter got back in touch with Rosalynn Smith, a girl he had known since childhood. They tied the knot in June 1946. They have four children together: Amy, Jack, Donnel, and James Carter. Their three boys were all grown up by the time he became president in 1977, but his youngest child, Amy, spent some time at the White House.

Diagnosed With Cancer

Carter was diagnosed with cancer while undergoing surgery to extract a tumor from his liver on 12 August 2015. A week later, he held a press conference on 20 August to announce how doctors had diagnosed melanoma in “four very small spots” on his brain. He clarified he would begin radiation therapy the next day and have to “significantly” overhaul his hectic schedule. “Whatever comes, I’m completely at ease,” Carter said, emphasizing that he had already enjoyed a “beautiful time.” “Now I believe it is in God’s hands.”

Did You Know?

• At 94 years and 172 days old, Carter surpassed George H. W. Bush as the longest-living president of the United States on 21 March 2019.