President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924
in the provincial southern farming town of Plains Georgia. His father was a farmer and businessman and
his mother was a practicing nurse. As a
young child he moved with his family to a farm in the neighboring town of
Archery. Carter grew up in a thoroughly rural
community; his family’s home was without electricity and his neighbors were
predominantly African-American.
Although at the time of his birth the highly segregated and
prejudicial cultural and legal infrastructure, collectively referred to as Jim
Crow, was
everywhere in evidence, his mother, Lilian, volunteered her nursing services as
a midwife and health care provider to her black neighbors. Her generous and caring nature had a profound
influence on the young Carter. His
father was an astute businessman and expanded his farm to include 4,000 acres;
he subsequently became a peanut broker and a retailer of farm supplies and
equipment.
Carter was educated in the public schools and went to the
Georgia Institute of Technology before he enrolled in the United States Naval
Academy in Annapolis Maryland. His professional interest initially
gravitated towards science and technology.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and ultimately pursued
graduate studies in nuclear physics. It
was shortly after his graduation from the Academy that he married Rosalynn
Smith of Plains, Georgia. After earning
his doctorate in nuclear physics, Carter was chosen as an engineering officer
on the Sea Wolf – the second nuclear submarine commissioned by the U.S. Navy.
Carter’s military and professional career was suddenly cut
short by the sudden death of his father in 1953. In response to this tragedy, he resigned his
post and returned to Plains with his family - that now included three sons – to
assume the responsibilities of his father’s various family businesses including
the family farm. His father had served
in the Georgia state government as a House Representative. Carter, like his father, felt a responsibility
to serve his community and consequentially ran for a seat in the Georgia Senate. At first, it appeared that he had lost the
election, but an ill-conceived fraud was uncovered in which his opponent had
registered fictitious voters some of whom were deceased. Once the fraud was exposed, Carter became a
member of the Georgia State Senate and readily won reelection.
In 1966, Carter ran for governor of his state, but was
defeated by the overt racist and segregationist Lestor Maddox. Following this defeat, he was inspired by his
sister Ruth Carter Stapleton to reevaluate his life and had undergone a
spiritual reawakening that he later described as being, “born again.” Four years later he became Georgia’s
governor and during his acceptance speech made the exceedingly controversial and
unprecedented statement that, "the time for racial discrimination is
over."
During his term as governor, he implemented many reforms
including:
·
Increasing the percentage of African-Americans
in Georgia’s civil service by 40%
·
Equalizing the public funding for rich and poor
school districts in the state and, thereby, greatly enhancing educational
opportunities for those most in need
·
Increasing educational opportunities for
prisoners and the developmentally disabled
·
Streamlining government and eliminating wasteful
projects
·
Canceling construction projects that would be
detrimental to the natural environment.
These progressive programs and policies drew the attention
of the Democratic Party and he was chosen to be the Democratic
National Committee (DNC) Campaign Chairman for the 1974
congressional election. On account of
the disastrous presidency of Richard Nixon of the Republican Party and the uninspired administration of President
Gerald Ford, the Democrats did well in the 1974 elections.
Since the constitution of the state of Georgia barred Carter
from running for a second term as governor, he decided to run for the
Presidency of the United States. With
highly focused energy and resolve, he campaigned rigorously in the democratic
primaries throughout the country and did so well that he won the nomination on
the first ballot at the party’s convention in Madison Square Garden, New York City.
Jimmy Carter became the President of the United States. His effectiveness has been called into
question by some who felt that he was not strong enough within the arena of
foreign policy, especially in regards to how he dealt with the nation’s
adversaries. Although he was
instrumental in getting the leaders of Egypt and Israel, President Anwar El
Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin,
respectively, to agree on a plan for peace – the so-called Camp David Accords (a peace that is still in existence) - he had
the misfortune of being president during the successful Fundamentalist Islamic
Revolution in Iran in 1979 that led to the toppling of
the Iranian monarchy under the Shah.
This ultimately led to the taking of American hostages. The resulting standoff lasted for 444 days
beginning on November 4, 1979 and lasting until January 20, 1981. Coming under considerable domestic pressure,
Carter authorized a rescue mission referred to as Operation Eagle Claw that took place on April 24, 1980. This mission was an abysmal failure. It should be noted, however, that all the
hostages were ultimately returned safely and unharmed and that no war
ensued. However, Carter lost the support
of the American people and he failed in his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. The hostages were released within minutes of
Reagan’s swearing-in ceremony.
Unlike many presidents who have gone before him, Carter has
devoted his post-presidential life to the causes of peace and social justice
throughout the world. He has
accomplished this through the creation of the Carter Center. He describes this work in the following way,
“Our most dedicated investments of time and energy have been among the poorest
and most forgotten people of Guyana, East Timor, Haiti, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Niger, Liberia, Cote d’lvoire, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Ghana and other communities throughout Africa, Latin
America and the Middle East.”
The Carter Center recruits experts for the purpose of
dealing with following kinds of issues that plague many parts of the human
world:
·
Conflict Resolution
·
Human Rights
·
Mental Health
·
Agriculture
·
Disease Control and Prevention
·
Promoting Democracy.
These experts analyze complex political relationships that
underlie trouble spots around the globe and meet and exchange information
through intelligence briefings. The
Center also employs interns from some 350 different universities
worldwide. The staff of the Center works
closely with local governments and meets with those that are in need of
assistance in their homes and villages.
The Carter Center is a non-profit enterprise and depends upon individual
and corporate donations in order to function.
Carter sold the remainder of the family businesses in order to help
finance this monumental endeavor. The
site of the Center along with the Carter Presidential Library is located in
Atlanta, Georgia. As stated on the
Carter Center website (cartercenter.org), the Center’s mission is based on the
following five principles –
“The Center emphasizes action and results. Based on careful
research and analysis, it is prepared to take timely action on important and
pressing issues.
·
The Center does not duplicate the effective
efforts of others.
·
The Center addresses difficult problems and
recognizes the possibility of failure as an acceptable risk.
·
The Center is nonpartisan and acts as a neutral
in dispute resolution activities.
·
The Center believes that people can improve
their lives when provided with the necessary skills, knowledge, and access to
resources.”
It is not so much a think tank as it is an action
agency. Thanks to Carter’s careful and
judicious planning and conservative economic development, the Carter Center now
has an endowment of over 250 million dollars, and programs do not proceed until
the funding is assured. Some of the
programs that have been put into play through the Center include the fight
against diseases endemic to the tropics, especially malaria, river blindness and trachoma and improving the quality of food grains in
Africa.
In addition, considerable efforts have been made towards
conflict resolution. For this purpose,
the Center employs Dr. Doyle Powell a fellow in conflict resolution. As a result of an analysis done regarding the
nature of conflicts, it has been found that nearly all the thirty-four
conflicts studied, involving battle deaths of at least 1000 individuals, are
civil wars. In order to help settle
these conflicts nonviolently, the Center has often called upon some of its more
influential members including Desmond Tutu, Oscar Aria, the former President of
Costa Rica, and Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor.
In the course of its work, the Carter Center has monitored almost 70
elections throughout the world in the course of 18 years.
On account of these extraordinary efforts, President Jimmy
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October of 2002. The decision was based upon the following
reasons as stated by the Norwegian Nobel Committee -
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the
Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter, for his decades of untiring
effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance
democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.
During his presidency (1977-1981), Carter's mediation was a vital
contribution to the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, in itself a
great enough achievement to qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize. At a time when the cold war
between East and West was still predominant, he placed renewed emphasis on the
place of human rights in international politics.
Through his Carter Center, that celebrated its 40th
anniversary in 2022, Carter has since his presidency undertaken very extensive
and persevering conflict resolution on several continents. He has shown
outstanding commitment to human rights, and has served as an observer at
countless elections all over the world. He has worked hard on many fronts to
fight tropical diseases and to bring about growth and progress in developing
countries. Carter has thus been active in several of the problem areas that
have figured prominently in the over one hundred years of Peace Prize history.
In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of
power, Carter has stood by the principles that, "conflicts must as far as
possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation based on
international law, respect for human rights, and economic development.”
President Jimmy Carter’s devotion to the causes of peace and
social justice has certainly earned him such an honor. His tenacity is so formidable that his
efforts continue to this day.
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