Jimmy Carter Biography

Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1924) politician and former president of the United States. He was born in Plains, near Americus, Georgia, United States. His birth name is James Earl Carter, Jr. He was part of the Democratic Party and was the thirty-ninth president of the United States in the period 1977-1981. His father, James Earl Carter, was an agricultural landowner who grew cotton and peanuts, was the traditional landowner of the southern United States. Carter always had an experience of a racist and segregationist environment, although his father treated his black workers with respect and justice. His mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, served as a nurse at the Wise Clinic in Plains.

His parents taught him the love of reading. Jimmy had to experience the economic effects of the Great Depression, as a hurried move the family had to move to a farm that his father had bought to mitigate the consequences of the Great Depression. Despite being one of the most prosperous families in the community, they lacked electricity and running water, this was narrated by Carter in his memoir An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood. He says that most of his neighbors were African-American, had a great bond with two black employees of the farm: Rachel and Jack Clark. But outside the farm interracial contact was impossible due to the rigid legal code of racial segregation.

Carter really did not understand this situation and he did not agree with the racism that was lived in his country. He always questioned the normalization and naturalization of segregationism. He was a very intelligent student, most of his formative stage was executed at Plains High School. Although at the end he had the objective of studying at the United States Naval Academy, he did not succeed because he needed the support of a senator or congressman. Then, he enrolled at the Georgia Southwestern College in Americus and the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the summer of 1943 he obtained the backing of a politician and was able to join the Naval Academy of the United States, he graduated as Ensign in 1946.

Shortly after, he married Rosalynn Smith, one of his sister’s best friends. Subsequently, he studied nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College, although he did not complete these studies. After accessing the Submarine School, he was later assigned to the Pacific and Admiral Hyman Rickover selected him to participate in the new program of nuclear submarines. In 1953, something unexpected happened: his father passed away and as a result, Carter resigned from his military positions to assume the direction of the family business of growing peanuts.

We must indicate that Jimmy Carter showed his affinity with politics since he was in school and was part of the local boards that administered some schools, hospitals, and libraries. For 1961, he was elected member of the Senate of Georgia, remaining in this position for two terms. To know more about this stage of his life we ​​can read his book Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. This chapter of his life left him many learnings because he experienced and was next to corruption, led by Joe Hurst, sheriff of Quitman County, during the voting witnessed serious abuses: the vote of deceased people and counts full of lists of people that they had not voted

Despite this, he achieved his choice. This election call also marked the end of the voting regime prevailing in the State of Georgia, when the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional, in 1963, the system of votes by counties instead of by persons. The following year he was re-elected to serve a second term of two years. Then, he was called for a third re-election, to begin his candidacy for Governor of the State. So, his position in the state Senate was filled by his cousin, Hugh Carter, elected by the Democratic Party.

In his mandate, there were three main features that characterized his policies: Carter declared that the era of racial segregation should be abolished and that racial discrimination had no place in the future of the State, this was controversial because no politician in the South had proclaimed such a thing publicly. Carter gave several public offices to Afro-Americans, supported the expansion of the rights of African-Americans.

As for abortion, Carter was personally opposed but supported its legalization after the historic 1973 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States. But when he was president, he acted in a contradictory way, not supporting the increase of federal funds for the practice of abortions and was criticized by the American Union for Civil Liberties. On the other hand, Carter improved the efficiency of the goby merging around 300 state agencies. His assistants always had a good reference on the American politician described him as a great worker.

He was the promoter of several reforms such as the provision of state aid to schools in all areas of Georgia, the creation of community centers for children with mental disabilities and the expansion of educational programs for prisoners. After several years of experience in the political arena and a great recognition, Carter achieved his major goal: to obtain the presidency in 1977 after narrowly defeating the Republican Gerald Ford, the discredit that the Republicans were won by the setbacks of Richard Nixon and his precipitate retreat because of the Watergate case was key to Carter’s ascension.

As president, Carter took a radical turn to the foreign policy of the United States: the defense of democracy and human rights on an international scale was important for the fall of the dictator Somoza in Nicaragua; claimed for the first time the rights of the Palestinian people before the Israeli authorities; and he also helped Egypt and Israel sign a lasting peace in 1979. Although this was not accepted in the total American public opinion, many considered it an excess of weakness.

In the following elections of 1980 triumphed the Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan. Since his retirement in 1981, Carter has acted as an impartial observer in electoral processes in the Third World and as a mediator in international conflicts. For this reason, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, his interest in finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, using democracy and human rights to promote economic and social development has been admirable.