Democrat Carter left the White House in 1981, but was very active even after his time as president. He worked on democracy issues, for human rights and against public diseases through the Carter Center, which he founded in his home state of Georgia in 1982.
In 2002, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
— In the White House there was big politics, like the peace settlement between Israel and Egypt at Camp David. Then I met world leaders and diplomats. After that, I have met ordinary people and been able to understand their problems, Carter told TT during a visit to Sweden in 2014.
Run peanut farm
Carter was born in the southern state of Georgia on October 1, 1924. Before becoming a politician, he was the commander of a nuclear-armed nuclear submarine.
When his father died, he returned home to Plains, Georgia to run the family’s peanut farm. He became interested in politics and was elected governor of the state in 1971. His great efforts to integrate the black population into society contributed to his losing the next gubernatorial election.
Instead, Carter sensationally managed to be elected president, by a narrow margin over Republican Gerald Ford. When he took office in 1977, he took over a United States devastated by the setbacks in Vietnam and the Watergate affair that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Economic challenges
The gentle and deeply Christian Carter benefited from not being active in the scandal-ridden Washington DC and was launched as a new force.
Soon, however, economic challenges piled up with high inflation and unemployment. During his term of office, the concept of the misery index, the sum of unemployment and inflation, was coined.
The signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978, in which Egypt formally recognized the state of Israel, was Carter’s greatest success as president.
But he encountered resistance when he tried to launch human rights as a guiding principle. An example is the crisis in Iran where Carter withdrew support for the Shah of Iran due to his repression, which in part led to the Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power.
The US embassy in Tehran was occupied and 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. They were released just hours after Carter’s departure. The hostage crisis weighed on the Democrat’s last year in office and contributed to his failure to be re-elected in 1980.
Bob Dylan fan
Jimmy Carter had a burning interest in music. The young Carter appreciated the gospel he heard in the churches of Georgia. Later he discovered Bob Dylan and was captivated by the lyrics; Carter himself wrote poetry.
At the 2002 Peace Prize ceremony, country icon and friend Willie Nelson performed “Georgia on my mind”. Carter stood next to her and sang along.
Over the years, Jimmy Carter has mediated conflicts in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. In 2002 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2007, Carter co-founded The Elders, a group of global leaders led by Nelson Mandela committed to peace and human rights. At home in Plains, he taught Sunday school
His wife Rosalynn Carter was always by his side. When she passed away in November 2023, they had been married for over 77 years. The couple had four children.
In 2015, Carter was diagnosed with liver and brain cancer. He tackled his faltering health with equanimity.
— I am completely satisfied with whatever comes. I have had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence, he said the same year.
Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100.