--- title: Remembering Jimmy Carter's Civil Rights Contributions description: Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, has died. Look back on his important contributions to civil rights. canonical: https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-12-29T21:47:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:15.598Z article:section: History og:title: How Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Election Victory Helped ‘Heal Ancient Wounds’ of Racism og:description: 'By showing that a nonracist Southerner could win a major party nomination, Carter gave new pride to his region' og:url: https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte139866a9fe9e5b0/698b24ebb21a9c288b511a3e/jimmy-carter-dr-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Carter with King Sr og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Election Victory Helped ‘Heal Ancient Wounds’ of Racism twitter:description: 'By showing that a nonracist Southerner could win a major party nomination, Carter gave new pride to his region' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte139866a9fe9e5b0/698b24ebb21a9c288b511a3e/jimmy-carter-dr-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Election Victory Helped ‘Heal Ancient Wounds’ of Racism > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: In Memoriam: Jimmy Carter [Watch (HLS stream): In Memoriam: Jimmy Carter](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pf0TUDlq.m3u8) (4:25)  _Published 2024-12-29. Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. President, was not a president of the first rank, but he managed by dint of unceasing effort to become an iconic world leader, with an inspiring, if often contentious, legacy as a dogged peacemaker and a decent and ethical problem-solver. His presidency—beset by a horrible economy, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the seizure of American hostages in Iran—was a stunning political failure but a greater substantive success than was recognized when he was crushed for reelection by Ronald Reagan in 1980._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 29, 2024 9:47 PM UTC  President Jimmy Carter with Rev Martin Luther King Sr, Georgia, 1976. President Jimmy Carter with Rev Martin Luther King Sr, Georgia, 1976. PhotoQuest/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 29, 2024 9:47 PM UTC The career of [Jimmy Carter](https://time.com/tag/jimmy-carter/), the U.S. President who died on Dec. 29 at age 100, will be remembered for many things: his peanut-farming background, his speedy rise to political fame and fall after one term, his handling — or mishandling — of the energy crisis and the Iran hostage crisis. Another achievement, from early in his career, may be less well known, but is just as worthy of remembrance. The mid-1970s, when Carter became a national public figure, was a time of transition, full of the aftershocks of the progress and devastation that had characterized the previous decade, not least in the arena of the [civil rights movement](https://time.com/tag/civil-rights-movement/). Carter was a Georgian of many generations, whose farming family’s presence in the South [predated](https://millercenter.org/president/carter/life-before-the-presidency) the United States itself. He had no trouble establishing his Southern credentials, but he also differed from many of his neighbors when it came to integration and other racial issues. As TIME recounted in a [1976 profile](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-03-08/page/19) of the then-candidate, his mother, known as “Miss Lillian,” was a formidable presence in her four children’s lives and encouraged them to have compassion for all people, regardless of race—despite any judgment from neighbors steeped in prejudice. **Read More:** [_Jimmy Carter Was More Successful Than He Got Credit For_](https://time.com/5579674/jimmy-carter-dies/) In 1966, Carter, the oldest of those four children, lost the Georgia gubernatorial primary to a segregationist. Four years later, he managed to win the support of some prominent segregationists in the state by ceding ground to them: He said that he would allow George Wallace, perhaps the most famous of them all, to speak at the state house if he won. But, after winning the office, Carter made it clear that he hadn’t totally abandoned his principles, as TIME recounted in the 1976 story: "_Elected by a landslide vote, Carter appeared to be a changed man in office—leading to accusations that he had misled the voters. In his inaugural address, he proclaimed: “The time for racial discrimination is over. No poor rural white or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.” \[Segregationist former Governor Lester\] Maddox cried foul and started sniping at Carter. He has never stopped. He even pursued Carter to New Hampshire last month to denounce him as “the McGovern of ‘76” and “the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of ‘76.”_ _Unlike \[former governor Carl\] Sanders, Carter appointed blacks to posts at every level of state government. (Sanders today concedes: “Carter is far more liberal than I ever was.”) He set up a biracial “disorder unit” of various experts to mediate clashes between blacks and whites. Since Georgia did not have federal referees to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Carter deputized all the high school principals in the state as registrars so that they could sign up voters at school. He overhauled the state prison and mental hospitals, which contained a high proportion of blacks. He set up a system of drug treatment and day care centers._ _Carter appealed to blacks perhaps even more strongly by making certain symbolic gestures. When black legislators had a party in their part of town, they sent a routine invitation to the Governor. Much to their surprise, he showed up, and word spread quickly that the Governor was eating chitlins with the brothers. In the state capitol in 1974, Carter placed a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. on a wall amid pictures of other Georgia notables, while an integrated audience sang We Shall Overcome. Many blacks who did not vote for Carter swung over to his support. Now his presidential drive is endorsed by men as disparate as Martin Luther King Sr. and Henry Aaron._" Sure enough, in the presidential primaries that year, again and again Carter carried the African American vote. As TIME [remarked](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-04-05/page/19), “The phenomenon of blacks backing a Southern white reared in the Georgia backwoods is one of the most intriguing aspects of the campaign to date.” Though support for Carter was driven by his record of conciliation, which he often couched in spiritual language, it was also helped by the fact that George Wallace was one of his main opponents. That choice helped many voters overlook the moments when Carter's civil rights record could be called into doubt, such as his wavering support for busing to integrate schools. During the presidential campaign, Carter also had to [apologize](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-04-19/page/16) for what he called a "careless" choice of words in defense of his stance in opposition to legislating the integration of neighborhoods. (His discussion of the "purity" of communities called to mind, for many, some of history's worst examples of prejudice.) But as TIME noted when naming him 1976’s [Man of the Year](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-01-03/page/13/), his success “destroyed forever the hopes of Alabama’s George Wallace of rising to national power —a possibility already dimmed by the bullet of a would-be assassin. By showing that a nonracist Southerner could win a major party nomination, Carter gave new pride to his region and went far to heal ancient wounds.” After his Presidency, following a period of relative seclusion in his Georgia hometown, he returned to public life and brought his ideals with him, devoting his life to bettering the world. In 1989, TIME [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-09-11/page/74/) that he “may be the best former President America has ever had”; in 2002, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Price. Not that those who followed his career would be surprised. [Asked](http://time.com/vault/issue/1989-09-11/page/74/) by TIME, shortly before he came into the White House, whether all the work he had to do was an overwhelming prospect, Jimmy Carter showed the same humble dedication that would carry him through the decades that followed: “Yes,” he said, “but not so much that I would want someone else to do it.” **_Read an interview with Jimmy Carter on the eve of his inauguration:_** [“I Look Forward to the Job”](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-01-03/page/25) **_Read Jimmy Carter’s “Man of the Year” cover story from 1977_**: [I’m Jimmy Carter, and…](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-01-03/page/13/) ## Transcript Are you proud of our nation? Do you think we can help you unified and bring you back together? Do you think we can put our people back to work? So Dan. My name is Jimmy Crowdin. I'm running for Fresno. He's a peanut farmer, a Baptist deacon, an 11 year navy veteran, and a nuclear engineer. Now, everybody from Congress is running for president is a lawyer. But I think it's time to have a non lawyer in the White House for change. My strength and my courage and my advice and my counsel and my criticism comes from you. And if I can tap the greatness that's in you and in the American people, we can make our nation's government great and a source of pride once again. Have gone to Carter, and that doesn't. By our projection, James Carter, the next president of the United States. The office of the President and his family surprise and delight everyone by walking the parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue, up to the presidential reviewing stand in front of the White House. The United States is the only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long range energy policy. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of America. As we meet tonight, it has never been more clear that the state of our union depends on the state of the world. And unite us throughout our own generation, freedom and peace in the world depend on the state of our Union. You're leaving. The 1980s have been born in turmoil, strife and change. The United States nor any other nation which is committed to world peace and stability, can continue to do business with the Soviet Union. We will never rest until every one of the American pops are released. I promise you four years ago that I would never lie to you, so I can't stand there tonight and say it doesn't hurt. The people of the United States have made the choice. And, of course, I accept that decision. But I have to admit not with the same enthusiasm that I accepted the decision four years ago. The most serious and universal problem is a growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on Earth. War may sometimes be necessary evil. But no matter how unnecessary, it is always evil. He's a good father, good grandfather, good great grandfather. And I'm proud of him. I'm proud? That he stands for human rights and peace all over the world. God gives us a capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes, and we must. I have been blessed as only a few people ever have to help shape the destiny of this nation. From the bottom of my heart, I want to express to you the gratitude I feel. Thank you, fellow citizens and farewell. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/"},"headline":"How Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Election Victory Helped ‘Heal Ancient Wounds’ of Racism","datePublished":"2024-12-29T21:47:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:15.598Z","description":"'By showing that a nonracist Southerner could win a major party nomination, Carter gave new pride to his region'","url":"https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/","keywords":["remembrance","obituaries","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte139866a9fe9e5b0/698b24ebb21a9c288b511a3e/jimmy-carter-dr-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte139866a9fe9e5b0/698b24ebb21a9c288b511a3e/jimmy-carter-dr-king.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Carter with King Sr","caption":"Carter with King Sr","creditText":"PhotoQuest/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5353854/jimmy-carter-civil-rights-death/","name":"How Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Election Victory Helped ‘Heal Ancient Wounds’ of Racism"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"In Memoriam: Jimmy Carter","description":"Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. President, was not a president of the first rank, but he managed by dint of unceasing effort to become an iconic world leader, with an inspiring, if often contentious, legacy as a dogged peacemaker and a decent and ethical problem-solver. 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