Jimmy Carter’s century: A spirit of community softens Georgia’s political rifts

The porch where former President Jimmy Carter has spent countless holidays and family milestones here in Southwest Georgia is wrapped with wisteria boughs that shade a “Welcome to Our Porch” sign.

Next door, a former boarding house where the iconic Democratic president’s parents lived as a young couple a century ago also has a porch where visitors can sit for a spell.

The fact that one yard has “Harris-Walz” signs and the next one over has a “MAGA 2024” sign captures the current American political zeitgeist. In 2020, 52% of Sumter County voters chose Democrat Joe Biden; 47% wanted to reelect Republican President Donald Trump. As Mr. Carter became a global icon, his home state became a battleground.

But step onto either porch, and the spirit of “Uncle Jimmy” as diplomat and peacemaker still presides.

“He is a blessing for this town, this state, and this whole world,” says Lisa Ragusa, who owns the house with the pro-Trump sign. “He showed us that humanitarianism is important.”  

As Jimmy Carter prepares to celebrate his centennial at his low, white rambler nearby, citizens in his hometown of Plains gathered on Saturday for an annual peanut festival – one of several events to honor the only U.S. president ever to reach the 100-year milestone. 

The former president, a Navy veteran who opposed racial segregation and pursued a national energy policy and disarmament, has been living quietly at home for more than a year.

On Saturday, folks took a few moments to sing “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Carter. Two men wearing Trump election regalia were among the loudest belting out the tune.

The Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in St. Marys, Georgia, sent a large framed photograph of Mr. Carter as a young sailor, signed with well wishes. When Kim Carter Fuller, one of his relatives and the current teacher of his former Sunday School class, showed two staunch local conservatives the gift, both teared up.

“Carter is not a saint – no politician is a saint – and he’s not really all that humble either,” says Jonathan Alter, the New Jersey-based author of “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life.” “But Carter shows you can be a person of great decency and integrity and use your example and grit to change the world.”

“A Baptist preacher to run the Hells Angels”

Mr. Carter can look back from his Oct. 1 birthday on a remarkable, polymathic life.  

But his centennial also comes at a time when his legacy is being more closely studied. 

Mr. Carter’s term in Washington is still under debate. Despite his status as a former president, he wasn’t invited to the podium during the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver. 

When he took the reins in Washington, it “was like sending a Baptist preacher to run the Hells Angels [motorcycle club],” says Ms. Fuller’s husband, Mark. “It ain’t gonna work.”

Setbacks overshadowed accomplishments like civil service reform and natural gas deregulation. The Iran hostage crisis, perhaps the greatest challenge of his presidency, along with inflation and high energy prices, soured the country’s mood.

Mr. Carter’s coalition crumbled. He lost the Jewish vote because of his support for a Palestinian homeland and opposition to new settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories. He lost the evangelical vote after he opposed tax breaks for the largely white private schools that cropped up throughout the South after integration.

“He was a very unusual president, and he was actually a pretty consequential president,” says Kai Bird, whose book “The Outlier” documents Mr. Carter’s lasting impacts. 

“He put human rights as a central founding block of our whole foreign policy, and no president since then has been able to walk away from that idea,’’ Mr. Bird says. “By talking about human rights and putting pressure on dictatorial regimes, he changed the world.”

From “Peewee” to peacemaker

For many Georgians, Mr. Carter remains both enigmatic and relevant. 

Born into the Jim Crow South and known as “Peewee” as a boy, he played barefoot with Black friends in the cotton fields of Archery, Georgia. He has held dozens of titles, from president to door-to-door missionary, from college professor to master woodworker. 

“It’s about the effort, it’s about the self-mastery, and the legitimate pride he takes in the work,” says Mr. Alter, the biographer.   

In the 1970s, Mr. Carter broke from Plains Baptist Church after it blocked a Black preacher from taking the pulpit. He and his wife, Rosalynn, later joined Maranatha, a new church with an integrated congregation. Over the years, Mr. Carter’s Sunday School sermons became a magnet for admirers. 

Ms. Fuller remembers one session after she took over the class. Mr. Carter was in attendance as she discussed Moses and the burning bush, a story set in a biblical region called Midian. Mr. Carter raised his hand. 

“Uncle Jimmy, you don’t have to raise your hand,” she said. He then enthralled the group with a story of his visit to Midian. 

After his presidency, he returned to his home here, a source of strength for him. But Plains is also a reminder that America is at a crossroads.

Grandson Jason Carter has told multiple interviewers that his grandfather hoped to live long enough to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Pilgrimage to Plains

John Tompkins, a registered Republican and self-described political junkie, counts former President George H.W. Bush and Mr. Carter – both one-termers – as his favorite presidents, largely for the way that they stayed true to themselves.

Mr. Tompkins made a pilgrimage here from Vero Beach, Florida, on Saturday.

A collector, Mr. Tompkins owns a rare signed copy of Mr. Carter’s “Crisis of Confidence” speech, where he reminded the country: “All the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America. What is lacking is confidence and a sense of community.”

The following year, American voters sent Mr. Carter home and Ronald Reagan to the White House.

It “explains in many ways how we got to where we are today,” says Mr. Tompkins.

But Mr. Carter’s real accomplishment at his century mark seems equally reflected in the dueling porches across the street, which ask visitors to consider that differences don’t have to divide – or alienate – a community of friends or strangers.  

“Carter reminds us that people really don’t want to despise each other,” says Mr. Tompkins. “They want to give each other their due.”