US President Jimmy Carter grew up surrounded by Blacks, passed Sunday

Before Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton appeared on The Arsenio Hall in 1992, donned sunglasses and played the saxophone, which stoked conversations that he was a “friend” to Black folks, James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. was the late twentieth century U.S. president best known for his presumed “comfort” with African Americans.  

“All of my playmates, all of my companions in the field – the ones I hunted with, fished with, wrestled with, fought with – were Black people.”

President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter “died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family,” according to a statement issued by the Carter Center.  He was 100 years old. The cause of death has not been publicly revealed, but Carter had been in hospice care since February 2024.  

The affinity towards Black culture of a presidential candidate, or president, may not have been played up in the 70s and 80s to the extent that it was with Clinton in the 90s and others in the 21st century.  However, in an article written ten years ago by the highly venerated and respected late Black journalist George Curry titled, “Memories of LBJ, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton,” Curry sets the record straight in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  He writes about three presidents in the last half of the 20th century who came to be known as sympathetic to African Americans and their struggles, despite their roots in the Jim Crow South.

Curry shared these thoughts about Carter, whom he singled out, “Unlike Johnson or Clinton, Jimmy Carter had a close relationship with African Americans growing up in Georgia.

“I grew up in a little village, unincorporated, named Archery, Ga., just a few miles west of Plains,” Carter recounted. “…We were surrounded by 55 other families who were African American. All of my playmates, all of my companions in the field – the ones I hunted with, fished with, wrestled with, fought with – were Black people,” Carter said in his speech.

He explained, “I learned to appreciate, you might say, Black culture. When I wrote a book called Hours Before Daylight, at the end of the book, I tried to think of five people other than my parents who had shaped my life and only two of those five were White.”

Carter was Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He ran for Governor as an ally to racist Alabama Governor George Wallace, also a Democrat, while claiming he wasn’t a racist. Once in office, he appointed Blacks to numerous positions in state government. “Carter appointed the state’s first Black county judge and the first Black member of the university Board of Regents, while also increasing the number of Black members of state boards and commissions from just three to 55,” according to Governing.com.

He served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981, but remained active as a humanitarian after he lost the election for a second term.  He was preceded in death by his wife Rosalynn Carter, who died last year at the age of 96. He’s survived by four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.