Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
For me at age 10, Jimmy Carter’s election as governor of Georgia was a big relief. With the clownish segregationist Lester Maddox out as governor, my sister and I no longer had to hold our breath and noses as we passed the governor’s mansion or the state capitol.
Plains is 10 miles from my mother’s hometown of Americus, and my parents were eager to support the candidacy of a fellow Sumter Countian with modern sensibilities.
Photos courtesy of Sheffield Hale
They threw support behind the relatively unknown candidate for governor, with my mother even hosting a party to introduce the ladies of Atlanta to Mrs. Lillian Carter and Mrs. Jimmy Carter with the promise of bloody marys (or coffee, if Tuesday mornings weren’t meant to be so exciting) and tales of Mrs. Lillian’s time in the Peace Corps. It was an early example of how Rosalynn Carter and many members of the Carter family campaigned on Jimmy Carter’s behalf, providing integral support that helped carry him to the White House years later.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
In those days, and still today, there was tension between South Georgia and Atlanta. The perception of people from Sumter County was not always positive in the eyes of Atlantans, and vice versa. Carter’s declaration that “the time for segregation is over” during his gubernatorial inaugural address came as a surprise to many people.
Raised in this Carter-supporting household, when Jimmy Carter ran for president, I became an early 15-year-old true believer, wearing my “Jimmy Carter for President” T-shirt every primary day at school. Perhaps a bit obnoxious and certainly dorky, I asked for the taunting by some of my Atlanta classmates who were convinced any Democrat was a McGovern socialist. My father instructed me to respond that it was preposterous to assume that anyone with 2,000 acres of farmland and a family business was remotely socialist. Not everyone was convinced. One of my friends even said he would move to Canada if Carter won. (Howard is still here.)
Atlanta Gazette, page 13, November 10, 1976
I was old enough to drive myself to the election-night victory party at the newly opened World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. Of course, I wore my “Primary Day” lucky T-shirt with the addition of an English driving cap that made me look ridiculous enough for a photographer with a fisheye lens to make me look like an even bigger loser—and get me into the now-defunct Atlanta Gazette article on the election-night party.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
I was, of course, finally a “winner” and remember the pride I took in that victory and all things Georgian and Southern. I took to heart the title of the Esquire article on the election from November 1976 that I remember to this day: “We Ain’t Trash No More.” My family all went to the inauguration and, from the comfort of Hobart Taylor’s law office, we watched the Carters get out of their limo and walk in the bitter cold down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
I was elated and angled my way into a job as a White House intern in the summer of 1978 and the spring of 1979 working for Jack Watson, director of Intergovernmental Affairs, cabinet secretary, and later chief of staff. I had full West Wing access, and I proofread cabinet minutes and tried unsuccessfully to photobomb every presidential rose garden ceremony and press conference.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
I have many memories from that time, but I mainly remember what a smart-ass ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson was, both on and off camera. I was able to finally get my picture with the president at a staff meet-and-greet. President Carter was damn-near eclipsed at that meet-and-greet by the presence of Muhammad Ali, who had brought his son to meet the president. What I remember most was Ali’s handshake and the massive size of his hand, which enveloped mine.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
I used my prized photo with the president as my senior photo in my high school yearbook. I paired it with my favorite Jimmy Carter quote: “If Kennedy runs, I will whip his ass.” Carter had said this when asked about a possible challenge from his archrival, Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy. Shortly after that yearbook was published, I met the so-mentioned Kennedy by accident as he was coming out of Attorney General Griffin Bell’s office. (Judge Bell was also from Americus). What I remember most about that encounter was that I had forgotten to wear socks.
After Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, I never gave up my fanboy defense of President Carter, though I did get tired of the “greatest ex-president” bit, which is true, of course, but patronizing and reductive of his time in office.
He remained my hero. I went to every book signing I could over the years and was honored to attend the dinner commemorating the 30th anniversary of his inauguration at the University of Georgia, along with many of his key staffers. The event had been largely planned by my midlife mentor and hero, Hamilton Jordan, who would die the next year. His declining health added to the poignancy of the event. I missed my last opportunity to photobomb a photo with Carter and the key people in his administration when I mistakenly followed the lead of NBC News anchor Brian Williams, also a former Carter White House intern, who demurred. I should have followed my own photobomb instinct and gotten on that stage anyway.
Photo courtesy of Atlanta History Center
The greatest thrill came in 2017, when I was able to give the president, Mrs. Carter, and their entire family a tour of the Atlanta Cyclorama, which had just been moved to Atlanta History Center and was early in its restoration process. As an amateur historian and engineer, he was fascinated by the process of moving, hanging, and restoring the painting. And like he always does, he sent me a thank-you note.
Photo courtesy of Sheffield Hale
President Carter was someone who the South could be proud to call its own. He embodied the best qualities of the region while rejecting those that held us back as a country and as a people. He was curious, introspective, and like all good Southerners, stubborn as hell. Throughout his life, he demonstrated a capacity to learn and grow. He was an inspiration to me, a young man from the South coming of age in the 1970s, an uncertain time. Not only did he and Mrs. Carter demonstrate the values of lifelong partnership through their remarkable marriage, they both exemplified the meaning of civic duty.
Jimmy Carter’s presidency showed that the hard work that really means something usually doesn’t get acknowledged or understood at the time—but the effects of it blossom years later. I am grateful that President Carter and Mrs. Carter were able to see some of the long-term positive impact of the decisions he made while he was president.
This is my belated “thank-you” note to his memory and to all that he has meant to me over the last 54 years. In 1976, Jimmy Carter made me proud to be a Georgian. I still am today and don’t feel a bit “trashy.”
