President Carter, First Lady Carter, & Presidential Libraries: Awards and Honors

The Nobel Peace Prize 2002 was awarded to Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development".

Established in 1988 to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the Liberty Medal is awarded annually to men and women of courage and conviction who strive to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe. The medal was first administered by the National Constitution Center in 2006, when Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were honored for their bipartisan humanitarian efforts on behalf of the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. Other past Liberty Medal recipients include Nelson Mandela, Shimon Peres, Kofi Annan, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Bono. Six recipients of the medal have subsequently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award was established in 1997 by the NFID Board of Directors to honor those individuals whose outstanding humanitarian efforts and achievements have contributed significantly to improving the health of humankind. Criteria on which selection is based include:

• Legislative or administrative contributions
• Humanitarian service and/or
• Public education activities

The Award is named for former President and Mrs. Carter, who as outstanding humanitarians, have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for people worldwide. In recognition of their efforts to resolve conflict peacefully, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent and eradicate disease, President and Mrs. Carter were presented with the first Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award in 1997.

President Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former President and Mrs. Carter for the Camp David Accords and their work in the fields of international peace, health issues, and the environment. He said that the Carters had “done more good things for more people than any other couple on the face of the earth.” The Medal is the highest U.S. civilian award.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and The Carter Center

1999 Delta Prize Recipient

The Delta Prize is unique among international awards in its involvement of students in the selection process. A student selection committee, composed of University of Georgia Foundation Fellows and two additional international students, under the guidance of Kathleen Harris, associate director of the Foundation Fellows Program, solicited nominations from organizations around the world, investigated the background and accomplishments of each nominee, and prepared a short list of eight candidates, with dossiers, for the Delta Prize Selection Board. On August 28, 1998, at a meeting in Delta’s Corporate Headquarters in Atlanta, the Selection Board chose as the recipients of the inaugural Delta Prize President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center.

The Delta Prize was thus established to call attention to individuals or groups who by their own initiative have provided opportunities for greater understanding among cultures and nations. In the late 1970s, few individuals comprehended the ethical implications of globalization. But President Carter was one of those few. With his inspired concept of "human rights," which encountered much resistance at the time, President Carter showed us our responsibility to be good citizens of a global ethical community. He was by far a man before his time. In the years since his presidency, by founding The Carter Center and by working tirelessly on behalf of a healthier and more peaceful, just, and prosperous global ethical community, he and Mrs. Carter have exemplified the ideals the Delta Prize for Global Understanding was designed to honor. By improving intercultural understanding in many regions of the world where conflict once ruled, President and Mrs. Carter and The Carter Center have demonstrated that understanding makes cooperation possible and that cooperation makes peace.

On April 27, 1999, at a banquet at the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, in Atlanta, Georgia, President and Mrs. Carter accepted the first Delta Prize for Global Understanding. In his speech, President Carter spoke of the United States’s compelling need to "wage peace." We are pleased to include the speech and related information in this inaugural volume of the Delta Prize for Global Understanding series.

Governor and Mrs. Carter were the Grand Marshalls at the GSU Homecoming Parade in 1972.

Here is the Governor with his quintessential smile waving to the people of Statesboro, GA.

"The 2009 American Peace Award is awarded to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. During and since Carter's presidency, both Jimmy and Rosalynn have engaged in tireless efforts to promote peace domestically and internationally, and the American Peace Award committee would like to recognize the work the two have accomplished together with this year's prize."

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling)

Our endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

Jimmy Carter, artist. John P. St. Denis & Steven Strassman, engineers/ mixers. Elisa Shokoff, producer. (TIE)