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President Carter, First Lady Carter, & Presidential Libraries: Introduction to the Carters

LibGuide Archive: Former President Jimmy Carter and His 2013 GSU Visit

In the News: Jimmy Carter's legacy outside the Oval office

This Library Guide was created in 2013 by Government Documents Librarian Lori Gwinett in collaboration with Rosemarie Stallworth-Clark, PhD. It celebrates the visit of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's speaking event at GSU on behalf of the Peace Studies Faculty Learning Community. James Earl Carter Jr. (b.1924) was the only Georgian elected U.S. president (1977-1981). Carter also served as the governor of Georgia between 1971 to 1975 and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 through 1967. Savannah regional media WSAV television published a 2023 news story by Brian Gallagher reporting Jimmy Carter's legacy outside the Oval Office.

Welcome to the Guide for President Carter

This guide on President Carter, First Lady Carter, & Presidential Libraries is divided into several sections indicated by tabs at the top of the screen:

Introduction to the Carters: beginning page for this guide (where you are now) with

Jimmy Carter:

Rosalynn Carter:

Jimmy Carter Library:

The Carter Center:

The Carters at GSU:

Presidential Libraries: 

President and Mrs. Carter

President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter dancing at Inaugural Ball. 01/20/1977

Jimmy Carter--Born October 1, 1924

Carter is the only Georgian to ever be elected president of the United States. He was born in Plains and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. Learn more with video here at Today in Georgia History.

James Earl Carter--39th President of the United States of America

Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter Jr.), 39th president of the United States, was born Oct. 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Ga., and grew up in the nearby community of Archery. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a farmer and businessman and his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse.

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter

Rosalynn Eleanor Smith Carter, First Lady of the United States from 1976-1980, significantly raised public awareness of mental health issues by serving as honorary chair of the Presidential Commission on Mental Health. The work of the Commission led to the passage of the Mental Health System Act of 1980. Her founding and continued work on the "Every Child by Two" initiative has saved thousands of children's lives through immunization and spearheaded further public health immunization initiatives worldwide. Mrs. Carter has demonstrated a life-long dedication to the concerns of women and children, the poor and the mentally ill: contributing her active presence and policy expertise to the Policy Advisory Board of the Atlanta Project, the Last Acts coalition to improve end-of-life care, Habitat for Humanity, Project Interconnections that provides housing for the homeless and mentally ill, and the Friendship Force. Her books have aided thousands of people seeking assistance and guidance regarding mental health issues, care-giving and creating new paths in life. She is the recipient of numerous honors including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter and Habitat for Humanity

"As president of the United States, Jimmy Carter was deeply committed to social justice and basic human rights. He and his wife Rosalynn left the White House in search of meaningful ways to contribute in these areas. In addition to promoting peace and human rights through the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta, they lead the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity International one week each year." (From Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter and Habitat for Humanity)

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924-1974

Covering their lives from childhood to the end of the Georgia governorship, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by E. Stanly Godbold Jr. is one of the few major biographies of an American president that pays significant attention to the First Lady. So deeply were their lives and aspirations intertwined, a close friend once remarked: "You can't really understand Jimmy Carter unless you know Rosalynn." The story of one is the story of the other. The book reveals a man who was far more complex than the peanut farmer of popular myth, a man who cited both Reinhold Niebuhr and Bob Dylan as early influences on his legal philosophy, was heir to a sizable fortune, and who, with the help of Rosalynn, built a lucrative agribusiness. Nicknamed "Hotshot" by his father, Carter was the first president born in a hospital, rode a motorcycle before entering politics, counted Tolstoy, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner, and James Agee among his favorite authors, and claimed his wife Rosalynn as the most influential person in his life. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter neither sanctifies nor vilifies the Carters but offers instead an even-handed, brilliantly researched, and utterly absorbing account of two ordinary people whose lives together took them to the heights of power and public service in America.

Global Access to Information Initiative

Since 1999, The Carter Center has supported the establishment of an access to information culture, beginning with a project in Jamaica that focused on ongoing legislative efforts to pass an access to information law.  From its original work exclusively in the Americas region, the Carter Center's Rule of Law Program (formerly Global Access to Information Initiative) expanded its programming to support the development of international norms and regional standards, as well as applying its model of promoting participatory lawmaking through informed debate and facilitating new partnerships between government and civil society in the establishment of the right to information in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Mali.

NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. - Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project 2010

Database List

Librarian

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Vivian Bynoe
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Contact:
912-344-3028

Special Thanks

Rosemarie Stallworth-Clark, Ph.D., Associate Professor Emerita, College of Education, and Facilitator of the Georgia Southern University Peace and Justice Studies Faculty Learning Community has been instrumental in organizing President and Mrs. Carter's attendance at Georgia Southern University in the Spring of 2013.  She has also been an invaluable source of information towards the research, creation, and publication of this Libguide.

Peace Studies:  An inclusive, interdisciplinary field of inquiry, progressive education, and research focused on the evolution of human consciousness for peace, justice, and sustainable society.