Elizabeth Raum - Gift of Peace. The Jimmy Carter Story

In 1976, Jimmy Carter ran for president of the United States, and America went nutspeanuts, that is. Few people outside of the South recognized his name. Who was Jimmy Carter? He needed a way to introduce himself to the voters, and peanuts paved the way. Jimmy ran his familys peanut business. He grew up on a farm and sold bagfuls on the streets of Georgia as a child. Jimmy chose a big smiling peanut as his campaign logo. He and his family gave away buttons and bags of roasted nuts that read, Jimmy Carter For President. Men wore gold peanut pins and women wore peanut necklaces. Jimmy flew from state to state in an airplane called Peanut One, and his supporters called themselves the Peanut Brigade. It was nutty.

Jimmy, whose full name is James Earl Carter Jr., was born at the Wise Hospital in Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924. Jimmy was the first United States president to be born in a hospital. Until the 1920s, most women gave birth at home. Jimmys mother, a nurse, believed that hospital births were safer for mother and baby than home births.

National Park Service

Supporters in Evanston, Illinois, welcomed Jimmy to their town by building a thirteen-foot peanut with a grin as big as Jimmy Carters. Located in Plains, Georgia, it may not be the biggest peanut sculpture in the world, but its the happiest.

Of course, there was much more to Jimmy Carter than farming. He fought for civil rights, served in the navy, and had been elected Georgias governor. He was a husband, a dad, and an active member of his church. It was Jimmy Carters honesty and willingness to help others that convinced voters to elect him president of the United States.

Today, thirty years after leaving the White House, he continues to work hard and help others throughout the nation and around the world.

Jimmy Carter learned to help others at a young age from the influence of his parents. His mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, studied nursing at the Wise Hospital in Plains, Georgia. Thats where she met Jimmys dad, James Earl Carter Sr., a local businessman. Jimmys parents, who everyone called Miss Lillian and Mr. Earl, provided him and his sisters with a safe and loving home, first in Plains, a town of about six hundred people, and then in the smaller community of Archery, Georgia.

On the day that Jimmys dad, Mr. Earl, took Jimmy, Gloria, and Miss Lillian to see their new home in Archery, he forgot the key. It was two and a half miles back to Plains, so Mr. Earl tried to pry open a window. It was stuck, and he could only open it a crack. The narrow opening was far too small for a big man like Mr. Earl, so he slid Jimmy inside. Jimmy ran to the front door and unlocked it. Jimmy later called it his first useful act. Nothing pleased Jimmy more than being helpful.

Courtesy of the Jimmy Carter Library

Jimmy was four years old, and his sister Gloria was two, when the Carters moved to a farm in Archery, Georgia.

The Carterss house in Archery was square and painted white. Cars passing by the highway kicked up so much dust that the house took on the brownish-red color of the dirt. The house had no running water or bathrooms inside. Jimmy drew water from the well in the yard and hauled it to the house for cooking, laundry, and washing up. Extra buckets of water were stored on the back porch. The family used a two-holer, an outhouse (or privy) with two holes for toilets. The larger one was for adults, and a smaller one was reserved for childrenit kept them from falling in! The Carters took recycling seriously long before everyone understood its importance. Instead of toilet paper, they used old newspapers or pages torn from a Sears Roebuck catalog.

Although Jimmys home wasnt big and fancy, his family was better off than many others. During the 1930s, when Jimmy was a boy, the Great Depression left many people jobless, homeless, and hungry. Farms failed, factories closed, and people lost their homes to the bank. Children as young as six or seven went to work, trying to earn a few pennies for food.

The Carter house sat beside a main highway. Often, single men traveled past on their way west looking for jobs. Occasionally, entire families took to the roads seeking a better life. Homeless travelers like these were called tramps. Many stopped at the Carter home hoping to find work or something to eat. If Jimmys mother, Miss Lillian, was home, she never turned anyone away. She always gave them some food to help them on their way.

One day Miss Lillian was talking to a neighbor. Im thankful that they never come in my yard, the neighbor said.

The next time a tramp knocked on Miss Lillians door, she asked why he stopped at her house and not others.

The post on your mailbox is marked to say that you dont turn people away or mistreat us, he said. He explained that tramps used a set of rough symbols to help them find people who would help them out.

Courtesy of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site

The house in Archery had two porches, a wide one in front facing the road, and a smaller one in back.

Jimmy and his sisters checked the mailbox. They discovered a series of nearly invisible scratches on the post. When Jimmy turned to his mother, she told him not to change those marks. He learned from his mothers example that its important to help others, even those you dont know and may never see again.

As he grew older, Jimmy put these lessons to work. No matter where he was or what office he held, Jimmy Carter never forgot the importance of helping others.