Jimmy Carter biography

After a training program in Norfolk, Virginia, they moved out to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Carter was an electronics officer on the USS Pomfret. After subsequent postings to Groton, Connecticut; San Diego, California and Washington, D.C., in 1952 Carter was assigned to work with Admiral Hyman Rickover developing a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, New York. The brilliant and notoriously demanding admiral made a profound impression on Carter. "I think, second to my own father,

Rickover had more effect on my life than any other man," he later said.

During these years, the Carters also had three sons: John William (born 1947), James Earl Carter III (1950) and Donnel Jeffrey (1952). (The Carters later had a daughter, Amy, born in 1967). In July 1953, Carter's father passed away from pancreatic cancer and in the aftermath of his death, the farm and family business fell into disarray. Although Rosalynn initially objected, Carter moved his family back to rural Georgia so he could care for his mother and take over the family's affairs. In Georgia, Carter resuscitated the family farm and became active in community politics, winning a seat on the Sumter County Board of Education in 1955 and eventually becoming its chairman.

Southern Politician

The 1950s were a period of great change in the American South. In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ordered the desegregation of public schools, and in the aftermath of that decision civil rights protestors vociferously demanded an end to all forms of racial discrimination. However, politics in the rural South still largely reflected the reactionary racial outlook of the "Old South." Carter was the only white man in Plains to refuse to join a segregationist group called the White Citizens' Council, and shortly afterward he found a sign on the front door of his home that read: "Coons and Carters go together."

It was not until the 1962 Supreme Court ruling in Baker v. Carr, which required that voting districts be redrawn in a way that stopped privileging rural white voters, that Carter saw an opportunity for a "new Southerner," such as he considered himself, to win political office. That same year he ran for the Georgia State Senate against a local businessman named Homer Moore. Although the initial vote showed that Moore had won the election, it was blatantly obvious that his victory was the result of widespread fraud. In one precinct, 420 ballots were cast even though only 333 were issued. Carter appealed the outcome and a Georgia judge discarded the fraudulent votes and declared Carter the winner. As a two-term state senator, Carter earned a reputation as tough and independent politician, curbing wasteful spending and steadfastly supporting civil rights.

In 1966, after briefly considering a run for the United States House of Representatives, Carter instead decided to run for governor. However, in the midst of a white backlash to the civil rights movement, Carter's liberal campaign failed to gain momentum in the Democratic primaries, and he finished a distant third place.