Jimmy Carter

== Early life ==
[[File:17 02 111 carter.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|alt=A rural storehouse with a small windmill next to it|The Carter family store, part of [[Jimmy Carter National Historic Site|Carter's Boyhood Farm]], in [[Plains, Georgia]]]]

James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924, in [[Plains, Georgia]], at the [[Wise Sanitarium]], where his mother worked as a registered nurse.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Godbold, Jr. |first=E. Stanly |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/670228851?oclcNum=670228851 |title=Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924-1974 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=9780199779628 |pages=9 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=February 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219095331/https://www.worldcat.org/title/670228851?oclcNum=670228851 |url-status=live }}</ref> Carter thus became the first American president born in a hospital.<ref name="bourne-11-32" /> He is the eldest child of [[Lillian Gordy Carter|Bessie Lillian Gordy]] and [[James Earl Carter Sr.]],<ref name="Kaufman-2013">{{Cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=Diane |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/834614686 |title=Historical dictionary of the Carter era |last2=Kaufman |first2=Scott |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8108-7968-3 |location=Lanham |pages= |oclc=834614686 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103941/https://search.worldcat.org/title/834614686 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|page=70}} and a descendant of English immigrant Thomas Carter, who settled in the [[Colony of Virginia]] in 1635.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Jeff |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/802261814 |title=Ancestors of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-0-7864-8954-1 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |pages=10 |oclc=802261814 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103938/https://search.worldcat.org/title/802261814 |url-status=live }}</ref> Numerous generations of Carters lived as cotton farmers in Georgia.<ref>Bourne, p. 9.</ref> Plains was a [[boomtown]] of 600 people at the time of Carter's birth. His father was a successful local businessman, who ran a [[general store]] and was an investor in farmland.<ref name="bourne-114">Bourne, p. 114.</ref> Carter's father had previously served as a reserve second lieutenant in the [[U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps]] during [[World War I]].<ref name="bourne-114" />

During Carter's infancy, his family moved several times,<ref name="bourne-11-32">Bourne, pp. 11–32.</ref> settling on a dirt road in nearby [[Archery, Georgia|Archery]], which was almost entirely populated by impoverished [[African Americans|African American]] families.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Biven |first=W. Carl |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53876246 |title=Jimmy Carter's economy: policy in an age of limits |date=2002 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=0-8078-6124-3 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=57 |oclc=53876246 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103910/https://search.worldcat.org/title/53876246 |url-status=live }}</ref> His family eventually had three more children: [[Gloria Carter Spann|Gloria]], [[Ruth Carter Stapleton|Ruth]], and [[Billy Carter|Billy]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flippen |first=J. Brooks |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/724088293 |title=Jimmy Carter, the politics of family, and the rise of the religious right |date=2011 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-3955-9 |location=Athens |pages=25 |oclc=724088293 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103942/https://search.worldcat.org/title/724088293 |url-status=live }}</ref> He got along well with his parents. His mother was often absent during his childhood, working long hours. Although his father was staunchly [[Racial segregation in the United States|pro-segregation]], he allowed Jimmy to befriend the black farmhands' children.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=David E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/945976409 |title=The global water crisis: a reference handbook |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-4408-3981-8 |location=Santa Barbara, California |pages=172 |oclc=945976409 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103946/https://search.worldcat.org/title/945976409 |url-status=live }}</ref> Carter was an enterprising teenager who was given his own acre of Earl's farmland, where he grew, packaged, and sold peanuts.<ref name="Hamilton-2005">{{Cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Neil A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/234178908 |title=Presidents: a biographical dictionary |date=2005 |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=978-1-4381-0816-2 |edition=2 |location=New York |pages=334 |oclc=234178908 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=December 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207103820/https://search.worldcat.org/title/234178908 |url-status=live }}</ref> He also rented out a section of tenant housing that he had purchased.<ref name="bourne-11-32" />

=== Education ===
Carter attended Plains High School from 1937 to 1941, graduating from the eleventh grade, since the school did not have a twelfth grade.<ref>{{cite web |title=Plains High School (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/plains-high-school.htm |access-date=July 17, 2022 |website=NPS |language=en |archive-date=July 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717143320/https://www.nps.gov/places/plains-high-school.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> By that time, Archery and Plains had been impoverished by the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], but the family benefited from [[New Deal]] farming subsidies, and Carter's father took a position as a community leader.<ref name="Hamilton-2005" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hayward |first=Steven F. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/836407503 |title=The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-president Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators, and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry. |date=2004 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=978-1-59698-278-9 |location=Washington DC |oclc=836407503 |quote=Earl may not have voted for FRD again, but he was not above receiving several New Deal agricultural subsidies as the Depression wore on}}</ref> Carter himself was a diligent student with a fondness for reading.<ref name="Hobkirk-2002">{{Cite book |last=Hobkirk |first=Lori |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45024331 |title=James Earl Carter: our thirty-ninth president |date=2002 |publisher=Child's World, Inc |isbn=1-56766-873-9 |location=Chanhassen, Minn. |pages= |oclc=45024331}}</ref>{{Rp|page=8}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shafik |first=Aasef |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1033641928 |title=Global peace lovers |date=2008 |publisher=Authorhouse |isbn=9781438937809 |location= |pages=167 |oclc=1033641928}}</ref> A popular anecdote holds that he was passed over for [[valedictorian]] after he and his friends skipped school to venture downtown in a [[hot rod]]. Carter's truancy was mentioned in a local newspaper, although it is not clear he would have otherwise been valedictorian.<ref name="bourne-33-43">Bourne, pp. 33–43.</ref> As an adolescent, Carter played on the Plains High School basketball team, and also joined [[Future Farmers of America]], which helped him develop a lifelong interest in woodworking.<ref name="bourne-33-43" />

Carter had long dreamed of attending the [[United States Naval Academy]].<ref name="Hamilton-2005" /> In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at [[Georgia Southwestern College]] in nearby Americus, Georgia.<ref name="Panton-2022">{{Cite book |last=Panton |first=Kenneth J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oXR-EAAAQBAJ |title=Historical dictionary of the United States |date=2022 |isbn=978-1-5381-2419-2 |location=Lanham |pages= |oclc=1295808727 |access-date=August 9, 2023 |archive-date=November 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106231922/https://books.google.com/books?id=oXR-EAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|page=99}} The next year, he transferred to the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]] in Atlanta, where civil rights icon [[Blake Van Leer]] was president.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jimmy Carter |url=https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/17/magazine-pages.aspx?sid=1481&gid=21&pgid=18394&cid=40232&ecid=40232&crid=0&calpgid=18390&calcid=40218 |website=www.gtalumni.org |language=en |access-date=August 21, 2023 |archive-date=November 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231106231900/https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/17/magazine-pages.aspx?sid=1481&gid=21&pgid=18394&cid=40232&ecid=40232&crid=0&calpgid=18390&calcid=40218 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943, he was admitted to the Naval Academy, from which he received a [[Bachelor of Science]] in 1946.<ref name="Hobkirk-2002" />{{Rp|page=38}} He was a good student but seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen.<ref name="Kaufman-2013" />{{Rp|page=62}} While at the academy, Carter fell in love with [[Rosalynn Carter|Rosalynn Smith]], a friend of his sister Ruth.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/835122766 |title=Inventing a voice: the rhetoric of American first ladies of the twentieth century |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |others=Molly Meijer Wertheimer |isbn=0-7425-2970-3 |location=Lanham, Md |pages=343 |oclc=835122766}}</ref> The two wed shortly after his graduation in 1946,<ref>Bourne, pp. 44–55.</ref> and were married until her death on November 19, 2023.<ref name="Carter Center death">{{cite web |url=https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-rosalynn-carter-111923.html |title=Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes Away at Age 96 |date=November 19, 2023 |publisher=[[Carter Center]] |access-date=November 19, 2023 |archive-date=November 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119201739/https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-rosalynn-carter-111923.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He was a [[sprint football]] player for the [[Navy Midshipmen]].<ref name="hingston20160424">{{cite news |author=Hingston, Sandy |url=http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/04/24/princeton-sprint-football-team/ |title=Why This Princeton Football Team Won't Be Suiting Up Next Season |work=Philadelphia |date=April 24, 2016 |access-date=November 5, 2016 |archive-date=November 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106124516/http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/04/24/princeton-sprint-football-team/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Carter graduated 60th out of 821 midshipmen in the class of 1947{{efn|The Naval Academy's Class of 1947 graduated in 1946 as a result of World War II.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/06/05/the-class-of-the-naval-academy-has-50th-reunion/1631f2ba-b06e-4fe4-9968-1c39efb7d6bc/ |title=THE CLASS OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY HAS 50TH REUNION |date=June 5, 1996 |access-date=March 4, 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |first=Amy |last=Argetsinger |author-link=Amy Argetsinger}}</ref>}} with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]].<ref>Alter, p. 59.</ref>