In 1971, when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as governor of Georgia, he proclaimed to the outrage and fear of the white power structure of the day: “The time for racial segregation is over.” As a symbolic gesture demonstrating his intention to make good on that promise, Carter installed a portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Capitol gallery where legislators — almost all of whom despised King — would be reminded before each session that the only path for Georgia was forward.
While other Southern politicians languished in our region’s tortured past, proclaiming slogans like “Segregation now … segregation forever,” Governor Carter worked to eliminate the inequality baked into our systems of power. He appointed more than 50 Black people to state boards where previously there had been only three, and by the end of his term, nearly half the public servants in his administration were Black. Jimmy Carter was a new breed of white Southerner — fiercely proud of his rural heritage yet despising its violent, racist history.
As president, Jimmy Carter expanded his efforts to create a more level field where Black people could share in access to justice, power, influence, and financial independence. He signed Executive Order 12232 to support and provide more federal funds to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), was a proponent of affirmative action, and created initiatives to back Black-owned businesses. President Carter appointed powerful Black leaders to serve in his administration, including the first Black Secretary of the Army, Clifford Alexander Jr.; the first Black Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young; and the first Black woman to hold a Cabinet position and serve in the line of succession to the presidency, Patricia Roberts Harris. He appointed five times as many women and people of color to the federal bench as all other former presidents combined, transforming the judiciary and attempting to deliver on the nation’s long unfulfilled promise of “justice for all.”
President Carter’s policy toward righting our nation’s significant wrongs against Native Americans initially was less robust, however. In the more than 500 pages of abbreviated and annotated diary notes taken during his presidency, only a few entries concern issues specifically facing Native Americans. Even so, as president he advocated and signed into law groundbreaking legislation that affirmed the civil rights of Indigenous people, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, recognizing the fundamental right of Native Americans to worship and express traditional religions; and the Indian Child Welfare Act, protecting Native American children and promoting stability and security of Indigenous tribes and families.