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PLAINS, Ga. — Rhonda Johnson traveled nearly 40 miles away from Cuthbert, Georgia, to see the humble beginnings of a future president.
“Me and my daughter live on Jimmy Carter Drive,” Johnson said. “We want to experience that love and peace and joy he provided for everybody. He’s a close-knit person when it comes to family, friends and his community. You don’t have that from a lot of presidents. I’m just going to be honest. You don’t experience the love and joy and happiness they bring to the world.”
With the goal of restoring moral integrity to the presidency, Jimmy Carter launched his own bid for the White House in 1975 from a railroad depot in his hometown of Plains. He used a grassroots-style movement that had previously won him a state senate seat, the governorship and ultimately, the presidency.
Michelle Riley worked at the Carter Center, founded by President and Mrs. Carter after they left the White House, in the 90s in the international health programs division. She left the film industry in Los Angeles to move to Atlanta after hearing an interview Carter did on Guinea Worm Disease. Riley said she came to Plains to volunteer to help with logistics ahead of several days of ceremonies to honor the 39th president’s life and legacy.
“Their legacy, without a doubt, is the thread of human rights through everything they did and do,” Riley said. “Every program of the Carter Center has a thread of human rights through it: the right to health, the right to social justice, the right to have democracy and vote, the right to be able to express the agency you have in the world healthfully.”
Avery Davis-Roberts worked on democracy programs with the Carter Center for over 20 years. She said Carter’s role in politics lasted well beyond his time in office at any level and stretched to the outer reaches of the globe.
“President and Mrs. Carter had the vision to know that if you’re working to support good electoral processes and then continue to engage in the country and encourage civic engagement, those are the seeds of democracy and you’re empowering people to do the work themselves to make their democracy work for them,” Davis-Roberts said. “That work is really the responsibility of all of us. We all have to do that work, and there are no better servant leaders than President and Mrs. Carter, and they’d encourage all of us to take up that mantle and continue to do this work.”
President Carter’s political career blossomed, and it all started for him in Plains. Kelly Kight co-owns Plains Sweet Stems. She has spent all week with her sister-in-law making flower arrangements and bows in honor of President Carter.
“I think Plains made him who he is and made him able to achieve those goals,” Kight said. “I don’t think Plains would be what it is without President Carter. We’re proud of him, we’re proud of what he accomplished and we’re proud he was part of our community. He made our community what it was. He put our community on the map.”
To people like Kight who call Plains home, they’ll tell you Carter cared more about people than politics. But it’s the way Carter approached politics that set him apart, Davis-Roberts said. She mentioned how campaign finances and honesty have changed the most since he left office, noting that the high demands of campaign funding might have priced Carter out of a White House bid.
Rhonda Johnson said current politicians could use that old brand of connecting with people where they are and getting back to building trust with their fellow man.
“He was a man for everybody, not just a certain group of people,” Johnson said. “It’s an honor just to know he cared about everybody. It doesn’t matter if you had money or not to him, if he could reach out to help you in any kind of way, that’s what stands out about President Carter. What’s most important is the people. It’s not the big people, it’s the little people like us. It’s the little people that make things happen for the community, and we don’t need to forget about the little people. Sometimes, when you get into the big office, we forget about those people. President Carter honored everybody, not just the big people.”
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