When Jimmy Carter was growing up, segregation was the law of the land.
That meant that African Americans and white citizens were not by law allowed to go
to school together or to sit together at movies or on a train or on a bus.
This was not just prejudice. This was, by law, discrimination and that's how Jimmy Carter grew up.
But he grew up in a community in Archery where his best
friends were African Americans, and the people he relied on were African Americans.
He had great respect for African Americans,
and when he went to the Naval Academy,
he found a different situation where African-American students
were allowed at the Naval Academy.
And he became a friend of one of
the first to enroll at the Naval Academy, a supporter of him.
And then when he was on the ships,
segregation was stopped and all the naval vessels were integrated,
and Jimmy Carter learned a different way of living.
And when he came back to Plains,
he had a different perspective, trying to bring African Americans more into the community.
He wasn't a civil rights leader, but he was a supporter.
When he was elected Governor of Georgia, in his inaugural address, he said,
"that the time for racial discrimination is over."
And he set an example as governor
by appointing more African Americans and other minorities and women to office
in Georgia than had ever been appointed before. In fact, more than the total had
ever been before. So he was able to set an example and be admired by the
African American community in Georgia.
When he decided to run for president,
he was able to get the support of people like Andrew Young,
who had been a civil rights leader
along with Martin Luther King Jr.
And he also was able to get
Martin Luther King's father, Martin Luther King Sr., as a supporter
and others from the Civil Rights Movement.
So while he wasn't known nationally,
he was vouched for by some of the great leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
And when he became president, he followed the same example that he had followed as governor
and appointed a large number—larger than ever before—African Americans and other
minorities to office in the federal government.