Remembering the life of former President Jimmy Carter

On this special edition of Arizona Horizon, we take a look back at a conversation with the late former President Jimmy Carter when he last visited Arizona PBS in 2015. President Carter sat down with our host, Ted Simons, to talk about himself, his career and his book, “A Full Life: Reflections at 90.”

“A Full Life: Reflections at 90“

For this book, his 29th, Carter explained how this book differed from his others, primarily because he dove into topics he hadn’t previously written about before. 

“Why I decided to run for President, for instance, my life in the Navy, the relationship that I had with former presidents and ones who served after me, the things I was able to accomplish and resolve fully when I was President and things I had to postpone for others,” Carter said. 

“Some of the major lessons I’ve learned in life and sometimes [learned] the hard way, which may be helpful to other people that read the book, so a lot of things in there that I’ve never written about before,” he said. 

His memories: The good and the bad

When reflecting on some of the memories he enjoyed most, Carter spoke about how the most enjoyable part of his life came after leaving the White House. 

“Of course, it was great to be President of the greatest country in the world and to have that authority and that power and influence and knowledge of internal affairs and that sort of thing,” Carter said. “But I’ve had a much better life, I would say, during the 35 or so years since we left the White House.”

Much of what Carter was able to accomplish with his non-profit organization, The Carter Center, had been possible in part due to his time as President. 

“We have programs in 70 different countries in the world, and we deal with the most intricate matters,” Carter said. “I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I know how to do now if I hadn’t been President of a great country first.”

Carter spoke fondly about his time as President, but that’s not to say it didn’t come with its challenges. In fact, Carter says that his years in the White House were some of the most troubling. 

“Of course, the last year I was in office, when the hostages were being held in Iran, was the most troubling of all,” Carter said. 

The racial divide

Growing up, almost all of Carter’s friends were African American. He said he was raised in Black culture.

“When I was younger, I didn’t have any friends except Black boys and girls,” Carter said. “African American women kind of took care of me, raised me and taught me about the proper attitude toward life.”

At the age of 14, Carter wrote a poem called “The Pasture Gate.” The poem was inspired by an experience he had with two of his friends where they came up to a pasture gate, opened it and stepped back to let Carter go first. 

“I finally realized later that that was a time in their life when their parents probably told them, ‘It’s time for you to start treating Jimmy as a white person, and not as a complete equal with you anymore,'” Carter said.

Carter reminisced on what it was like when the Civil Rights Act was passed and said that we still have a long way to go. 

“The best former President we’ve ever had“

Carter wrote at the end of his book that the life he had then was the best life of all, and Simons mentioned people refer to Carter as the best former president we’ve ever had. Carter said it doesn’t bother him. 

“I did the best I could,” said Carter.