Former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy in his native Georgia, remembered

(WASHINGTON) — Tributes are pouring in for former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100. His life and legacy will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and in Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, over the coming days.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and the work of the Carter Center — which Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter founded after his defeat in the 1980 election — in advancing human rights and alleviating human suffering.

On Monday, ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos spoke to Suggs about the former president’s work, his character and his relationship with the people of Georgia.

ABC NEWS: Now we want to turn to someone who knew Carter well. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and developed a close personal relationship with the former president. Sir, thank you so much for speaking with us as we bid farewell today. What are some of your personal memories that you’re remembering the most?

SUGGS: Well, thank you for having me, for one. Personally, he was the person that I have always looked up to. I always told a story about, in 1976, my mother voted for Jimmy Carter. She campaigned for him in Brooklyn, New York. And we voted in PS 241 in Brooklyn, New York. And I always told him that story.

So one of the last times we talked, I didn’t mention it, you know. For some reason, I just didn’t mention it, I don’t know what we were talking about. And he mentioned it. He said “How’s your mother doing? How’s she doing?” And I said — at the time my mother wasn’t doing too well — “She’s sick.” She had been battling dementia.

And he told me about, you know, he reiterated the work that Rosalynn Carter was doing with mental health. And he asked me if my mother could talk on the phone. And I said, sure, you know, she could talk. And he called my mother and he called my mother out of the blue to talk to her, just to kind of give her some words of encouragement as she was dealing with this illness and an illness that eventually his wife Rosalynn had.

So I think that’s the kind of example of a person who’s compassionate, who loves humanity, who loves people. And I tell that story as if it’s unique, but it’s not because he has done that kind of work and he’s done those kind of things for so many people, for so many, for 100 years. And for that I’m proud.

ABC NEWS: Absolutely. Such a wonderful example of what type of man he was and what type of life he led. You touched on this a bit, that in the decades after he left office, Jimmy Carter continued to carry so much influence around the world and he continued to do so much work.

As you covered him in those years, what else stood out to you from that work that he was able to do over, over really decades?

SUGGS: One of the things that he said he wanted to see before he died was the eradication of the Guinea worm disease. And that disease is down to about four people now. And when he started this, thousands of people were suffering from this horrible disease. Now it’s down to four, about four people. So it’s going to be eradicated in a couple of years. So this is the kind of work that Jimmy Carter did post-presidency.

The first line of his obituary that I wrote says that he was the 39th president of the United States. I’m sure that’s the first line that you wrote in your obituary. But I think that if you ask him, his most enduring legacy is what he did after the presidency and what he continued to do up until his 100th birthday to kind of promote humanity and to promote decency and to give to others.

ABC NEWS: And on that list of achievements, and you’ve written about some of those achievements, you’ve written that Carter grew up or grew into a politician who shaped race relations, but before that, he was shaped by, by then growing up in the Jim Crow South.

So how do you think those early experiences shaped his worldview and his approach to others throughout his life?

SUGGS: I think that had a tremendous effect. He was born in 1924. We have to understand that. So he was born prior to the Great Depression. He was born in the segregated South.

One perfect example was in 1954 when he left the Navy to return to Plains to take over his father’s business. He was the only white businessman in Plains, Georgia, who was not a member of the Citizens’ Council. We know what the Citizens’ Council is — it’s basically the Ku Klux Klan.

They came to his store and said, “Hey, we’re going to boycott you unless you join the Citizens’ Council. We will even pay your $5.” And he said, “I’d rather throw my $5 down the toilet then give you $5 to join this racist organization.”

So even in 1954, even owning a business in that rural, tiny Plains, Georgia, he rebuked the temptation to join basically the klan or the Citizens’ Council because of who he was and how he grew up and the people who was around him when he grew up.

ABC NEWS: And after a hundred years, we’re hearing so many stories, so many new stories in the last 24 hours about his life — that’s a story I hadn’t heard before. So thank you for sharing that. Since news of his passing last night, you’ve been speaking with people in Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy Carter is from and in other parts of Georgia. What are you hearing from them? What are they sharing with you?

SUGGS: People in Plains, Georgia, if you come by this town, they love him. If you go to anyone’s house in Plains, Georgia, they have a story about Jimmy Carter or “Mr. Jimmy,” as they called him.

Everyone’s house you go to has a photograph of Jimmy Carter, and it’s not a photograph of him from the White House or it’s not a standard portrait. It’s a photograph that they’ve taken with their Polaroid cameras or their selfies of him on their porch, eating peanuts and laughing and joking around, shucking corn.

So that’s who he was. He was Mr. Jimmy. He was truly a man of the people, who happened to one day have served as the 39th president of the United States.

ABC NEWS: He really was a man of the people. What a remarkable life and what an impact Jimmy Carter had on this country and those who had the pleasure of meeting him and knowing him. Ernie Suggs, thank you so much for speaking with us today. Thank you so much for your insights.

SUGGS: Thank you very much for having me.

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