Would you believe me if I told you there was once a man from Georgia who was a naval officer on a nuclear submarine, ran a peanut farm, served as a state senator and governor, won a Nobel Peace Prize, helped nearly eradicate diseases, built homes with his bare hands in his 90s, resolved conflicts peacefully in foreign countries, and, oh yeah, even served as president of the United States?

Sounds made up, right?

Like something out of a superhero movie.

But it's not.

That man would be former president Jimmy Carter, a native of Plains, Georgia.

And his life was mainly about three things: peanuts, politics, and peace.

Let's kick things off with peanuts.

James Earl Carter Jr., AKA Jimmy, was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia.

He was raised on his family's 360-acre farm, where his dad grew a variety of crops, including peanuts.

Jimmy actually took after his dad a lot.

He would work in his father's store, manage the family farm, and later became a political leader, just like his dad.

As a child, Jimmy Carter was a good student, loved basketball, and dreamt of attending the United States Naval Academy.

After high school, he took courses at Georgia Southwestern College, and then attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

While at Tech, his dream came true.

He received an appointment to the U.S.

Naval Academy.

In 1945, Carter began dating Rosalynn Smith, also a native of Plains, and married her soon after he graduated from the Academy.

While serving in the Navy, he worked as an officer on a nuclear submarine.

It seemed like he had a long, successful career in the military ahead of him.

But when his father died in 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned home to Plains to take over the family farm.

When he moved back to Georgia, he had a totally different approach to running the farm.

You see, Carter wasn't just farming--he was innovating.

One way he switched things up was growing his own peanut seed instead of buying them like his dad had done.

This new approach helped him earn more money and expand his business.

Even though Carter was crushing it on the farm, he wanted to do more to help his community.

And that brings us to Jimmy Carter's political career.

Carter was deeply involved in his local community.

He served on library, school, and hospital boards in Sumter County.

He then expanded into state politics, serving in the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1967.

As a state senator, he advocated for better education, racial integration, and environmental protections.

And his aspirations didn't stop there.

In 1966, he ran for governor of Georgia, but lost to Lester Maddox in the Democratic primary.

He ran again in 1970 and won after a successful campaign as the representative of the ordinary people.

Voters liked that he was a peanut farmer who appealed to the average person.

Jimmy Carter knows what it's like to work for a living.

He still puts in 12 hours a day in his shirt sleeves on the farm at Plains during peanut harvest.

No wonder Jimmy Carter has a special understanding of the problems facing everyone who works for a living.

Georgia needs a man like that for governor.

Vote for Jimmy Carter.

Isn't it time somebody spoke up for you?

When it came to addressing the racial tensions that were still high in Georgia, Carter ran a campaign that was more neutral in order to retain support from both black and white voters.

But his tone changed when he took a firm stance against segregation during his inaugural speech.

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.

No poor, rural, weak, or black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.

Carter's commitment to Georgia spanned far and wide.

As governor, he helped reform the state's criminal justice system, restructured state agencies, started mental health programs, and promoted equal opportunity for women and minorities.

In fact, Carter appointed more women and minorities to his staff, major state policy boards and agencies, and the judiciary, than all of the Georgia governors who came before him--combined.

Jimmy Carter's work was groundbreaking.

However, because of Georgia's state constitution at the time, a governor could not serve back-to-back terms.

So when his term ended as governor in 1975, he set his eyes on the highest office in the land, the president of the United States.

When the Democratic National Convention revved up for the 1976 presidential election, Carter jumped on the campaign trail to shake hands with as many people as he could.

He was friendly, had lots of charisma, and was considered a Washington outsider, which was appealing since the Watergate scandal was still fresh in voters' minds.

It's time for the people to run the government and not the other way around.

All of these aspects earned him the official nomination of the Democratic party.

And in November, 1976, he was elected president of the United States after narrowly defeating incumbent Republican president, Gerald Ford.

For the first time ever, a Georgia native was in the White House.

As president, Jimmy Carter continued to promote education, the environment, human rights, and peace.

Like he had done as governor, he appointed a record number of women and minorities to government positions.

He more than doubled the acreage of national parks and wildlife refuge systems.

He established the Department of Education and the Department of Energy.

He opened diplomatic relations with China and helped negotiate the Panama Canal treaties.

He resisted the use of strong military force and negotiated a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, known as the Camp David Accords.

It wasn't all good, though.

Even some of the most successful people can have shortcomings.

While Carter had inherited an energy crisis and stagflation, meaning there was high inflation, high unemployment, and low economic growth, many felt that he didn't do enough to help recover the U.S.

Economy.

He had a rocky relationship with Congress and struggled to gain its support on several initiatives.

And he angered many Americans when he pulled the U.S.

out of the 1980 Olympics in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

For the summer Olympics in Moscow, ours will not go.

Knowing what the Olympics mean to you, to know that you would be disappointed, it's not a pleasant time for me.

But he didn't just have problems at home.

Carter also had difficulties overseas.

One major struggle was the Iranian hostage crisis.

In 1979, in an angry response to U.S.

involvement in Iran, a group of Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran and held more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Headlines about the crisis dominated the media and made the president seem weak and ineffective.

It was a terrifying ordeal that overshadowed the rest of Carter's foreign policy.

While Jimmy Carter had several successes as president, these foreign and domestic problems were too much to overcome.

He lost his reelection campaign to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

And that brings us to the last P, peace.

After leaving the White House, Carter returned to Georgia on a mission.

In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, a nonprofit organization that aims to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering around the world.

The Center operates in more than 80 countries on initiatives like election monitoring, building democratic institutions, mediating conflicts, and promoting human rights.

The Carter Center has even helped nearly eliminate diseases like river blindness, guinea worm disease, and trachoma.

And all that work didn't go unnoticed.

In 2002, President Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his ongoing efforts to advance human rights and democracy.

In addition to his work with the Carter Center, he also promoted Habitat for Humanity, a Georgia-based organization that helps build new homes and renovate older ones.

He authored over 30 books, including a children's book illustrated by his daughter, Amy, and he regularly taught Sunday school classes at his church in Plains.

In 2024, President Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100.

Despite some of the struggles he encountered as president, he is fondly remembered as a champion of peace and human rights.

So what do you think is the most important part of President Jimmy Carter's legacy?

His work as president, or what he did after he left office?

And what lessons about perseverance and public service can we learn from Jimmy Carter's life story?