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

Former President Jimmy Carter is being honored He died on Sunday at the age of 100. His life and legacy will be celebrated in Washington, DC, Atlanta and Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia. in the coming days.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. It was created after the defeat in the 1980 elections — to promote human rights and alleviate human suffering.

On Monday, ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos spoke with Suggs about the former president’s work, her character and her 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. Lord, thank you for speaking to us today as we say goodbye. What are some of your fondest personal memories?

SUGGS: Well, thanks for having me. Personally, he was a person I have always admired. A story I always told, in 1976, my mother voted for Jimmy Carter. He campaigned for her in Brooklyn, New York. And we voted at 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. “How is your mother? How is she?” And I said — my mother wasn’t very well at the time — “She’s sick.” He battled dementia.

And he told me, you know, he reiterated Rosalynn Carter’s work with mental health. And he asked me if my mother could talk on the phone. And I said, sure, you know, he could talk. And he called my mom and he called my mom to talk to him, to give him some words of encouragement as he was dealing with this illness and eventually an illness that his wife Rosalynn had.

So I think he is an example of a person who is compassionate, who loves humanity, who loves people. And I tell that story as if it is special, but it is not because he has done such works and has done such things for so many people, for so many, for 100 years. And for that I am proud.

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

As you explained in those years, what else stood out to you from the work he was able to do for decades?

HINTS: It was one of the things he said he wanted to see before he died Eradication of Guinea worm disease. And that disease is down to about four people now. And when this started, there were thousands of people with this horrible disease. Now it’s down to four people, about four people. So it will be gone in a couple of years. So this is the kind of work that Jimmy Carter did post-presidency.

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

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

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

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

A perfect example was in 1954 when he left the Navy to return to the 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’ll even pay your $5.” And he said, “I’d rather flush my $5 down the toilet and then give $5 to join this racist organization.”

So even in 1954, even though he had a business in that little rural Plains of Georgia, he basically resisted the temptation to join the clan or Citizens Council because of who he was and how he was raised and the people around him. 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 thanks for sharing that. Since the news of his death last night, Jimmy Carter has been speaking to people in Plains, Georgia and other parts of Georgia. What are you hearing from them? What do they share with you?

SUGGESTIONS: The people of Plains, Georgia, if you come from this town, they love it. 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 picture of Jimmy Carter, and it’s not a White House picture or a standard portrait. It’s the picture they took with Polaroid cameras or their selfies on the porch, eating peanuts and laughing and joking, shelling corn.

So that’s who he was. It was Mr. Jimmy. He was truly a man of the town, who happened to one day be the 39th President of the United States.

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

SUGGS: Thank you so much for having me.