12/30/2024
I didn't want to meet Jimmy Carter.
It was 1966, and he walked into Paschal's Restaurant, the legendary gathering place for civil rights leaders and activists in Atlanta. I was seated at a crowded table, where someone older and wiser suggested I should meet the young politician, so I asked, "Well, who is he?"
Jimmy Carter was running for governor of Georgia and I'd never heard of him.
At the time, he was a senator in state legislature, and the district he represented, I was told, included Americus, a city where we had been terribly brutalized by local law enforcement during non-violent Civil Rights demonstrations.
He made his way around the dining room, shaking hands with everybody there, and when he was introduced to me, I decided to ask if he knew Fred Chapel.
"Yes, I do!" Carter exclaimed, grinning broadly as he grasped my hand, "He's a good friend of mine!"
Inwardly, I groaned, "Oh, no."
Fred Chapel, the former sheriff of Sumpter County, was called "the meanest man in the world" by Martin Luther King Jr., who had been a guest of his in jail a few years earlier.
Jimmy Carter moved on and, I was incredulous. Everyone at the table laughed, but those in the know assured me he was a good man, worthy not only of my vote, but also my interest and support.
Before he left, I noticed something I'd never seen another politician do in Paschal's. Jimmy Carter not only shook hands in the dining room, he walked into the kitchen to meet the cooks and dishwashers.
That stuck with me.
I often remember that day when I think of the man who would go on to become not only Georgia's governor in a later election, but also the 39th president of the United States -- and my boss! I was honored when President Carter asked me to serve as his Ambassador to the United Nations.
For all he has done since leaving the White House, everybody calls Jimmy Carter our "greatest ex-president" -- but I think that diminishes what he accomplished during his single term in Washington. I've always said it takes at least 50 years for history to render it's verdict. That leaves another decade before we can really related to the world Jimmy Carter saw and struggled to change.
A dozen years ago, I agonized over the things I understood and had learned about Jimmy Carter that many Americans hadn't yet realized.
I decided to make a documentary, predicting greatness for our 39th president. We updated this special presentation just a few months ago to celebrate his 100th birthday. You are welcome to watch the entire program using the attached link and share it with your friends.
It took me a long time to know he was real, a long time to develop the trust and the respect and the love that I later came to have for Jimmy Carter.
He was my friend.
-- Andrew Young
This is "Andrew Young Presents - The Carter Legacy" by Andrew J. Young Foundation on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
