Gwinnett leaders honor life of Jimmy Carter and his impact
When Jason Carter looks at the community that has grown up along Jimmy Carter Boulevard, he sees a representation of many of the ideals of his grandfather and his grandfather’s presidential administration.
The younger Carter, who now serves chairman of the Carter Center, said the diversity of southwest Gwinnett, particularly along the roadway named for the former president, speaks to the international standing of Jimmy Carter, who is now 98, and what he did for Georgia.
“We’re talking about this incredibly diverse array of global citizens and he certainly is an international leader, one of those who put Georgia on the map, along with Andy Young and others, as an international player,” Carter told the Daily Post. “I think it’s a wonderful testament to what he was able to do.”
The life of Jimmy Carter was celebrated during an event organized by the Gateway85 Community Improvement District on Tuesday, May 23. The CID will be hanging banners thanking the former president along the Jimmy Carter Boulevard corridor. Jason Carter, Ambassador Andrew Young, Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson, Norcross Mayor Craig Newton and officials from the CID, Habitat For Humanity and the community spoke during the event.
Gateway85 executive director Emory Morsberger said the idea for doing something to honor Jimmy Carter came up shortly after the former president announced in February that he would end treatments for various medical issues and enter hospice care.
“It was a fire drill,” Morsberger said. “We wanted to do it before he passed away.”
The event was live streamed so Carter would be able to watch it from his home in Plains.
About 30 banners honoring the former president will be placed along Jimmy
Carter Boulevard, between Buford Highway and Britt Road. The CID is paying for the banners, which cost about $200 apiece, Morsberger said.
Morsberger added that this is the first time any celebration has been held to honor the fact that Jimmy Carter Boulevard is named for the former president. Even when Gwinnett leaders changed the road’s name in the 1970s, shortly after Carter was elected president in 1976, no celebration was held, according to the CID’s leader.
“They just did it quick and Carter had just gotten elected, and they did it within two weeks of his election,” Morsberger said. “There was nothing (to celebrate it), and I wanted to right that, so here we are.”
Much was made about the former president’s contributions, not only during his time in the White House, but after it as well.
“President Carter is a man with an exceptional regard for the humanity of others,” Hendrickson said. “His moving honesty, open heart and desire to bring about peace are the qualities that we should all hope to emulate. It’s fitting that we have such a vital road named for him in a community as diverse and
as international as Gwinnett County.”
Jason Carter said his grandparents chose to focus on helping impoverished communities in African nations, through the Carter Center, because they saw similarities to their home in Plains.
“They didn’t approach those places as somewhere to send pity,” he said. “They looked at it and said, ‘That’s a 600-person village in Mali. I recognize a 600-person village because Plains only has 600 people in it, and I know for a fact that when I walk into that little community there, there’s going to be people in that community that can change the world.’
“And, what they have done really is not provide anything but partnership for all these years.”
Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford joked Carter be
came so committed to working with the organization on home builds after his presidency ended that people began to think he founded Habitat for Humanity.
“If you do a word association game, and you say, ‘Habitat for Humanity,’ the next words that come out of most people’s mouths are ‘Jimmy Carter,’” Reckford said.
On a more serious not, Reckford said Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s annual home builds with Habitat were a highlight for the organization and helped put it on the map.
The Carter’s have done one-week home builds every year for much of the last 36 years, he said. The first one was a home rehab of a tenement building in New York City in 1984.
But, Reckford added the former president takes the mission of buildings homes for families in need seriously.
“Everybody always wanted to be on the Carter house and I would always warn them, ‘That is a great honor but not always the most fun,’” Reckford said. “There is no slacking and we would always say, ‘It’s not a competition as long as President Carter’s house get’s done first.’
“There was no picture taking, no hanging out, no small talk. It was all about getting that house built.”
All of the praise for Jimmy Carter was especially welcomed by his grandson.
“As we have looked back, it’s been really wonderful to see the outpouring of support and respect and love,” Jason Carter told attendees. “And, I think that word, love, is the one that really defines (Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s) personal relationship, but also the way they approach this world.”