Jimmy Carter Becomes First Former US President to Turn 100

Joe Biden led con­grat­u­la­tions on Tues­day to Jim­my Carter on his 100th birth­day, a mile­stone that makes Carter the first for­mer US pres­i­dent to become a centenarian.

Carter’s Continued Engagement and Legacy

Carter entered hos­pice care at his home in Plains, Geor­gia, 19 months ago. His grand­son, Jason Carter, has said the for­mer pres­i­dent is eager to cast his bal­lot for Kamala Har­ris, a fel­low Demo­c­rat, in the pres­i­den­tial election.

The White House paid trib­ute with a dis­play of big let­ter­ing declar­ing “Hap­py Birth­day Pres­i­dent Carter” and the num­ber 100 out­side the north por­ti­co. Carter has asked Biden to eulo­gise him at his state funer­al when the time comes.

Tributes and Reassessment of Carter’s Legacy

In a state­ment, Biden, 81, who was the first sit­ting sen­a­tor to endorse Carter’s 1976 elec­tion cam­paign, said his pre­de­ces­sor has always been “a moral force for our nation and the world”.

Barack Oba­ma post­ed a video mes­sage on the social media plat­form X that said: “Hap­py 100th birth­day, Pres­i­dent Carter! Thank you for your friend­ship, your fun­da­men­tal decen­cy, and your incred­i­ble acts of ser­vice through the @CarterCenter.”

For­mer pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton tweet­ed: “Jim­my Carter’s long, good life is a tes­ta­ment to love, work, and faith, and an endur­ing bea­con to all peo­ple work­ing to make bet­ter tomor­rows. Hap­py 100th birth­day, Mr. President.”

Jonathan Alter, author of the biog­ra­phy “His Very Best: Jim­my Carter, a Life,” told the Guardian: “It’s just won­der­ful to see that he is alive for the reassess­ment that I and oth­ers attempt­ed almost a decade ago when I start­ed this project. I want­ed to con­tribute to a bet­ter under­stand­ing of who he is and what he accom­plished. He’s lived long enough to see that he’s now appreciated.”

Carter’s Humanitarian Work and Political Engagement

Carter, who has lived longer than any US pres­i­dent in his­to­ry, served a sin­gle term from Jan­u­ary 1977 to Jan­u­ary 1981 and was belea­guered by high infla­tion and the Iran hostage cri­sis. But more recent­ly, his­to­ri­ans have argued that his record deserves reap­praisal and he was ahead of his time in call­ing for action to tack­le the cli­mate crisis.

His decades of human­i­tar­i­an work after leav­ing office, includ­ing the pro­mo­tion of human rights and alle­vi­at­ing pover­ty in coun­tries around the world, earned him the Nobel peace prize in 2002.

His birth­day is being marked by the broad­cast of a trib­ute con­cert by stars of coun­try, rock and gospel music record­ed at Atlanta’s Fox The­atre last month. The con­cert raised more than $1m towards the inter­na­tion­al pro­gramme of the Carter Cen­ter, which he found­ed with his wife, Ros­alynn Carter.