Georgia - Day 7 - Plains and Jimmy Carter

Cordele KOA, Cordele

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

today's route

Today is International Women's Day.  I hadn't realized that this day has been celebrated for more than 100 years and is an official holiday in a long list of countries.

According to Google, the Americus KOA is actually 9 miles from the town of Americus, and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park is 9 miles from there.  I knew I wanted to see Plains at some point during my visit to Georgia, so now looked like a good time.

But first, to Americus, enjoying the wild wisteria all along the way.  It was really glorious and I wished I could stop even to take a photo, let alone to smell it.  But the road was a 2-lane no-shoulder road and even the private driveways didn't have very wide openings, so I'll just have to remember it.

Signs told me Americus counted itself a historic town, and when I got there it was easy to see what the historic downtown had looked like in the past.  Some buildings were well maintained, some weren't.  But overall, it was an attractive old town.  And it really was old, having been incorporated in 1832.  It was named, believe it or not, for Amerigo Vespucci.  And even before the town was officially formed it was making history: Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight in a nearby field in 1923.  They've got a statue there commemorating the occasion, and I'd like to see it when I've got more time.

Pressing on to Plains (pop. 573 in 2020), I almost missed the presidential center because I didn't expect the town to be so small.  

Plains High School Museum and Visitor Center

side 1

side 2

We got there at 9:20, I took Dext around the grounds for a walk, looking for the front door - or even an indication that there was anything here besides the building.  Although it's clear where the central door is, there are no signs at all to say it's the entrance, let alone what it's the entrance to.  I've been to a lot of museums by now - including a lot of presidential ones - and this is the first time I've had to guess whether it was even here.  Even the name made it sound like a local museum, not something relating to a former president.  And that historical marker didn't help a bit.

But I was already there, so I stored Dext and took my federal senior citizens pass and my mask through the central door and found a Park Service person at a desk, asking if she could help me.  This presidential stuff is the only claim to fame Plains is likely to have, so why should they and the National Park Service want to be so incredibly low-key about it?  But I've learned to ask questions and the parks person handed me a brochure (when I asked for it) and told me they had exhibits about Pres. Carter in several rooms of this old school building.

She told me (when I asked) that she'd only recently been transferred here, that she had previously spent several years working at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, locating remains of inhabitants from many centuries ago.  She must still be processing the change, because it's hard to think of a greater contrast than between deserts in Utah and farms in Georgia.

It's not a large museum, and I came to understand that most of Carter's official stuff is at the Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.  What's here seemed to be more of the personal stuff, about the town and Carter's background - his roots.  Plus, I'm guessing he wanted to give a boost to his hometown by having this second space here.  Which it apparently does.

Still, I found what was here to be interesting,  I'm very sorry to say that a lot of my photos came out a little blurred.  I'll put in what I can and tell you about the rest.

There was an extensive exhibit about racism in local public schools while he was growing up.  And actually, his family technically lived in nearby Archer, an even smaller mostly African-American town.  I don't know why they moved there, because accounts say his father was a successful store owner and that he was also very pro-segregation.  Apparently that's where Jimmy went to school until he entered Plains High School, an all-white school.

a school east of Atlanta

Students having to share books.

To avoid integration, Plains authorities granted
Black students school buses in 1950.

Note that this classroom, that looks like those I attended,
is called an "equalization school."  Apparently it occurred
to authorities that "separate but equal" was just "separate."

After high school, Jimmy Carter eventually was accepted to the US Naval Academy and began a naval career.

Jimmy and Rosalynn married just before their graduations - he from Annapolis and she from GA Southwestern College.  She'd always excelled in school and, having worked hard enough to get away from Plains, never wanted to go back.  But when Jimmy decided to leave his career in the Navy, he didn't even discuss it with Rosalynn first; he just did it.

(I recently heard an interview he did with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, when he said he was not a good husband for many years because of exactly these kinds of actions.  It seems he did eventually learn better, though.)

Because Jimmy's father had been very active in civic organizations, Jimmy decided to run for the county school board, his first elected office.  His progressive views about race ran into opposition from the local White Citizens Council.  Still, he was elected to the state senate for 2 terms before running for governor.  He was beaten by Lester Maddox, well known as a staunch segregationist.  Next time around, Jimmy won.  Three years later he ran for US president against incumbent president Gerald Ford and won.

That result was likely for 2 reasons: Ford's pardon of Nixon may have been the best for the country but it angered voters; Carter was well-known as a professed Christian and appealed to religious voters.

I'm guessing that settling into her role as First Lady was fulfilling for Rosalynn, given her desire to have a greater influence on the world than a life in Plains could provide.

But it's little known that she also played a role in foreign affairs, such as in what's regarded as Jimmy's greatest achievement: peace in the Middle East.

"Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords
on September 17, 1978.  The experience inspired Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
to start The Carter Center."

Both Arafat and Begin were grateful for Carter's efforts as shown below:

During his presidency, Carter also had a few other matters of foreign concerns to deal with.

Carter's inability to bring the hostages home was widely
regarded as a stumbling block for his reelection.

(Just over a week after I visited this museum, I heard confirmation of a rumor I'd heard many years ago: that Reagan worked with Iran to ensure that the hostages wouldn't be released until after the election.  The source was former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes of Texas.  I remember him as being a fairly principled Texas politician (which you may have thought an oxymoron) so am inclined to believe his account.)

Riots regarding transfer of the
Panama Canal back to Panama.

I didn't remember that John Wayne supported
Carter on the transfer of the Panama Canal.

see caption below

The Carters in 1979 with the Chinese Vice Premier and his wife.

Nixon is known as the president who "opened up China" but that was for trade purposes.  Carter was the president who established diplomatic relations with China, while still preserving support for Taiwan.

He also attended to matters of domestic policy:

Without intending to denigrate the importance of bringing education to a cabinet level position,
what this display made me remember is how sorry I felt for Amy Carter.  She had to go
through those ghastly awkward years of 9 through 13 in full public view.

The museum also displayed one of the few replicas of the Resolute desk.  The original is currently being used by Pres. Biden.

Fuzzy copy of a well-known photo from 1963 of Pres. Kennedy
and his son John with the Resolute desk.

In 1880 the desk was sent to Pres. Rutherford Hayes as a gift from Queen Victoria.  It was built of timber from the HMS Resolute, hence its name.  It's been used as the primary desk by 23 presidents.  There's a pretty interesting account of its extensive history on this Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute-desk

A striking display was a gift that happened well after Carter's presidency.  It came from Habitat for Humanity, which he and Rosalynn are well-known supporters of and volunteers for.

This is an enormous quilt.
Some detail shown below.

These are 2 panels of those around the edges - see
a section below.  These 2 are signatures of Gerald Ford
and the wife of Anwar Sadat.

The Carters' work around the world with Habitat for Humanity is only one of Jimmy's humanitarian activities during his post-presidency.  He occasionally acted as a back channel negotiator for various presidents.  He's internationally known for helping to ensure fair elections in other countries.  Through The Carter Center, they've worked to eradicate diseases that are especially prevalent in Africa.  And so forth. 

Somewhat unsurprisingly, he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."  The chair of the Nobel committee said he'd have gotten the prize in 1978 for the Camp David Accords, except that his nomination came in too late.  At least he's lived long enough to see it.

a replica - see below

There was of course more in the museum, but I knew I wanted to visit the official library in Atlanta and decided this was enough.  I have to say, though, that I hadn't remembered a lot of this and, just as it was intended, it improved my impression of him.

Dext and I walked around again, and we left Plains a little after 11:00.  We passed through the small town of Smithville, which has been losing population by about 150 people per decade - now sitting at 462.  Part of the reason may be that the main road from Americus down to Albany was routed around the town.  I drove through town because I wasn't going to either of those places.

Instead I headed northeast to Leslie to the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum.  I wanted to visit despite their webpage saying there was a "nominal" entrance fee.  Anyone who won't say how much they're charging and then goes on to downplay the amount is probably charging too much.  But in the event, I wasn't able to decide.  The road it sat on was narrow with no parking along the street.  The entrance to the museum's parking area included a brick arch that looked like it might be too narrow and too low to accommodate the RV - enough anyway that I didn't want to risk it.  A shame.  I'd have loved to see old rural telephones.

On to Desoto - and all these towns looked just like small old towns.

I heard on the radio that 5 women in Texas have filed a 91-page lawsuit against the state, asking for clarification of the abortion laws recently passed there.  I also heard that Texas has the worst maternal mortality rate in the developed world.  I'll look forward to reading that brief.

We got to the Cordele KOA and were in our campsite before 1:00.  Our reservation is for 5 days, but we might stay longer if the facilities are comfortable.