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There has been extensive media coverage of the passing of former United States president Jimmy Carter. Vast amounts of the reporting address his becoming a Nobel Peace Laureate. In his Nobel Lecture, Carter cited the works of some of his Nobel predecessors, notably Ralph Bunche, an undersecretary at the United Nations and the first black Peace Laureate.
Carter cited Bunche’s concept and applied policy of “fortunate flexibility, not merely to preserve peace, but also to make change, even radical change, without violence”.
Both laureates had lasting effects on the Middle East by negotiating geopolitical peace among warring bodies. However, Carter’s impact was not only in negotiating peace but creating the conditions for it – and that involved his commitment to education and equality.
National cohesion
Many lives and careers were influenced by Carter; for example, the cohort selected as American Council on Education (ACE) Government Fellows at the very end of the Carter administration. Under Carter, the federal Department of Education was created as a separate entity, despite some congressional resistance.
As an ACE Government Fellow, I was in the US National Institute of Education within the Department of Education. At the time there was significant interest in the role both domestic and international higher education could play in national cohesion and enhancing individuals’ lives.
Carter appointed Shirley Hufstedler, an appellate court judge, as the first secretary of education – and the second woman in his cabinet – thereby helping to foster gender equity. Carter and Hufstedler asserted that providing the best quality education for all constituted a vital investment in democracy. They believed that an educated citizenry was a sine qua non for social, economic, health and scientific progress.
Early influences
But what led to Carter’s interest in these areas and fuelled his desire to enter politics? His father, a World War I veteran, was active in local politics. This was a time of stringent segregation in educational, social, political and health institutions. His mother, Miss Lillian, as she was known, was a nurse and Peace Corps volunteer who was committed to promoting greater fairness in these areas.
As a boy and prior to his father’s election to the Georgia House of Representatives, Jimmy was attuned to the harsh dimensions of school segregation. His ‘coloured’ playmates did not have the same textbooks, facilities and co-curricular options as those in white schools.
As a young man, he was elected to the Sumter County School Board and subsequently became chair while initially continuing on the local library board. Both positions rekindled childhood memories of educational discrimination and thoughts on how such disparities could be eliminated.
These were the roots of Governor and then President Carter’s advocacy for fair, solid and equal education at the state, national and international levels. In all these spheres, he saw quality education as a bedrock of human rights.
Internationalism
Interwoven into the Carter presidency was its emphasis on international programmes within the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development that included Fulbright programmes and other higher educational and public diplomacy exchanges among nations.
Although I was in the Department of State after the Carter administration, my key mentor was appointed an ambassador by President Carter. Ambassador Horace G Dawson Jr was the spokesman for a consolidated group of Canadian, French, German and Nigerian ambassadors who worked with different political parties from South Africa and other Southern African countries to press for independence and an end to apartheid.
Ambassador Dawson strived to increase the percentage of blacks and others of colour in diplomatic assignments and positions.
These appointments also served as pathways to senior administrative and professorship appointments in universities where we pushed international options for undergraduate and graduate students to develop skills via internships, fellowships and residencies in geopolitically important arenas.
After retiring from the State Department, Dawson spearheaded the development of the Ralph Bunche Center at Howard University which fostered opportunities for a leading historically black college and university (HBCU) to prepare graduates to contribute towards and influence international affairs. In essence, Carter’s appointments and initiatives had multiplier effects.
The Carter Center
After the presidency, Carter founded the Carter Center in Atlanta that focused largely on international challenges that could be addressed in non-partisan ways among and within nations.
As an associate dean for academic affairs and the first female African American full professor at the University of Georgia, I saw how cooperative intra-university endeavours opened up options for our students.
One of these was through internships at the Carter Center, particularly since the university was developing and enhancing curriculum options in public policy and international affairs.
Undoubtedly, this initiative offered a beneficial alignment between the Carter Center and the University of Georgia, other Georgia universities and those from other states.
Our students had exceptional exposure to political, diplomatic and mediation measures used to identify and address tough political issues. For example, United Nations leaders, ambassadors and civic organisations interacted with students who received insights into dealing with conflicts and mediation processes across different groups and constituencies, monitoring elections and exploring climate effects.
I return to Carter’s citing of Nobel Laureate Bunche at the start of my article.
I had the honour and privilege to meet and interact with former president and Mrs Carter at the Carter Center on several occasions. I had some short conversations with Carter, including one where he succinctly explained to me his understanding of Bunche’s approach to conflicts in the Middle East, covered in one of his books.
He further spoke of Bunche’s domestic work concerning discrimination in the United States. Underpinning that commitment to peace was Carter’s dedication to education for all, something that is essential for human rights.
He believed that the best universal education can contribute immensely to human rights throughout the world and this, in turn, can help prevent violence – an important point to bear in mind as we enter 2025 when diplomatic mediation and negotiations will be paramount.
Beverly Lindsay, PhD, EdD, is Co-Director and Principal Investigator at the University of California, USA. She is a recipient of five Fulbrights to African and Asian universities. She has also been awarded two National Science Foundation grants covering science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in graduate programmes relating to students of colour in the United States and England. She was also a visiting professor at University College London and the University of Oxford, UK.
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