United States | Above the fruited plain

Jimmy Carter reshaped his home town

What the 39th president means to Plains, Georgia

Day breaks over the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia
Back to the beginningPhotograph: AP
|PLAINS

In his memoir Jimmy Carter recalls trying to copy the habits of black boys. In his poor peanut-farming community his closest confidants did not share his skin colour, and he wanted to fit in. But Mr Carter lived in the big house; his friends in tenant shacks. In Plains, Georgia, it still seems a wonder that the white child who was always out of place in the Jim Crow South became America’s 39th president. On December 29th he died, at 100, a mile from where he was born.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Above the fruited plain”

From the January 4th 2025 edition

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