
Jimmy Carter's US state funeral begins in Georgia | BBC News
BBC News- 101 views
- 4 Jan 2025
The nearly week-long state funeral of former US President Jimmy Carter has officially begun following his death last month aged ...
The six-day state funeral of America's 39th President, Jimmy Carter, has begun in his native Georgia. He died last week at the age of 100. Former and current Secret Service agents assigned to the Carter Protective Division transported the former President's remains to the Hearst. Crowd lined the streets to pay their respects as the motorcade passed through Mr. Carter's hometown of Plains and onto his childhood home. And the National Park Service saluted President Carter and rang the historic Farm Bell 39 times. His motorcade will travel to Atlanta to the Carter presidential Center, where he will lie in repose until early on Tuesday. The body will then be flown to Washington, DC, where he will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda. His national funeral will be held at the National Cathedral on January ninth. Well, I'm joined by my colleague, Carl Nasman, who's at the Carter Center in the city of Atlanta. And following today's proceedings for us, Carl, it's been quite a ceremony already, but days to come as the US honors Jimmy Carter, who, of course, reached the incredible age of 100.
Yeah, he was America's, excuse me, America's oldest living president, 100 years of age. We're here in Atlanta, outside of the Carter Center and presidential library, really the headquarters of his post-presidentcy, where he did so much work for many decades after leaving the White House. We should say there's already a bit of a memorial outside here in front of the sign. People coming by, leaving flowers, little bits of mementos. There's actually a box of peanuts out there for the peanut farmer from Georgia. We saw that video there from his boyhood farm. There are also, of course, people here who knew the former President best. We're going to be speaking with one of them now. I just want to bring in Dr. Jennie Lincoln, Senior Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Carter Center. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
It's a somber day, obviously, today, as we see this motorcade, the country getting a chance to pay its respect, say goodbye to the former President. What are your thoughts today?
My thoughts are that for President Carter, this is a celebration of his life, a recognition of a life well-lived, long-lived, and in total service to humanity.
You worked with the former President, obviously, here at the Carter Center. You were saying you joined in what? 1988. So just a couple of years, really, after this building was built. What was it like working with the former President who had just as much energy as he did when he was in the White House, didn't he?
It was very inspiring. And what you think of Jimmy Carter that he is, is exactly what he is. Totally, totally transparent, honest, with high integrity, dedicated to serve others. He felt that he was put on this Earth to serve others, and he led his life that way, and he inspired that in the staff.
He's a boy from Georgia, the son of a peanut farmer. He came into the White House, obviously, and pretty much immediately, he had plenty to deal with internationally. There were some things he worked with in Latin America, one of the first big international treaties, at least, was in Panama, this situation with the Panama Canal, arranging which was not a popular political move at the time, to give the canal back to Panama. Just walk us through how he related to Panama and the region of Latin America.
Panama is an example of what he thought was right. Even if it's not popular, it's better to do the thing that was right, and At the time, it was a choice and a very important one for the hemisphere, for which in the hemisphere, he is widely respected for that. The Panama Canal, it took a quarter of a decade to turn over the Panama now to Panama, and it is now thriving and a major, major economic waterway for commerce across the world. What Jimmy Carter brought to the hemisphere was a representation of his dedication to serve others and to do the right thing.
In terms of your work, the Carter Center's work in Latin America, really promoting democracy and also monitoring elections, isn't that right?
Yes, I think his legacy from the presidency is very much to human rights because he came into the presidency at a time when there were military dictatorship in Latin America, and he pressed governments, even the military dictatorship, to champion human rights. Then democracy. It was a wave. He came in at a time that there was a wave of the military going back into the barracks and elections being held. So when he left the Carter Center, one of the first things he did was engage in election observation and supporting the democratic processes and the people's right to choose their own leaders.
I know, obviously, you've served in just briefly, if you don't mind about 20 seconds left, but you were recently in Venezuela monitoring that election.
Yes. And there, the Carter Center, again, proved what was true about another election in the hemisphere.
Really impressive work by the Carter Center, and of course, the former President himself, Dr. Jennie Lynch, Senior Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean. Thank you for stopping by to talk with us about your work and, of course, your relationship with the former President as well. And as we continue to follow the day's developments that state funeral just beginning here in his home state of Georgia. That procession will be coming back here to Atlanta in about a couple of hours time or so. We have been speaking with some of his relatives as well, actually. Jason Carter, the grandson of Jimmy Carter, speaking recently to the BBC. Here's a bit of what he had to say.
For me, the memories and the remarkable thing really is that he wasn't any different in private than he was in public. And I think for us, that meant we would sit around at the dinner table at Christmas time and we would talk about rare African diseases. But we also just went fishing and went to baseball games and did the things that you do with your grandfather.
From early on, he gave you advice, didn't you? And you took it.
Yeah. I mean, his mother turned 70 in the Peace Corps. When he got out of the White House in his 50s, I think she was standing behind him saying, I turned 70 in the Peace Corps. What are you going to do? And so I think that was motivating to him. When I was a young 21-year-old whipper snapper and said, What do you think I should do? He said, You should go to Africa and live in a village in the Peace Corps. I did it, and it was life-changing for me.
Was it his personal choice to tour all these important places posthumously?
He will be in the places that defined him in many ways. Plains, Georgia is where it begins. We'll come to Atlanta, to the Carter Center, and then to the US Capitol and to Lyon State as the former President. I think those things are appropriate. Again, it may not be what you normally would have for your grandfather, but I think for him and his relationship with the American people, at least, he felt good about it.
It's the grandson of Jimmy Carter there. Carl, it's been fascinating to read so much of the political history of Jimmy Carter's presidency and how his legacy has been judged since, of course, he left off as a one-term president. This funeral, this week-long memorial comes at a time of huge political change in the US as President Trump is about to be inaugurated. It's a really fascinating contrast, isn't it, to see this outgoing president, but also as the US looks ahead to what is coming politically down the track, what has changed, and what are the challenges that America still faces?
Yeah, it's quite the time right here in the US. Obviously, the inauguration of the next President, Donald Trump. That'll be on January 20th, only a few days away. Joe Biden, one of his final acts, will be delivering the eulogy at that memorial service in Washington, DC in just a few days time. We saw some interactions, I guess, if you want to call them, between Jimmy Carter when he was still alive and President Trump, they didn't seem to really get along. They both had some quips for each other, I guess you could put it that way, but we did see a very gracious note on social media from Donald Trump when Jimmy Carter passed away, acknowledging his life and what he did, especially in this post-presidentcy. It is really interesting as well to look at the legacy of President Carter. While he was in office, leaving the White House at the time, in 1981, as one of the least popular presidents almost of all time when it comes to his approval ratings. That legacy and what he was able to accomplish while he was President has been now slowly reevaluated over the years, looking at what he did, his accomplishments, his environmental record, what he did on the international stage, obviously the David Accords, which is now one of the most durable and longest lasting treaties in the world, really, between Egypt and Israel, that peace is still lasting between those countries today.
That was a significant moment, of course, and one that he's probably most known for when it comes to his presidency. But that post-presidenty, really what many people know him for now, that presidency a long time away. You talk to people here, and it's been decades since he was in the White House. But a lot of those memories coming back, a lot of those discussions, and we'll continue to talk about, of course, as that memorial continues here in Georgia.
Thank you, Carl. We'll be back with you soon. For now, thanks to you and the team there.