 Born in Plains Georgia October 1, 1994  Graduated from the U.S. naval Academy  Served in the United States Submarine force  After the Navy, Carter returned to Plains to take over the family’s peanut farm and cotton gin business  Carter was elected to the Georgia Senate 1962  He was then elected to Governor in 1970  Became only President from Georgia when he defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election  He ran on a platform of social reform  And yes, he was a democrat

 Reduced the number of state agencies from 300 to 25  Changed the selection of judges to a merit process  Appointed the state’s first female judge  Created the “Heritage Trust” in order to protect our states’ natural and cultural resources  Worked to evenly distributed funding for public schools  Expanded special education and vocational programs  Pushed for racial and gender equality

 Negotiated the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt  Established full diplomatic relations with China  Panama Canal treaties  Boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow because Russia invaded Afghanistan  Negotiated SALT II with USSR – nuclear arms reduction  Was a champion for world-wide human rights  1979 Iranian hostage crisis – militants in Iran held hostages at the U.S. embassy for fourteen months. The hostages weren’t released until the day Carter left office

 The Iranian Hostage crisis, increased gas and energy cost, along with a economic recession hurt Carter’s bid for reelection. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan.

 Established the Jimmy Carter Center  Author of numerous books  As a deeply religious man, Carter continued to teach Sunday School in his hometown of Plains  Works with Habitat for Humanity to build affordable housing for lower income families  More than doubled the number of National Parks  Created Departments of Education and Energy  Appointed more women and minorities  Assisted in resolving international disputes and helped to monitor elections in newly emerging democracies.  Won the Nobel prize in 2002 for his tireless work and staunch commitment to human rights and nonviolence around the world

 Review:  County Unit System was in place since 1917  It was designed to maintain political power in the rural areas of the state even though the greater population was in the urban areas (cities)  In April of 1962 the Georgia Federal Court ruled that the county Unit System violated the 14th amendment (Guarantees privileges of American citizenship)  Results:  Political power shifts from rural areas to areas with high population density - cities.  Gave the areas heavily populated by African Americans an equal opportunity to elect legislatures (law makers).

 The Georgia Federal Court decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in Gray v. Sanders  The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts decision and maintained that the County Unit System was Unconstitutional  Out of the case came the the “one person, one vote concept”  The concept is that every citizens vote should be equal to every other citizens vote regardless of where you live.  Reapportionment  In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia’s constitution which ensured each county in the state on seat in the legislature violated the “one person, one vote” concept.  Georgia had to reapportion (redraw) its Congressional voting districts according to population to ensure each district were of equal population

 How does Georgia’s Congressional Districts relate to the state’s population?  What would cause the lines to have to be reapportioned again?

 During the 1990s and 1980s Georgia politics took a major shift  While Democrats continued to be successful in statewide offices Georgia voters became more conservative in national politics and began to favor Republicans  This led to Georgia voters electing more Republicans to Congress and the rise of a “real” two party system for the first time in over a hundred years  Even the Governor's office feels the Republican wave  In 2002 Republican Sunny Prude defeated Democrat Roy Barns marking the first time in over 130 years that a Republican would win the election for Governor. The last Republican Governor was Rufus Bullock during Reconstruction

 Brought to Atlanta by Andrew Young and other prominent Georgians  Georgia reaps the benefits:  Millions of dollars were spent on new venues around the city…i.e. the new Braves stadium  Georgia Tech & Georgia State got new dorms  The Olympics brought international recognition to Atlanta  The games brought employment opportunities  Visitors spent millions of dollars at restaurants and hotels  The city was packed with international tourist