Jimmy Carter

Served as President from 1977-1981
Era: The Seventies
American Identity and Culture
During the 1970s, minorities began to protest and implement their own movements in the United States to achieve discrimination relief and recognition by the American public.Before World War II, Hispanic Americans generally resided in southwestern states. However in the years after World War II, Hispanic Americans began to come from Cuba, South America, Puerto Rico, and Central America and inhabit the Midwest and East. During the 1950s to 1960s, Mexican workers assumed agricultural jobs that paid very little. In 1975, Caesar Chavez led boycotts in which achieved rights for farm workers. Mexican Americans, also known as Chicanos, also achieved federal mandates for Hispanics to be taught Spanish and English. During the 1980s, many Hispanic Americans were able to obtain positions, such as being a mayor of a city, in the public office. As a result, Hispanics became America’s biggest minority group.
In 1968, the American Indian Movement was established to obtain self-determination and to bring back traditions of Native American tribes. The efforts of the American Indian Movementled Congress to pass the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 which allowed tribal lands and reservations to have more control over programs, education, and laws.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
During President Carter’s presidency, one of the main problems Carter faced was the increasing inflation rates in the United States. Initially, President Carter tried to fix the inflation rates by conserving the usage of oil energy and instead going back to the usage of the coal industry to replace oil energy. However, the efforts of Congress failed to try to decrease the amount of usage of oil energy. Between 1979 and 1980, inflation increased to 13 percent, a rate that was never seen before by the American public.The inflation rates reduced economic growth because businesses and consumers could not afford the interests rates that were on expensive products. In 1980, Paul Volcker from the Federal Reserve Board wanted to increase the inflation rate to 20 percent. The increase in the inflation rate affected the car industry as well as the construction industry. As a result, many businesses were forced to lay off thousands of workers.In 1980, the government deficit was almost 60 billion dollars which finally hit Americans with the reality that the standard of living in the United States was slowly beginning to decline.
Environment
In 1970, the first ever Earth Day was established. On the national event, approximately 20 million citizens of the United States participated.Earth Day focuses on the amount of pollution and destruction of forests, wild life, etc. in the United States. The event of Earth Day spurred the question of whether or not if advancements in technology were really made. The American public soon became against the idea of constructing more nuclear power plants after an incident in the Three Mile Island power plant located in Pennsylvania. The American public was also scared of incidents like a deadly explosion. For example, like what happened in Soviet Union when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded.As a response to these growing fears over the future environment, conservationists urged for Congress to pass laws and policies to stop any more pollution from being generated and the destruction of the wild life. Congress soon passed the Clean Air Act in 1970 and created the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1972, Congress also passed the Clean Water Act. In 1980, the establishment of the Superfund sought to clear-out toxic dumps. For example the Love Canal located in Niagara Falls, New York.
Politics and Citizenship
Despite the achievements made by President Carter, his actions in handling the crisis of hostages in Iran and his actions in trying to fix the declining economic crisis has led him to be known as an incapable president. In 1979, President Carter made a speech known as the “national malaise” speech. In his speech, President Carter directly blamed the issues of the United States on the American public. As a result, President Carter’s popularity decreased dramatically and thus aided him in his loss of the election of 1980.
In 1978, Allan Bakke, a white man in his 30s, applied to attend the University of California, Davis twice as he was rejected the first time. Bakke was rejected the second time and wondered why he had been rejected when his grades had exceeded the requirement level. Bakke was also curious as to why he was rejected when many of the applicants who were admitted had significantly lower grades than him. In the year 1974, the University finally admitted that they were only looking for applicants whose races were considered a minority in the United States. Angered, Bakke sued in which his case soon was taken under the provisions of the Supreme Court. In the case, known as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court ruled that the university’s actions were unconstitutional and it is illegal to not admit an applicant based on race.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
President Carter was a supporter of civil rights for African Americans. One of President Carter’s main achievements in his foreign policies was his take on human rights. President Carter selectedAfrican American Andrew Young to become the United States ambassador in the United Nations. As ambassador, Andrew Young greatly contributed to the cause of human rights by criticizing the cruelty towards the African Americans in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, and South Africa. With human rights being violated in Latin America by the governments of Chile and Argentina, President Carter stopped sending United State help to them.
War and Diplomacy
In 1978, President Carter was able to settle a peace treaty for Egypt and Israel. In 1977, Anwar Sadat (President of Egypt) went to Jerusalem to visit Menachem Begin, the Israel Prime Minister. With Sadat’s brave move, President Carter invited Begin and Sadat to Camp David, Maryland for a presidential getaway retreat. Together, they were able to agree to the Camp David Accords which called for peace between the two countries. As a result of the peace treaty, Egypt became the first nation of Arabia to acknowledge Israel as a nation. In response to the new found recognition, Israel sent word for their troops to be removed from the territory of Sinai which was taken by Egypt in the Six-Day War in 1967. Despite peace between Egypt and Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization as well as a majority of the Arab nations was strongly against the peace treaty.In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic followers put an end to the dictatorial government of the shah. In the 1970s, the shah provided the West oil, but due to his actions much of the Iranian population became alienated. With Khomeini in power, the oil being sent to the West stopped causing President Carter to have to step in and handle the crisis. In 1980, President Carter allowed for a rescue mission. However because the helicopters in the desert of Iran broke down, the mission was cancelled. As a result, President Carter’s failed actions to rescue the hostage became a symbol of him being a failure president.