Jimmy Carter’s Strange Relationship with Black America [Video]

At the ripe age of 100, Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer, was the 39th president of the United States and the longest living American president. He died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son James E. Carter III per The Washington Post. Beloved and misunderstood, Carter especially had a complicated relationship with Black America. It might surprise you to learn that the man who would eventually win the overwhelming support of Black voters for President (twice), wasn’t always seen as a friend to the Black community.

To call Carter’s early relationship with the Black community complicated, would be the understatement of the century. As a candidate for Georgia governor, Carter cozied up with avowed segregationists, earning himself a rather unflattering description from the premier state newspaper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In their opposition to his candidacy they called him“ignorant, racist, backward, ultra-conservative, red-necked South …