SOC Professor Reflects on Interviewing Rosalynn Carter: Insights into a First Lady's Legacy
Eight years after President Jimmy Carter left office, SOC professor Jane Hall was working as a journalist in New York and was hired by Woman's Day magazine to interview Rosalynn Carter for an article about Mrs. Carter and the role of First Lady overall in 麻豆传媒 politics. Prof. Hall interviewed Mrs. Carter at length in Plains, Georgia; and she also interviewed other famous women, from conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly to founding feminist Betty Friedan. Prof. Hall's interview with Mrs. Carter made news at the time. Today, nearly 40 years later, in the wake of President Carter's death, Hall reflects on that conversation with Rosalynn Carter and the remarkable relationship the Carters shared in a piece for AU's Women & Politics Institute.
As we remember and honor the legacy of our 39th president, Jimmy Carter, it is important also to remember and honor the legacy of his political and lifetime partner, Rosalynn Carter.
In 1988 I traveled to Plains, Georgia, to interview Rosalynn Carter for an article for Woman鈥檚 Day magazine about the role of First Lady in 麻豆传媒 politics and politics. Then, as now, the role was undefined鈥攁nd culturally bound. 鈥淣obody ever tells you about the role you鈥檙e supposed to play,鈥 she told me. 鈥淚t鈥檚 what you make of it.鈥
Mrs. Carter鈥攚ho was married to Jimmy Carter for more than 77 years before her death at age 96 in 2023鈥撯攂ecame one of the most politically active first ladies since Eleanor Roosevelt. Seated alone in a modest office in Plains in 1988, Mrs. Carter said that when she came home to the White House for the first time, she was surprised to find her family鈥檚 clothes unpacked and hanging in the closets. There was no first lady鈥檚 instruction manual sitting on the table.
Mrs. Carter鈥攚ho married Jimmy Carter when she was 18 and he was 21鈥搘as her husbands鈥 secret weapon in his unexpected rise from rural Georgia to the Georgia governor鈥檚 mansion to the U.S. presidency in 1976. Jimmy Carter called her his political partner. 鈥淩osalynn and I were the ones who discussed every facet of the campaign,鈥 Carter said. 鈥淪he can do everything as well as I can,鈥 said the president, who called her 鈥渁 full partner or better.鈥
In our interview, Mrs. Carter said it was only natural to continue that relationship once they reached the White House. Soft-spoken but fiercely political, more so, aides said, than the president himself at times, Mrs. Carter sat in on cabinet meetings, held a weekly working lunch with president Carter and felt herself to be such a part of the presidency that White House reporters at the time told me she occasionally lapsed into calling the Carter presidency 鈥渨e.鈥 It was a view of the presidency that offended Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist and opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment. 鈥淭he presidency is not a co-chairmanship,鈥 Schlafly told me more than 35 years ago. 鈥淲e have the right to assume that the first lady will support her husband鈥檚 positions. When people ask me when we鈥檙e going to have a woman president, I say, 鈥榃e already had one: Her name is Rosalynn Carter.鈥欌
Mrs. Carter did not identify herself as a feminist; but, as the New York Times noted when she died, she lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and pushed for women to serve throughout the government. That day in 1988, at pains to define her role as first lady, Mrs. Carter said, 鈥淚 always considered Jimmy to be elected, but everybody knew I came with him. If you鈥檙e there in the White House, I don鈥檛 see how you could sit on the sidelines and not voice an opinion.鈥
Indeed, Rosalynn Carter told me, surprisingly that day, that she had suggested the Camp David meeting that led to the historic peace treaty signed there by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menahem Begin in 1979. 鈥淛immy and I were walking around the grounds at Camp David one day,鈥 she recalled. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so peaceful there. We were talking about the Middle East, and Jimmy was frustrated. I said, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you bring President Sadat here? If we got him here in this beautiful, quiet place, we could do something.鈥
After Jimmy Carter lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, the Carters, then in their mid-50s, founded the Carter Center in Atlanta, and built a remarkable 鈥減ost-presidency鈥 of humanitarian, health and human-rights work that continued until Jimmy Carter鈥檚 death at 100.
From her years as the first lady of Georgia to the White House and at the Carter Center, Rosalynn Carter made the treatment of mental illness an important cause. She testified before Congress in 1979 on behalf of the Mental Health Systems Act, which established support for community mental health centers; and she championed legislation, finally passed in 2008, for mental illness to be covered like physical illness in health insurance.
鈥淛immy never came to me and said, 鈥榃hat should I do about that?鈥欌漅osalynn Carter said in our interview. 鈥淏ut if I felt strongly about something, he鈥檇 listen to me.鈥
Jane Hall is an associate professor in the School of Communication at 麻豆传媒. She is the author of听Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions, from CQ Press.