A Century of Changes As Jimmy Carter Turns 100

Former president of the United States Jimmy Carter is turning 100 on October 1.

The 39th president is celebrating the century mark at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he was born in 1924. He is currently in hospice care.

Carter's small southern town is much like it was when he was a boy. But America, and the world overall, has seen major changes over his long life.

Changes everywhere, but not Plains

The U.S. population is almost three times larger than it was in 1924. America grew from about 114 million people to about 330 million today. The world population grew even faster, from 1.9 billion to more than 8.1 billion, during the same period.

That great increase has not reached Plains, Georgia, however. The town of 500 people in the 1920s, now has closer to 600. Much of its local economy revolves around Carter, its most famous son.

Red state, blue state

Jimmy Carter first ran for president in 1976 against then-President Gerald Ford. That election marked the first time the television network NBC started using a red-and-blue electoral map to cover the election results.

The colors have since become a permanent part of the American political language. The color blue represents the Democratic Party and red represents the Republican Party.

Shopping

In 1924, there was no Amazon to order goods online. But Americans could order a build-it-yourself house from a Sears catalog for $2,025. That amount was a little below the average worker's yearly earnings.

There was no superstore like Walmart. But people could buy bread, milk, and other things at small, local general stores.

Prohibition, the ban on making and drinking alcohol, had been national law for four years when Carter was born. He was nine when it ended.

The former president and his late wife Rosalynn were not known as big drinkers. They usually served wine as the single kind of alcoholic drink at White House state dinners, mainly to save money. Other kinds of alcohol would increase the cost of the events.

But Carter's brother Billy was known for his beer drinking. When Carter became president, Billy sold his name to a beer manufacturer to produce Billy Beer. News sources reported that Billy Carter received a $50,000 yearly payment for use of his name from one brewer. That would be about $215,000 in today's economy.

Voting rights

The 19th Amendment that extended voting rights to women went into effect in 1920, four years before Carter's birth. And the Voting Rights Act that widened voting rights to Black Americans was passed in 1965.

Now, Carter is set to vote by mail for Vice President Kamala Harris, says his grandson Jason Carter. He added that his grandfather is excited about the chance to see Harris make history.

If elected, Harris would become the first female and the first person of South Asian ancestry to lead the United States.

Immigration and isolationism

Jimmy Carter was born in a period of isolationism, protectionism and white Christian nationalism in the U.S.

In 1922, Congress enacted taxes on imports, called tariffs, to help U.S. manufacturers. After stock market losses in 1929, lawmakers added more tariffs to help farmers.

Five months before Carter was born, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. The law created the U.S. Border Patrol and sharply limited immigration, permitting mostly just Western Europeans to enter. Asians were barred from the country completely.

Congress said the law was meant to “preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity.” The militant white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan held large marches in Washington in 1925 and 1926 to gather support.

A century later, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is promising to order the largest deportation effort in U.S. history if he wins office.

Trump is also calling for tariffs on all goods coming to America.

Other presidents

Carter has lived through 40 percent of U.S. history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. When Carter took office, just one president, John Adams, had lived to be 90. Since then, Ford, Ronald Reagan, Carter and George H.W. Bush all reached at least 93.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Bill Barrow reported this story for The Associated Press. Hai Do adapted the story for Learning English.

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hospice - n. a place that provides care for people who are dying

catalog - n. a book of list of things that you can buy

wine - n. an alcoholic drink made from juice of grapes

excited - adj. enthusiastic and eager

isolationism - n. a belief that country should not be involved with other countries

preserve - v. to keep something in its original state

ideal - n. the idea or standard of excellence

homogeneity - n. making up of the same kind of people

deportation - n. forceful removal of non-citizen to leave a country