By Catherine Pugh
Special to the AFRO
The death of 39th U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Dec. 29 came as no surprise. He lived to be 100 years of age, becoming the longest living past president in the history of the country. He also lived to fulfill his desire to vote in the November election for the first African-American female presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
photo: AP Photo/Denis Poroy
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has ordered that United States and state flags be flown half-staff until Jan. 28, 2025, in President Carter’s honor.
There are many in Maryland who recall meeting Jimmy Carter, but none more engaged with the 39th president than A. Dwight Pettit, a prominent Baltimore attorney, who was serving on the Board of Minority Affairs Committee for John Hopkins University at the time of Carter’s campaign. Pettit saw a bulletin announcing Carter’s visit to Baltimore and decided to go see him speak.
“He repeated himself after being heckled by the crowd the first time, he said, ‘I am going to be the next president of the United States.’ He repeated it with such conviction, I felt he was ordained to be president,” the lawyer said.
Pettit walked up to Carter and said, “I too believe you are going to be the next United States president” and handed the candidate a check for $500, as his first campaign contribution.
Pettit and his wife, Barbara developed a close relationship with the Carters. They visited Plains, Georgia, held conversations in the Carter’s kitchen and met their entire family, including his mother, Lillian.
“There are so many memories I will cherish of the Carter years,” says Pettit, “especially getting that first call that President-to-be Jimmy Carter wanted to meet with me in Washington, D.C., at the Hilton Hotel. It was just him and I. I told him about the things I wanted him to be conscious of when he became president, including appointing more Black judges. He appointed more female and people of color to the federal judiciary than all previous presidents. Judge Joseph Howard of Baltimore City was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the State of Maryland in 1979. I told him I thought the court system should mirror the makeup of our country.”
Pettit says he will remember his friend Jimmy Carter as a worldwide humanitarian, civil rights activist and a man who wanted to do right by his country and the world–and did. Pettit talks about Carter’s achievement as an insider who was co-chair of his Maryland campaign and in charge of opening his Maryland office in Baltimore and served the president in various capacities, including on his inauguration committee and transition team.
Pettit’s Liberty Heights law office displays many photos of him with President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office and handwritten letters from Carter thanking him for his service.
“I was introduced to President Jimmy Carter by A. Dwight Pettit,” says attorney Larry Gibson, who became an associate deputy attorney general under Carter. “I didn’t know Jimmy Carter. Pettit asked me to introduce him at the first rally for Carter in Maryland. None of the politicians in Maryland would do it. I did it as a favor to Dwight.
“There was a Stop Carter movement in Maryland,” Gibson added. “Jerry Brown was brought in to stop Carter. ‘Anybody but Carter’ was the movement. That movement made Maryland a battleground state.”
The law professor said while he had many positive memories of Carter, most of all, “I will remember him as the president who appointed more African Americans than any prior president, including Andrew Young as ambassador to the United Nations and Patricia Harris as secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. He created the Energy Department.”
Both attorneys agreed that while President Carter did not get elected to a second term, his work after his presidency was just as great. He was a true humanitarian.
“The Carter Center, which has thousands of people today working in field offices around the world to promote fair elections, human rights and resolving conflicts and preventing diseases,” earned President Carter the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, says Pettit.
“ I will remember his humility,” says Gibson. “He was genuine. He taught Sunday School, lived in the same house in Plains, Georgia, after his presidency.”
Baltimore Congressman Kweisi Mfume said he was a young reporter working at WEBB, the James Brown radio station in Walbrook Junction, when he met Jimmy Carter in 1976.
“He was kind, decent and very much opposed to segregation. He invited me to the White House in 1980 to meet Zimbabwean revolutionary leader Robert Mugabe and I was honored to join him again in 1992 when he came to Sandtown in Baltimore to restore and award homes to residents,” said Mfume. He added, “He will always be remembered as a man who cherished his family and loved his country.”
In a more recent memory, David Wilson, president of Morgan State University, stated in a message to the Morgan community that he recalls meeting President Carter on a few occasions, but the most memorable was after the official inauguration of President Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, which he and his son attended.
“Later that afternoon, we boarded a Delta flight back to Madison, Wisconsin, with a stopover in Atlanta. By sheer coincidence we were upgraded to first class on the segment from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta. Ten minutes before departure, President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn boarded the plane and sat directly across from us. Before taking their seats, however, they walked down the aisle and shook the hand of every passenger on board. That simple yet profound gesture left an indelible impression on my son and me. Those two remarkable individuals were always thinking of others, not just themselves. During the hour-and-a-half flight, my son, President and Mrs. Carter and I had an unforgettable conversation about finding one’s purpose in life. I believe both of them lived their purpose,” said Wilson.
Funeral services for President Carter will be held at the National Cathedral on Jan. 9, 2025. After the service, President Carter will be taken to Georgia, where he will be interred in a family plot beside his wife, Rosalynn Carter who died at 96 in November 2023.
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