Jimmy Carter at 100: A century of change for a president, the United States and the world since 1924

Their town had fewer than 500 residents in the 1920s and has about 700 today; A large part of the local economy revolves around its most famous residents.

When James Earl Carter Jr. was born, the life expectancy of American men was 58 years. Today she is 75 years old.

TV, radio and presidential cards

NBC first presented a red-blue electoral map in the 1976 election between then-President Gerald Ford, a Republican, and Carter, the Democratic challenger. But NBC's John Chancellor turned Carter's states red and Ford's blue. Some other early versions of colored voting cards used yellow and blue because red was associated with Soviet and Chinese communism.

It wasn't until the 1990s that networks chose blue for states won by the Democrats and red for states won by the Republican Party. “Red State” and “Blue State” only became a permanent part of the American political lexicon after the controversial election between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000.

Carter was 14 when Franklin D. Roosevelt made his first television appearance as president. Warren Harding became the first radio president two years before Carter was born.

Attention buyers

In 1924, there was no Amazon Prime, but you could order a build-your-own house from a catalog. The three-bedroom Sears Roebuck Gladstone model cost $2,025, which was slightly less than the average annual salary of a worker.

From suffragettes to Kamala Harris

The 19th Amendment, which extended the right to vote to women – then almost exclusively white women – was ratified in 1920, four years before Carter was born. The Voting Rights Act, which extended voting rights to black Americans, was passed in 1965 as Carter prepared his first run for governor of Georgia.

Now Carter is ready to cast an absentee ballot for vice president Kamala Harris. She would become the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office. Grandson Jason Carter said the former president is holding on in part because he's excited about the chance to see Harris make history.

Immigration, Isolationism and “America First”

Despite all the changes in US politics, some things remain the same. Or at least come back.

Five months before Carter's birth, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. The law created the U.S. Border Patrol and severely restricted immigration, limiting entry primarily to migrants from Western Europe. Asians were completely banned. Congress clearly stated its purpose: “to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity.” The Ku Klux Klan followed in 1925 and 1926 with marches on Washington to promote white supremacy.

Trump has also called for this Extensive tariffs on foreign importsPart of his “America First” agenda. In 1922, Congress enacted tariffs to help U.S. manufacturers. After stock market losses in 1929, lawmakers introduced the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in 1930, ostensibly to help American farmers. Nevertheless, the global economic crisis followed. In the 1930s, as Carter became politically conscious, the political right that opposed FDR was driven in part by a movement opposed to international engagement. These conservatives’ slogan: “America First.”

America and Carter's pastime

Carter is the Atlanta Braves' most famous fan. Jason Carter says the former president still enjoys watching his favorite baseball team.

When Carter was born, the Braves still lived in Boston, their original city. Ruth had just completed his fifth season with the New York Yankees. By that point, he had hit 284 home runs (still 430 fewer than he had hit in his entire career) and the original Yankee Stadium – “The House that Ruth Built” – had been open for less than 18 months.

Alcohol, Billy and Billy Beer

When Carter was born, Prohibition had already been in effect for four years and wasn't repealed until he was nine. The Carters were never heavy drinkers. At state dinners and other White House events, they served only wine, although it is a common misconception that they did so because of their Baptist customs. This was more because Carter was always frugal: he didn't want taxpayers or the private account (his and Rosalynn's personal money) to cover more expensive hard drinks.

Carter's younger brother Billy, who owned a gas station in Plains and died in 1988, had different tastes. When Carter became president, he marketed his own brand, Billy Beer. News sources reported that Billy Carter stole a $50,000 annual royalty from a brewer. That's about $215,000 today. The president's annual salary was then $200,000 – today it is $400,000.

The Blame: More Carter Frugality

The debt clock in Times Square didn't appear until Carter was in his early 60s and had left the White House. But for anyone counting the $35 trillion in debt, Carter doesn't deserve much mention. The man who washed Ziploc bags to reuse them added less than $300 billion to the national debt, which was under $1 trillion when he left office.

Other presidents

Carter has lived through 40% of U.S. history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and more than a third of all U.S. administrations since George Washington took office in 1789 – nine before Carter became president, his own and seven since.

When Carter took office, only one president, John Adams, had reached 90 years of age. Since then, Ford, Ronald Reagan, Carter and George HW Bush have all lived to be at least 93 years old.

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