A number of stars from the stage, screen and sports paid tribute Tuesday to the former President Jimmy Carter ahead of his 100th birthday, the eclectic line-up is meant to highlight the 39th president’s emphasis on human rights and his love of music as a universal language.
“Everyone here is making history,” Jason Cartergrandson of the former president, to more than 4,000 people who filled Atlanta’s Fox Theater for the longest US executive toast in history. “This is the first time people have come together to celebrate the 100th birthday of an American president.”
The benefit concert, with ticket sales funding the international program of The Carter Center, founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in 1982 after leaving the White House, brings together artists spanning generations and genres traced back to the 1976 campaign. The concert will be broadcast in its entirety on Georgia Public Broadcasting on October 1, Carter’s birthday.
Carter remains in hospice care at her home in Plains, Georgia. Rosalynn Carter passed away in November 2023 at the age of 96. Spouse have been married for 77 years.
“He was really the president of rock-and-roll,” said Chuck Leavell, who based the Georgia Allman Brothers Band campaigned with Carter in 1976. But more than that, Leavell said, Carter always understood music as something “that brings people together.”
Michael A. Schwarz / Courtesy of The Carter Center
Indeed, on Tuesday the opening of the show gathered artists as diverse as India Arie singing R & B and soul draped in resplendent purple dresses; The B-52s, formed in Athens, Georgia, singing “Love Shack” and projecting psychedelic imagery across the concert hall; and the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus brings classical and patriotic repertoire.
Former President Barack Obama, known for releasing summer playlists on social media, marveled at the range.
“Now I have another reason to respect you,” Obama said in a video message. “He has great taste in music. … I’ve never done a concert that featured pop, rock, gospel, country, jazz, classical and hip-hop.”
Of course, Obama noted, “Jimmy never misses an opportunity to send a message,” and several artists referenced one of Carter’s popular quotes about music: “One of the things that brings America together is the music we share and love.”
Leavell took the stage several times on Tuesday, repeating the music he played and sang nearly 50 years ago when Carter, the underdog former governor of Georgia, outlasted better-known Democrats to win the party’s nomination and the presidency after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
“Music is an important part of our political legacy,” Jason Carter told The Associated Press. “The Allman Brothers helped get him elected. Willie Nelson helped him get elected. He was a believer.
Rick Diamond / The Carter Center
“When he came out of the South, became the president of the United States, the Allman Brothers and some other people really announced this New South that turned the page in the days of segregation – the lyrics, the whole vibe. ,” the younger Carter continued. “They are used to connect all generations.”
Leavell traced Carter’s love of music to his upbringing in the church; The former president has written about his early church experiences, including visiting a Black congregation near his home just outside Plains. Carter remembers that he was more attracted to the music there than what he heard in white congregations. At the Naval Academy, Leavell noted, Carter and one of his friends would buy classical recordings of the same piece to learn how music could be interpreted differently.
Part of the evening featured Carter’s legacy as president and with The Carter Center, which promotes democracy, resolves conflict and fights disease around the world.
Hannah Hooper, lead singer of the alternative rock band Grouplove, praised Carter for developing nationally protected parkland, the most in Alaska. Actress Renee Zellweger chronicles the lifelong relationship between the former president and his wife, who first met when they were just days old and died last November after 77 years of marriage.
Two former Atlanta Braves baseball stars, Terry Pendleton and Dale Murphy, hailed Carter as their No. 1 fan. They remembered what it was like to play with the Carters sitting in the field-level box, and they presented the former president’s great-grandson with a Braves jersey to give his grandfather. Number of shirts: 100.
Bernice King, the daughter of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., spoke about Carter’s relationship with her family – she was close to her mother, and her grandfather was instrumental in Carter’s election in 1976. Although Carter was not actively involved in King Jr.’s work, Bernice King thanked the former president for honoring his father for his indirect role in Carter’s politics. Without the success of the Civil Rights Movement, he recalled Carter saying, the nation would not have raised a Southern governor who came of age during the Jim Crow era of segregation.
The night was mostly devoid of partisan politics, although Jason Carter had spoken at the Democratic National Convention in August, saying his grandfather wanted to attend the convention.
There were signs Thursday night of Democratic loyalty to Carter and the specter of the 2024 election.
Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers praised Carter as a first and added that the country would be better off if he had “done the job” – an apparent reference to Carter’s loss to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
The list of former presidents paying tribute was bipartisan: Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush tied with Obama. President Biden added his greetings, noting that he was the first US senator to endorse Carter’s White House bid. “I admire you very much,” Mr. Biden said, calling Carter, “Mr. President.”
But there was a notable omission: former President Donald Trump. This year’s 2024 Republican nominee has repeatedly dismissed Carter as a failed president as he tries to mount a comeback bid. After the 2016 election, Carter questioned Trump’s legitimacy.
Arie’s choice, meanwhile, includes “What If,” lyrics which include the first name of a Black woman who has broken barriers. Among them: Kamala. The reference to the vice president and Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, drew a lot of attention.
Jason Carter, for his part, said his grandfather had been intrigued by Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and the possibility that Harris could become the first woman in the Oval Office. The younger Carter, who now chairs the Carter Center board, said Jimmy Carter struggled for months after Rosalynn Carter’s death but is now excited about another campaign.
“They are ready to turn the page on Trump,” Jason Carter said, but was more driven by the opportunity to vote for Harris. “When Kamala came on the scene, it really galvanized the party, and she energizes it.”
