THE CARTER TOWN HALL: A LONGSTANDING TRADITION WITH IMPACT

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“What is your opinion of the A ordable Care Act?”

“As a peanut farmer, have you ever tried almond butter?”

FOR 38 YEARS, THE CARTER TOWN HALL GAVE FIRST-YEAR EMORY STUDENTS the rare chance to ask President Jimmy Carter a variety of questions, from the serious to the sentimental.

The Carter Town Hall began in 1982 at the behest of Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and Emory President Emeritus James T. Laney. The premise was simple: first-year students could ask Carter anything without his seeing questions ahead of time, and he would not avoid any question. In a typical year, representatives from the Student Government Association introduced Carter, and student members of the Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation and Dialogue moderated, asking the questions. During the past forty years, approximately firty-thousand students have attended the Carter Town Hall, usually held in the Woodruff PE Center around Carter’s birthday, which is October 1.

The room is often filled with anticipation about what questions will be asked from year to year. Carter joked at the town halls that questions from the students were more unpredictable, and hence harder, than those from the press. Here’s a taste:

2011: WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT WHILE YOU WERE IN OFFICE?

CARTER: Keeping our country at peace throughout my four years and also trying to generate peace among other people, including between Egypt and Israel.

2016: WHAT’S THE MOST USEFUL PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER BEEN GIVEN?

CARTER: Tell the truth. . . . I would like very much to see a president sometime in the future, or candidates, tell the truth and pledge to the American people that they will keep our country at peace and honor and protect human rights.

2019: WHAT BOOK DID YOU READ THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

CARTER: My wife and I read the Bible together every night and that’s kept our marriage together for seventy-three years. The Bible and [novelist] Patrick O’Brian— that’s a pre y wide range.

As Carter and his wife settled into retirement, students have had the chance to ask questions of other thought leaders and social activists.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carter’s grandson Jason, who is chair of The Carter Center board and a former member of the Georgia State Senate, fielded questions via Zoom from students about running for office and lessons from his grandparents.

In 2021, Andrew Young, whom Carter appointed as United Nations ambassador in 1977, spoke to students about nonviolent resistance, building bridges between the public and private sectors, as well as the importance of talking to people with whom they disagree.

This year, more than four hundred questions were submitted for women's soccer World Cup winner and human rights advocate Megan Rapinoe. She spoke to students about the importance of self-discovery and the courage it took for her and her teammates to bring a lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation to secure equal pay for women in the sport.

Even with recent changes to the speaker, the spirit of the event remains the same: working for positive change in the world. No one is too small to make a difference, especially not a determined peanut farmer from rural Georgia.

—Kelundra Smith

retirement), Nobel Peace Prize winner and thirty-ninth president of the United States.

During the thirty-eight years Carter was at the lectern, some fifty-thousand students heard unforge able stories of his time on the world stage, including his hosting the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. With Carter’s retirement from public life these past two years, the time-honored tradition now gives students an opportunity to engage in dialogue with international thought leaders.

To Emory President Gregory L. Fenves, the partnership with The Carter Center is one of the most powerful ways that the university’s mission is implemented around the world. “Emory’s decades-long partnership with The Carter Center is unlike any other in higher education, benefi ing communities the world over,” says Fenves. “It continues to harness the immense talent of Emory scholars and alumni, applying their research and expertise to carry out President Carter’s profound vision for peace, health and human rights across continents and borders.”

Strengthened by the involvement of Emory faculty and students, The Carter Center has improved life for people in more than eighty countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care.

THE FACULTY APPOINTMENT THAT “ELECTRIFIED” THE CAMPUS

The year 1979 looms large in Emory’s history for two reasons: Robert and George Woodruff made a gift of $105 million to the university, sha ering previous records for philanthropy to an academic institution.

And Jimmy Carter visited to help dedicate Cannon Chapel at the invitation of then Emory President James T. Laney. The mood was jubilant, having a si ing US president on campus.

When Carter’s term ended in 1981, he sought a university affiliation close to home. Carter a racted the interest of many leading higher education institutions, so Laney lost no time in meeting with him. Laney assured the Carters that “he had a moral and ethical vision for the university that they could share and help to advance.” In turn, Carter presented his vision of an “action-oriented” policy research center to advance peace and health worldwide.

Laney notes, “It was obvious to me that Carter should be allied with Emory both as a professor and through the yet-to-be Carter Center. From its beginning, Emory had been built on academic rigor and moral inquiry.”

Carter joined the faculty as University Distinguished Professor in April 1982, having been assured he would always be able to talk honestly with Emory students—a vow he has kept, even solving the hotly debated question at the 2018 Town Hall of whether he prefers his peanut bu er continued on page 21

HE MADE NO BONES ABOUT IT: PRESIDENT CARTER, FROM HIS EARLIEST DAYS LEADING THE CARTER CENTER, WAS COMMITTED TO ERADICATING GUINEA WORM DISEASE FROM THE EARTH. Reflecting the work of nearly four decades, that goal is closer than ever.

The human case count has dwindled to the single digits, with just six cases (five in Chad, one in South Sudan) of Guinea worm disease being reported in the period between January 1 and August 30 of this year. Joyful news—and the progress is nearly unimaginable given the starting point: when Carter took the lead on eradication in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in at least twenty-one countries in Africa and Asia.

Now hope burns bright for eradication by 2030, which would make it the first human disease to be stamped out since smallpox in 1980. The campaign is more impressive for having been waged without a vaccine or medicine, relying instead on trust, health education, and simple, low-cost methods. For a disease to be declared eradicated, every country in the world must be certified free of human and animal infection.

Adam Weiss 13EMPH, who directs The Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication program and earned an executive master’s degree from Rollins School of Public Health, has been in the battle since 2005. Serving in the Peace Corps, he volunteered in the water and sanitation sector of northern Ghana and saw the epidemic, and its ravages, firsthand.

“Hallmarks of The Carter Center’s program are its agility, data-driven decision-making, deep-rooted partnerships, and commitment to prioritize the needs of the endemic countries,” says Weiss.

The disease has incapacitated people for thousands of years as a result of drinking water contaminated with Guinea worm larvae. About a year after contamination, the adult worm creates a painful skin lesion and emerges over the course of weeks or months. Its victims frequently seek relief by immersing their limbs in water, which renews the cycle of infection by stimulating the worm to release its larvae.

In 1990, Carter met with His Highness Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the United Arab Emirates, who made a substantial personal donation and set in motion a more than thirty-year shared commitment to eradication. At the Guinea Worm Summit in Abu Dhabi in March 2022, organized by The Carter Center and the United Arab Emirates, representatives from impacted countries recommitted to accelerating all Guinea worm eradication efforts. That meeting also showcased the next generation of spirited fighters against this disease, including Jason Carter, chair of The Carter Center Board of Trustees and grandson of Jimmy Carter; and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the late Sheikh Zayed and now president of the United Arab Emirates.

Among numerous actions to which the participating countries agreed, Chad—as the epicenter of cases—has recommitted to proactively tether dogs to prevent those that are infected from recontaminating water sources. Restraining them also reduces their opportunities to consume infected water.

In August 2022, the prime minister of Japan awarded the eradication program the prestigious Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize in the medical services category, which includes an honorarium of one hundred million yen—more than $750,000. Weiss traveled to Tunisia to accept the award, noting, “The Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize signifies the government of Japan’s high level of interest and involvement in the health and welfare of the people of Africa.”

Carter is briefed regularly about progress toward eradication, and in his most recent statement said “Rosalynn and I are encouraged by the continued commitment and persistence of our partners and the citizens in the villages to eradicate Guinea worm. Today we are closer than ever, and I am excited at the prospect of seeing the job finished.”

When eradication happens, expect words to fall away. Says Weiss, “I am [already] at a loss to describe how exciting it is to be only a few years from zero cases in the world.”—Susan

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