Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter's single term in office was a springboard for Black women in politics

Carter appointed 18 women to top positions within his administration, accelerating the careers of several Black women appointees.

Photo by Brownie Harris/Corbis via Getty Images

American politician (and future US President) Jimmy Carter and US Representative Barbara Jordan wave during the Democratic National Convention , New York, New York, July 15, 1976. Behind them are former US Vice President Hubert Humphrey and future First Lady) Rosalynn Carter.

When Alexis M. Herman first met Jimmy Carter back in the 1970s, she never imagined how their fates would intertwine, nor the heights to which their respective careers would rise.  

“He was governor of Georgia then, and I was just a few years out of college,” Herman said. The Alabama native and Xavier University alumna was a volunteer on the congressional campaign for civil rights leader Andrew Young, when “Andy introduced me to Jimmy Carter and told him of the work I was doing.”

At the time, Herman was involved in an experimental project to create a minority women’s employment program in Atlanta. “It was the height of the women’s movement,” she recalled. “But women of color were not getting certain opportunities.” 

Her efforts helped place the first Black women in professional and technical roles at major corporations such as General Motors, Coca-Cola, Xerox and Delta Air Lines. From Georgia, the initiative spread across the South.  

Carter seemed impressed. After defeating incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, the Democrat nominated Herman to serve as director of the Women’s Bureau, in the Labor Department. 

Years later, during the Clinton administration, Herman returned to the department — this time as the country’s first Black labor secretary. 

From judgeships to Cabinet-level appointments, Black women broke ground in Carter’s administration. He was in office from 1977 to 1981, amid the wave of feminist and gender activism that followed the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

After the announcement in 2023 that the 100-year-old former president had entered hospice care at home, Black women who worked with Carter during his administration told NBC News that Carter, who died Sunday, had long been a champion of women, notably as shifting gender norms coincided with his term.

Labor Secretary Alexis Herman in 1998. (Cynthia Johnson / Getty Images file)

At 29, Herman was the youngest person to fill the director role for the women’s bureau, which was established in 1920. She spent her three-year tenure advocating for women-centric policy issues that ran the gamut from equal pay and child care to maternity leave and sexual harassment protections. 

“There is not one single initiative related to women’s rights that did not have its foundation in the Carter administration,” Herman said.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, Carter is one of only 12 U.S. presidents who have appointed women to Cabinet or Cabinet-level positions since President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Frances Perkins labor secretary in 1933. During his four years in the White House, Carter appointed 18 women to such positions, CAWP data shows.

Under Carter — whom Black voters overwhelmingly supported in the 1976 presidential race, a contest they were credited with helping him win — Black women were catapulted into key posts.

In 1977, he appointed Patricia Roberts Harris, a Howard University alumna and attorney, as secretary of housing and urban development, making her the first Black woman to serve as a White House Cabinet secretary. 

When Carter later named Harris the first secretary of the newly reorganized Department of Health and Human Services, she became the first woman to hold two different Cabinet positions. 

Hazel R. O’Leary, a corporate attorney who initially joined the Ford administration, rose through the ranks under Carter to serve as chief administrator of the Economic Regulatory Administration in the newly created U.S. Department of Energy.

Carter tapped Eleanor Holmes Norton, currently a member of Congress representing the District of Columbia, to become the first woman to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1977. 

President Jimmy Carter attends Patricia Roberts Harris' swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare on Aug. 3, 1979. (Cook / AP file)

“The beauty of President Carter is he was ahead of his time,” because of his inclusion of Black women in key roles, said Shavon Arline-Bradley, the president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women. She pointed to Dorothy Height, the late civil rights leader who led NCNW for four decades.

In her book, “Open Wide the Freedom Gates,” Height wrote that Carter appointed her to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. 

“The other fifteen members were professionals in fields like medicine, ethics, law, health and education. I was a public member,” she wrote. “And I brought to the commission what I had learned face to face with poor women. I could be the voice of women who knew that their rights had been violated. I had something to contribute in the shaping of public policy recommendations and pressed for policies to be written so that they were understandable.”

While the Congressional Black Caucus of that era was sometimes critical of Carter’s policies and the impact on Black Americans, he regularly engaged with its members. That included Black congresswomen who were powerhouses on Capitol Hill and the national stage, like Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a Democrat with Caribbean roots who was reportedly driven to tears while calling out the administration’s Haiti policy. 

Rep. Barbara Jordan campaigned for Carter and was a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention where he was nominated as the party’s candidate.  

“Carter and Jordan were political allies,” said Carla Brailey, an assistant professor of sociology and a senior fellow at the Barbara Jordan Institute for Policy Research at Texas Southern University, where Jordan was an alumna.

Once elected, “Carter reportedly considered Barbara Jordan on his shortlist for the job of attorney general,” she said. Jordan did not get the job, Brailey said, but was offered a United Nations post — a position she apparently did not covet. 

President Jimmy Carter meets with Rep. Shirley Chisholm on July 14, 1977. (Karl Schumacher / The White House)

Carter grew up in Plains, Georgia, where his father was a farmer and businessman and his mother, a registered nurse. As a child, he formed close, endearing relationships with Black members of his small community in an era of segregation. Following military service as a naval officer, he returned home to run his family’s peanut farm, before later seeking public office.  

Karin Ryan, senior policy adviser for human rights at the Atlanta-based Carter Center, worked alongside the former president for some three decades. “Human rights, democracy and women’s rights are pivotal to our work,” she said of the Carter presidency and post-presidency. 

With former first lady Rosalynn Carter, the center has placed a major emphasis on advancing the rights of women and girls globally. In his 2014 book, “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power,” Carter wrote, “The world’s discrimination and violence against women and girls is the most serious, pervasive, and ignored violation of basic human rights.” 

In public speeches, he challenged misinterpretations of religious scriptures relegating women to secondary status and decried practices such as genital mutilation, honor killings and sex trafficking.

Today, the center’s programs promote women’s leadership in peacebuilding, combating sexual exploitation, and strengthening the capacity of organizations serving less developed nations to promote gender equality, improve women’s access to education and more. 

Rep. Nikema Williams, a Democrat, represents Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, known as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.

“President Jimmy Carter is an inspiration. He never stopped working for peace, democracy and uplifting those most marginalized,” Williams said in a statement. “I named my son Carter after this great President. I strive everyday to make sure Carter has the same humility and commitment to service as his namesake.”

AP
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., seen at seven years of age in 1932, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
AP
Georgia State Sen. Jimmy Carter hugs his wife, Rosalynn, at his Atlanta campaign headquarters, Sept. 15, 1966. The state senator would eventually become Governor of Georgia, then, President of the United States.
AP
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jimmy Carter casts his vote in Plains, Georgia’s, first joint primary, Sept. 9, 1970.
AP
Jimmy Carter, the new Governor of Georgia, shown at his desk in Atlanta, Feb. 19, 1971.
AP
Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter signs a Georgia Senate House resolution opposing forced busing to achieve integration in the classrooms of the United States, Feb. 25, 1972. The resolution asks Congress to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing an antibusing amendment.
Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter announces his qualification for federal matching funds to help finance his campaign for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, Aug. 14, 1975, in Washington, D.C.
AP
Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, right, with a crowd of 5,000 people at Youngstown’s Federal Plaza in Youngstown, Ohio, in his quest for support in Tuesday’s Ohio Democratic primary, June 7, 1976.
AP
Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter gives an informal press conference in Los Angeles during a campaign tour through the West and Midwest, Aug. 23, 1976.
AP
Jimmy Carter stands in a large mound of peanuts at the Carter Peanut Warehouse in Plains, Georgia, Sept. 22, 1976.
AP
President-elect Jimmy Carter leans over to shake hands with some of the people riding the “Peanut Special” to Washington D.C., Jan. 19, 1977. They will travel all night, arriving in Washington in time for Carter’s inauguration as President the day after.
AP
Jimmy Carter takes the oath of office as the nation’s 39th president during inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 1977. Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, holds the Bible used in the first inauguration by George Washington as U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath. Looking on at left are, Happy Rockefeller, Betty Ford, Joan Mondale, Amy Carter and outgoing President Gerald Ford. Behind Carter is Vice President Walter Mondale. At far right is former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
Suzanne Vlamis/AP
President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy, along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House following his inauguration in Washington, Jan. 20, 1977.
AP
President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter stand with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaret, at the White House in Washington, Feb. 21, 1977. Carter hosted a State Dinner for the visiting Canadian leader.
Associated Press
President Jimmy Carter, right, and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are photographed in 1977 with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, at Buckingham Palace in London.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Left to right: Pierre Trudeau, Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, Takeo Fukuda, James Callaghan, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, President Jimmy Carter, Giulio Andreotti, Helmut Schmidt converge as part of the 1977 G7 meeting.
Hum Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Jimmy Carter and family celebrate Christmas at home, Dec. 25, 1978.
AP
President Jimmy Carter rides with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt on a visit to West Germany in 1978 during a review of United States Forces at a base near Frankfurt.
Thierry Campion/AP
Demonstrators burn an American flag, Nov. 9, 1979, atop the wall of the U.S. Embassy where American hostages have been held since Nov. 4. The Iranian hostage crisis, which ended in failure for Carter, was one of the reasons why he lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan.
AP
David Roeder shouts and waves as he and others arrive at Rhein-Main U.S. Air Force base in Frankfurt, West Germany from Algeria on Jan. 21, 1981. He was among 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days after their capture at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The crisis was one of the defining moments of Carter’s presidency that led to the loss of his reelection bid for the White House.
John Bazemore/AP
President Bill Clinton presents former President Jimmy Carter, right, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a ceremony at the Carter Center in Atlanta Monday, Aug. 9, 1999.
Bjoern Sigurdsoen/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter receives the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall, Norway on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002. He became the only man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for work done after his time in office.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter poses for a portrait during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Monday, Sept. 10, 2007.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Adalberto Roque/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter signs his name in the guest book at the Jewish Community center in Havana, Cuba, March 28, 2011. Carter arrived in Cuba to discuss economic policies and ways to improve Washington-Havana relations, which were more tense than usual over the imprisonment of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor, on the island.
Mark Humphrey/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter, left, and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, work at a Habitat for Humanity building site Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, in Memphis, Tenn. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have volunteered a week of their time annually to Habitat for Humanity since 1984, events dubbed “Carter work projects” that draw thousands of volunteers.
Mark Humprey/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter, right, works at a Habitat for Humanity building project Monday, Oct. 7, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. Carter wears a bandage after a fall the day before at his home in Plains, Georgia.
Carter Center
President Joe Biden (far right) and first lady Jill Biden (far left) visit former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, May 3, 2021, in Plains, Georgia.
John Bazemore/AP
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary, July 10, 2021, in Plains, Georgia.

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News:

Copyright NBC News
Exit mobile version