ATLANTA — Along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter is one of only two Georgians who’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Oct. 11, 2002, the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the prize to Carter, citing his decades of work trying to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights, and promoting economic and social development.
Channel 2 Action News traveled to Olso, Norway for the event. During Carter’s acceptance speech, he addressed human rights and acknowledged the courage of other Nobel laureates before him, including fellow Georgian Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
[PHOTOS: Jimmy Carter through the years]
“The Nobel Prize also profoundly magnified the inspiring global influence of Martin Luther King Jr., the greatest leader that my native state has ever produced,” Carter said.
Carter called for those in richer nations to aid poorer nations.
“The most serious and universal problem is a growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth,” Carter said.
He concluded by asking all people to work towards peace instead of war.
“Ladies and gentlemen, war may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children,” Carter said.
[PHOTOS: Dedication of the Carter Center and Presidential Library]
The Nobel committee sought to award Carter the peace prize in 1978 for brokering the peace deal between Israel and Egypt, but Carter missed out because of a technicality in the rules.
Some 24 years later, he was honored with the peace prize and Channel 2 Action News was there to cover every moment.
“I feel much more a global citizen than I had before. I’m very grateful and pleased and proud,” Carter told Channel 2’s Monica Pearson about receiving the award.
“Your mother, Miss Lilian, experienced pride a mother would feel to see her son elected president, what do you think she’d say about you being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?” Channel 2’s John Pruitt asked Carter at the time.
“Well, she would probably say she’s not surprised, which she did when I became President and when I became Governor. Mother had confidence in me and was always able to take the wind out of my sails when she thought I was getting a little too proud of my achievements. She had a way to convince me that I was just one of her two sons,” Carter said.
[READ: A timeline: 10 of Jimmy Carter’s major accomplishments]
Carter won the Nobel peace prize for leading the charge for peace and human rights, and for his work monitoring elections around the world.
Through his work with the Carter Center, he has helped resolve health problems, like Guinea Worm in Africa.
“It’s just grievous to me, and I’ve wept over it, to go into a village that suffers from a disease that in a few days can be totally eradicated that’s been there for 10,000 years and to give them a little bit of instruction and filter cloth that might cost $1, and those people will never have another case of guinea worm,” Carter said.
“How would you like to be remembered by the people of this country, by the people of the world, by history?” Pruitt asked Carter.
“If I had to encapsulate it, I would like to be remembered as being a proponent of peace and human rights. That would be a good legacy for anyone in the role of a leader,” Carter said.
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