Well, I finally finished that Jimmy Carter book, "And Hour Before Daylight." It was interesting. Carter is older than me, but I remember the times he discussed. It was about the depression and segregation, his family history, life in rural, southern Georgia. He didn't ice the cake. He told it the way it was. It wasn't that different from eastern Kentucky in that same period. Yes, it was flat instead of mountains, and farming instead of mining, but it was about poor, hard-working people who didn't have a very bright future. There were people who didn't vote because they were black, or who couldn't get a good job because they couldn't read, or had to share crop because they didn't own land. In Georgia, these people worked hard on a farm while someone else got the money. In Kentucky, they worked in the coal mines and died young from black lung or in cave-ins.
Jimmy Carter was one of the lucky few. His parents owned land, his mother was a nurse, he got an education and was healthy. He had a successful career in the Navy and another successful career in politics. He never forgot his roots and still lives where he did as a boy.
Ask Jimmy Carter who the people were who had the most influence on him and he will name several. Most of them were black.
Howard