(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - Hello, I'm Jeff Hullinger at the Atlanta History Center.

Many politicians become synonymous with a cause or an issue during their political career.

In this episode, we will look at two who will always be inexplicably linked to their cause.

For one, expanding mental health care became a lifelong calling.

And for the other, a tough moral choice would ultimately cost him his second term as governor.

We start out with Rosalynn Carter, our First Lady of Georgia, as well as the nation; a constant champion for improving mental health care and removing the stigma that often came with the need.

Ellen Eldridge has her story.

(gentle music) - [Ellen] Rosalynn Carter's life would take her from small town farmer's daughter to one of the most influential modern day first ladies; and from political defeat to one of the most productive post-presidential tenures in history with her husband.

Her marriage of more than 75 years to James Earl, Jimmy, Carter, would thrust her into many unanticipated roles; navy officer's wife, farmer and businesswoman, political advisor to a governor, and a president, diplomat, and international humanitarian building homes for the poor, combating disease, monitoring elections, and champion mental health around the world.

Her legacy of caring, compassion and community impacted generations to come.

(gentle music) Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born August 18th, 1927, in the small town of Plains, Georgia, 140 miles south of Atlanta; just two years before the Great Depression.

Her family knew hardship in the tiny South Georgia town.

- We've often talked about her growing up in, you know, her childhood and growing up in Plains.

And the two things that she always says is, "We were poor and we didn't know it."

- [Ellen] When her father died of leukemia, 13-year-old Rosalynn had to become caretaker to her siblings and run the household after her mother went off to work.

- Edgar Smith's death plunged the family into poverty.

As the oldest child, Rosalynn had to take on responsibilities much beyond her years.

- I think that what shaped her concern for vulnerable people was really this upbringing where you took care of one another, that that was part of the ethos of being raised in a small town.

- [Ellen] In high school, Rosalynn befriended Ruth Carter, one of the few girls her age in the area.

Inside the Carter family home hung a picture of young naval academy cadet.

- There was a photograph of Jimmy in his uniform that she would moon over when she went to see her friend Ruth.

And so she was kind of in love with him from afar before they had their first date.

- [Ellen] When Jimmy Carter returned home from the academy on leave in the summer of 1945, after some prodding from his sister, he asked Rosalynn out to a movie.

It was the first time Rosalynn had kissed a boy on the first date.

She wasn't the only one infatuated.

When Carter returned home, he told his mother he had met the woman he wanted to marry.

Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Smith were married on July 7th, 1946.

Over the next seven years, Rosalynn moved from one naval base to the next.

During that time, she gave birth to three sons; Jack, Chip and Jeff; often having to raise them alone while Jimmy pursued his naval career.

- When we first married, Jimmy was in the Navy, he was gone all week.

I was at home taking care of the children, the babies.

I had to learn to do things without him.

- [Ellen] In 1953, Jimmy Carter's father died.

Believing he could make more of a difference by returning to Georgia than remaining in the Navy, Carter decided to resign his commission and return to Plains to take over his father's business.

- He made the decision without really fully consulting his wife, who loved the Navy life, loved being a Navy wife.

And all the way back to Plains, Georgia, she gave her husband the silent treatment.

And would say to their 6-year-old, "Jack, tell your father we need to stop at a rest stop."

And then when she got back to Plains, as she told me many years later, she basically sulked for a whole year.

(lively music) - [Ellen] For the next 10 years, the Carters ran their peanut farm and farm supply business.

Rosalynn studied accounting and took on many of the bookkeeping and administrative responsibilities.

- When we came back to Plains, I started keeping our books at our farm supply business.

And pretty soon he was asking me questions about the business because I knew a lot about it on paper.

- [Ellen] When Jimmy Carter decided to run for a State Senate seat in 1963, Rosalynn found that she had a talent for campaigning and a keen political mind.

- Rosalynn Carter started out very shy, didn't think she could give a speech, would sometimes even vomit if she had to give a speech.

But pretty quickly, she really developed a taste for campaigning.

And she loved going to a town where she knew nobody, pass out leaflets, make a beeline for the radio station, and go on the air and talk about how great her husband was.

And she did it very effectively.

- We just developed a real working relationship, and it carried on through the campaign.

- [Ellen] Jimmy Carter's political ambition led him to run for governor in 1966.

But a third place finish in the Democratic primary ended that attempt.

After their birth of their daughter Amy in 1967, the Carters decided to run again in 1970.

It was during this campaign that Rosalynn Carter found her life's calling.

- People would come to her and say, "Mrs. Carter, what is your husband going to do to improve mental health care in Georgia?"

And Rosalynn is the kind of person who, when someone tells her about a problem, she wants to do something about it.

She's very action oriented.

And she also has just incredible empathy for people who were vulnerable and suffering.

And so, all of those stories touched her.

- [Ellen] Rosalynn decided to bring it to the attention of her candidate husband at one of his rallies.

- Well he reached for my hand before he looked, before he knew who it was.

(chuckling) And he said, "What are you doing here?"

And I said, "I wanna know what you're gonna do for people with mental illnesses when you're governor of Georgia."

And he said, "We're gonna have the best program in the country and I'm gonna put you in charge of it."

(audience laughing and clapping) - [Ellen] Rosalynn Carter did advocate for better mental health care during her four years in the Governor's Mansion.

(lively music) When Governor Carter decided to run for president in 1974, he again recruited one of his most trusted political assets, Rosalynn.

She took on the role of full-time campaigner, often running her own separate schedule from Jimmy.

- She was seen as Jimmy Carter's secret weapon.

Rosalynn Carter allowed her husband to essentially be in two places at the same time, could campaign in two places at the same time.

That's a huge asset in politics.

- [Ellen] When her husband won the election, she was asked about her new role.

- They asked her whether or not, when she was gonna become First Lady of the United States, if she was gonna have a problem living in this fishbowl and having everybody know her business.

And she said, "You know, I'm from a tiny town of 600 people.

Everybody's always known my business."

- [Ellen] Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter had always been a team.

But when they reached the White House, Jimmy Carter deputized Rosalynn to take on new roles as a first lady.

Not only was she to be his, quote, antenna and lightning rod to pick up the static of the electorate.

- She had a much greater ability than he did to travel around the country and listen to the concerns and the needs of ordinary Americans.

So in many ways, she was a critical communications conduit for him around what was going on in the country, what people were thinking, and what they were expecting of the administration, or how they were reacting to administration policies.

- [Ellen] She was also the first person the President consulted on issues.

- She is his most trusted advisor.

And I believe that stems from their life experience building this partnership.

And also from the fact that they could be brutally honest with each other.

- [Ellen] Rosalynn Carter was the first First Lady to have an office in the East Wing as well as professional policy staff.

Less than a month after Jimmy Carter won the presidency, she convinced her husband to create a presidential commission on mental health.

- For too long, these people have not received the care they need and that a caring society should provide.

- [Ellen] Mrs. Carter held hearings across the country, testified before Congress, and spearheaded the passage of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.

- Everybody in our country can realize that it's just an illness like any other illness.

- [Ellen] Kathryn Cade says, in part, because of Mrs. Carter's work, the stigma of mental illness and its treatment has dramatically changed.

- Today, most people are not afraid to seek help.

They're not afraid to admit they need help.

And today, most people can recover from mental illnesses.

So the hope of recovery is real and tangible.

- [Ellen] It was just one of the health issues that she championed.

- Rosalynn Carter and a woman named Betty Bumpers, who was married to Dale Bumpers, a senator from Arkansas, they went around the country and they convinced many state legislatures to require vaccination before young children could go to school.

And this saved many lives and was a major contribution to public health.

- [Ellen] Once a week, the President and First Lady met for lunch to discuss the various topics and projects each was working on.

But increasingly, the President found his wife wanting more information about what had transpired that day.

- Jimmy said every time he stepped off the elevator to (chuckling) come home in the afternoon, I said, "Why did you do this?"

or "Why did you do that?"

because I had either heard something on radio or television or read something in the newspaper.

And one day he said, "Why don't you just come to the cabinet meetings and then you'll know why we do things."

So, I went to cabinet meetings.

And I never did speak up at cabinet meetings, that would have been out of place.

But then in the afternoons, we'd sit on the Truman Balcony and we'd talk about the things that happened that day.

- [Ellen] President Carter freely admitted that Rosalynn had much better instincts for politics.

And the White House staff grew to respect her candid and somewhat tough advice on issues.

She soon earned the nickname of the Steel Magnolia in the West Wing.

- Oftentimes, the staff would use her as a back channel to the President.

So, if they had an issue they were working and they were having trouble convincing him that it was an important issue or convincing him of their point of view, they would then come to her and say, "I need you to talk to the President about this."

And so then she would, if she agreed with their position, then she would talk to the President about it.

So I think that, so I think, in general, she was seen as a, you know, an advocate and an ally.

So I think that they were quite happy to have her there.

- [Ellen] In 1977, President Carter sent her on a two week diplomatic mission to seven Latin American and Caribbean countries to help promote democracy and the President's human rights agenda.

- I bring you greetings from Latin America and the Caribbean.

- You got the impression that this woman knew what she was talking about, and that you weren't just having a conversation with a lightweight, you were having a conversation with a woman that knew the problems you were talking about, and she knew how it was acting all over the world.

- [Ellen] After the trip's successful conclusion, "The New York Times" referred to her as Ambassador Rosalynn Carter.

And her husband privately called her his number one diplomat.

Rosalynn also lobbied heavily for the Equal Rights Amendment, and she pushed her husband to hire more women and minorities in his cabinet and federal judgeships.

President Carter appointed 262 federal judges, which included 55 minorities and 40 women, the most by a president up to that time.

One of the best known was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

During the Camp David Peace Accords, Rosalynn Carter often helped rally the President when it looked like the talks would break down.

- Oftentimes, Jimmy Carter would get a little bit depressed about their chances of success, and he would almost vent to Rosalynn about what was happening.

And she would try to reassure him that they wouldn't even be there if it wasn't for him, and that he could see it through.

- [Ellen] President Carter pushed a very ambitious agenda through Congress with many successes that still reverberate today.

But Americans at the time didn't always feel the benefits.

High interest rates, along with high inflation with slow growth, coined stagflation, and the Iranian hostage situation, plunged Jimmy Carter's approval ratings.

Rosalynn tried to get the President to put off many of the programs and policies that she knew would be unpopular until his second term, a term that never came.

- There were numerous occasions when Mrs. Carter might counsel him and say, "Maybe that's too political.

Maybe it's too much.

Maybe we should leave it to the second term."

And he would persist on proceeding ahead.

- [Ellen] Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election in a landslide.

The Carters called their departure from the White House, their involuntary retirement.

- I was bitter (chuckling) about Jimmy being defeated, yes.

And, well, first we wrote books.

And in writing the books, we realized how being in the Governor's Mansion, the White House, had broadened our view of what was important in the world.

And I know I woke up one night, Jim was sitting straight up in the bed.

I thought he was sick because he always sleeps all night long.

And he said, "I know what we can do at the Presidential Library.

We can have a place to resolve conflict."

So it really started to just solve conflicts.

- [Ellen] They formed the Carter Center in 1982, and it quickly moved beyond just resolving conflicts.

Jimmy and Rosalynn expanded their work to include eradicating disease, promoting sound agricultural practices, election monitoring, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, and high profile peace missions.

Rosalynn traveled with her husband to Africa, Central and South America, Asia, and Europe, promoting human rights.

- My grandmother has always been committed to mental health.

My grandfather has always been this sort of problem-solving engineer who wants to ensure that the poorest people in the world get treated as well as they can and to take the commandments to do and treat the least of these as you would your Lord and Savior.

That commandment for them is a real one.

And I think that has driven them not just before the White House but after the White House and is exemplified through that time at the Carter Center and others.

- [Ellen] Mrs. Carter also continued to combat the stigma of mental illness by creating the Carter Center's mental health program, promoting mental health programs and policies around the world.

In 1987, she founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers at Georgia Southwestern State University.

She was recognized for her work in 1999 when she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.

- Well Jim and I have been very privileged.

The American people have given us unlimited chances, unlimited opportunities.

And we have wonderful friends who support our programs here at the Carter Center and make it possible for us to do things that we never would ever have been able to do.

- I think the work of the Carter Center is really testament to my grandfather's ability and my grandmother's ability to see the humanity in people far across the world in far different situations than they are, and understand that those are people just like them.

And whether that comes from their faith, their experience or the combination thereof, it's become a powerful, powerful motivator and a powerful tool to do real good in the world.

(inspiring music) - [Ellen] When asked how she would like to be remembered, Rosalynn Carter said, quote, "I would like for people to think that I took advantage of the opportunities I had and did the best I could."

- Rosalynn Carter passed away November 19th, 2023, and was survived by her husband and lifelong partner, former President Jimmy Carter.

She was 96 years old.

Coming up next, Roy Barnes, a member of the State Legislature for over two decades.

He was the last Democrat-elected governor in Georgia and served only one term after taking on the controversial and risky political challenge of removing the Confederate imagery from the state flag.

Donna Lowry has more.

(lively music) - [Donna] Roy Eugene Barnes was born March 11th in 1948 in Mableton, Georgia.

His father owned a general store where Barnes worked from an early age.

- As Daddy used to say, (clearing throat) "If we don't have it, you don't need it."

- [Donna] It was there that Barnes got his first taste of politics.

- The store was kind of the gathering spot for everybody.

But all the politicians would come by when they were campaigning, 'cause they knew there'd be a gathering place there and everything.

And that's where I got interested in politics.

- [Donna] When Barnes graduated from South Cobb High School, he told his father he wanted to go to college and study agriculture.

- He said, "I'm not paying that.

If you wanna farm, you stay here."

He says, "You can farm here."

I said, "Well, I've been thinking about going to law school."

He said, "Well now, that's all right."

- [Donna] Barnes graduated from the University of Georgia in 1969 with a degree in history.

Later that year, he enrolled in UGA's Law School and married Marie Dobbs.

- [Barnes] We met on a blind date and I pretty well knew, I mean after just a few dates that she was the one.

- [Donna] After graduating with honors from law school in 1972, he took a job at the Cobb County District Attorney's Office as a prosecutor while he waited on orders for his military commitment.

- I was sent to Fort Gordon for Officers' Basic.

And then about May or June, they assembled us and told us that they were putting us in reserve units as President Nixon had decided not to send any more troops to Vietnam.

- [Donna] After returning home, Barnes went back to the DA's office and worked in private practice for a while.

It was during that time in 1974 that he decided to launch his political career.

- You know, I'd always enjoyed politics and I enjoyed all those folks coming by.

The election came up, I said, "I'm gonna run for the General Assembly."

So I ran for the State Senate.

You had to be 25 to run and I was 26.

- [Donna] At the time, he was the youngest state senator ever elected in Georgia.

Over the next 16 years, he would take on various leadership positions in the Democratic-controlled chamber.

In 1990, Barnes gave up his Senate seat to run for governor, but lost to Zell Miller in the primary.

Out of politics for the next few years, Barnes decided to run for a newly created State House seat in Mableton in 1992.

- I ran for the House and was elected and then served three terms in the House.

And in 1998, I ran for governor.

I will support the Constitution of the United States.

- And of this state.

- And of this state.

- So help me, God.

- So help me, God.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

(audience cheering and clapping) - [Donna] Elected as the 80th Governor of Georgia, it was during his first term in office that he took on one of the state's most controversial issues, removing the Confederate symbols from the state flag.

- I knew I could not allow the state to be torn apart.

And, in fact, and, you know, I made the decision myself, but when I told Bobby Kahn, my Chief of Staff, I called him in, I said, "This is gonna be completely, you're the only other one that's gonna know this but," I said, "I'm gonna change the flag in January."

This was late November of 2000.

And he told me, he says, "You're making a bad mistake here."

He said, "I agree with you.

It's got to be done.

It was passed in a time when there's a reaction against integration, and we know that."

But," he says, "you've got to... You need to wait for that second term."

I said, "I can't do it, Bobby."

I said, "I can't wait that long."

I said, "I can't wait two years."

I said, "This is gonna be right on us."

- [Donna] The political backlash was severe.

Coupled with education policies that angered the state school teachers and a growing Republican political base, Barnes was defeated by Sonny Perdue in his 2002 bid for reelection.

But ever the self-proclaimed optimist.

- I knew if I got beat, which I did, primarily because of the flag, that it wasn't the end of the world.

The sun comes up the next morning.

- [Donna] Barnes says that his greatest accomplishments were putting infrastructure in place for the state's rapid growth, rewriting the state's constitution while in the General Assembly.

And despite the controversy, the flag.

- On the flag, I would, even knowing I was gonna get beat, I'd do the same thing again.

It had to be done.

It had to be done.

Georgia had to move past a history that was, in a lot of cases, not pretty.

- [Donna] After his defeat, Barnes went to work at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.

- I felt good about doing it.

I told somebody I went to the largest office in the city to the smallest in a matter of a few days.

But I really enjoyed that.

- [Donna] And in 2003, he was awarded the Profile and Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library for revising the state flag.

- I told them, I said, "I don't consider it courageous what I did.

I considered it it was my duty to do what I did.

And that's what we get elected for.

Norma is to do your duty and to address the things that need to be done."

- [Donna] After winning the Democratic nomination for governor again in 2010, Barnes lost to his longtime friend, Republican Nathan Deal.

Afterwards, the father of three and grandfather of six returned to private practice with his daughter, son-in-law, and longtime law partner, Charles Tanksley, at the Barnes Law Group.

But despite the highs and lows during his four decades in the public arena, Barnes said, win or lose, he never lost his passion for politics.

- Still!

I loved it every time I ever ran.

You know, I love the campaigning.

A lot of politicians said, "Ugh, I hate the reelection."

I said, "Oh, I'll always like them.

You know, I get to see everybody."

Of course, you know, (chuckling) I'm an extrovert.

And in that store, you know, I was seeing everybody and I was always a trial lawyer trying cases.

You know, I was seeing everybody.

And I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the elections, the campaigning.

- Governor Barnes continued to practice law with his law firm in Marietta, in Cobb County.

For "Georgia Legends," I'm Jeff Hullinger.

Thanks for watching.

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