National Urban League mourns President Jimmy Carter as ‘rarest of politicians, driven by faith and ideals’

NEW YORK – National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial issued the following statement in response to the passing of former President Jimmy Carter: “President Carter was that rarest of politicians who was driven by his faith and ideals rather than expediency. Just as he later would wield the tools at his disposal to build homes for people in need, he wielded every resource available to him as an elected official and respected statesman to alleviate suffering, to dismantle oppression, and to advance peace and justice.  “Perhaps more than any modern president, Carter assumed the office with first-hand perspective on the impact of public policy on the lives of average Americans. He saw the poverty and indignity that segregation and discrimination forced upon the Black sharecroppers whose children were his closest friends. He saw his family’s farm transformed by the Rural Electrification Act and other New Deal programs. “From his first days in public office, as a Georgia state senator at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, President Carter challenged laws enforcing voter suppression and school segregation. In his 1971 gubernatorial inauguration address, he declared, “The time for racial discrimination is over.”  It was a radical declaration...