The body of former President Jimmy Carter laid in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building from the evening of Jan. 7 to the morning of Jan. 9. This period gave members of the general public, including many Georgetown students, the opportunity to pay their respects.
Carter served as the 39th president of the U.S. from 1977 to 1981. Before his death, at 100 years old, he was the longest-living former president. Carter died on Dec. 29, 2024 at his longtime home in Plains, Georgia. Following his death, Carter’s remains were moved to the Carter Center in Atlanta and then to the U.S. Capitol building as part of a six-day funeral procession.
During his life, Carter visited Georgetown several times, including twice in 1989, when he participated in a foreign policy panel as well as an event highlighting the Carter Center’s humanitarian efforts.
Several Georgetown students, including a group organized by Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD), took advantage of the opportunity to pay respects at Carter’s viewing.
“When else do you get to do that and see a president lie in state?” Simone Guité (CAS ’26), co-chair of GUCD, said. “The reason you come to Georgetown is to be able to experience D.C. and politics in such an up-close way.”
Many students braved hours in the cold to view the former president’s casket. The sight of Carter’s casket, draped with an American flag and surrounded with five Honor Guard members, was met with quiet respect and solemnity from visitors.
According to Carter’s office, the public viewing is both tradition and a reference to crucial characteristics of his presidency: bipartisanship and honest politics.
“During his term, Jimmy Carter encouraged bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle to move our nation forward FOR THE PEOPLE,” Beth Davis, Carter’s director of scheduling, wrote in a press release sent to the Voice.
Since Carter’s death, Americans have reflected on this legacy, including the establishment of the Department of Education and the Refugee Act of 1980. The one-term president—losing reelection to Republican nominee Ronald Reagan—has a complex legacy, shaped by international issues such as the Iranian hostage crisis and the oil crisis of 1978 and 1979. Following his time in the Oval Office, Carter became known for his extensive humanitarian efforts through the Carter Center—including international relations work—winning the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
“Although he was a one-term president, the long lens of history has already begun to bring into focus how remarkable those four years were,” Davis wrote. “In many ways, Jimmy Carter was a man ahead of his time.”
Georgetown students are some of many reflecting on Carter’s character, especially in light of current political divisions.
“One thing I was thinking about while I was there was just the decency of politics he represented,” Guité said. “As we’re entering this new era with Trump and the inauguration coming up, this almost felt like an end to that.”
In light of Carter’s death, students like Guité are hopeful that Carter’s values will return to politics and end what they see as an era of political hostility.
“Jimmy Carter was such an amazing humanitarian and did so much good for the world,” Guité said. “Hopefully someday we can emerge from this era of absolute bitterness and destruction and bring some of that back.”
