TULSA, Okla. — President Jimmy Carter cast a legacy in the Sooner State just as he did in the rest of the country and the world. Many who spoke with 2 News on Dec. 29 confirmed that in their own perspective.
"A lot of people think he founded Habitat," Green Country Habitat for Humanity VP of Development Rob Gardenhire said. "He did not. But he did more than anybody else to put us on the map."
"His name will live on. The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project is still happening every year. This year it'll be in Austin."
"I still think he was a great president," State Sen. Regina Goodwin said.
Goodwin points out the late Hannah Diggs Atkins, the first Black woman elected to the Oklahoma State House, was appointed by Pres. Carter as a delegate to the United Nations in 1980.
"Certainly, it set the precedent that color does not determine your intelligence. (It) does not determine your capabilities."
- Previous coverage >>> National and state leaders pay tribute to former President Jimmy Carter
The Chukwuneke family, visiting Tulsa from Houston on Dec. 29, said the 39th president means a lot to them, too.
"He was also the first American president to come to Nigeria," Kristy Chukwuneke said.
Oklahoma Democratic Party Chair Alicia Andrews values the president's spiritual side.
"He measured everything he did based on his faith," Andrews said. "And whether you are a religious person or not, having a moral center is one of the things that guided him, which I think that our nation (should) embrace once again."
Senator Goodwin said Carter's approach to life and politics should inspire all Americans, young and old.
"In one human being, we can see embodied integrity," she said. "We can see embodied service. We can see embodied tenacity to do right and to be right."
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