As former President Jimmy Carter‘s long life has come to an end, the panegyrics lauding his presidency have begun.
Although there was much good and decent in Carter, there is one aspect of his legacy that is hardly praiseworthy. Until Carter’s 1980 reelection drive, no postwar president had used race to divide the electorate as an explicit part of their campaign strategy.
In late August 1980, Carter’s Cabinet and campaign began launching a series of attacks characterizing Ronald Reagan as a racist. They began when Patricia Roberts Harris, Carter’s secretary of health and human services, delivered a hard-hitting speech saying that if Reagan became president, he would “divide black and white, rich and poor, Christian and Jew.” Harris capped off her polarizing diatribe by saying that whenever she heard Reagan speak, she “sees the specter of white sheets.” It was a…
