55 pages • 1 hour read
Jimmy CarterAn Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Jimmy Carter
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. was the 39th President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. He was born October 1st, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia to a family of peanut farmers. Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before graduating in 1946 from the US Naval Academy. After graduation, he married Rosalynn Smith; they were married until her death in 2023.
After serving as a naval officer for seven years, Carter returned to Plains and took over the Carter farms. A popular community leader, he won election to the Georgia Senate in 1962. In 1970 he was elected Governor of Georgia with a platform emphasizing ecology and removing racial barriers. He was nominated for President at the 1976 Democratic Convention. Among his achievements were establishing a national energy policy amid a crushing energy shortage, creating jobs, and decreasing the budget deficit. In international politics, he helped to broker the Camp David agreement of 1978 between Egypt and Israel. He also established full diplomatic relations with China. His legacy was marred by high inflation and interest rates, and the seizure of hostages from the US embassy’s diplomatic staff in Iran, a captivity that lasted 14 months. He was defeated in his attempt to seek a second term in the 1980 election by Ronald Reagan.
In 1982, Carter became University Distinguished Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife cofounded the Carter Center to address issues of public policy in over 80 countries, helping to resolve conflicts, eliminate disease, and promote human rights. He received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for “his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development” (“The Nobel Peace Prize 2002.” The Nobel Prize). In addition, Carter and his wife volunteered for Habitat for Humanity for over 35 years. He died on December 29th, 2024, at the age of 100.
Carter wrote 32 books on a variety of topics, including history, poetry, faith, and his own governmental policies. His insights are often informed by his extensive career in politics and dedication to humanitarian efforts.
Cultural Context: Early 20th-Century American South
Carter’s narrative provides a snapshot of the societal norms and daily realities of the early 20th-century American South, including the impacts of racial segregation and economic hardship. The book contributes to a broader understanding of the forces that shaped the social and political landscape of the era.
While northern states were experiencing urbanization and industrialization, the South remained rural and poor until the 1930s. Land had been overfarmed; mechanized farming was slow to catch on until the advent of World War II and many rural southerners migrated to northern states. African Americans made up the majority of this flight, seeking both better employment and an escape from “Jim Crow” segregation. Until the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, the South was dominated by so-called “Jim Crow” laws that enforced racial segregation in public spaces, including schools. The Supreme Court’s 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson codified those laws, holding that “separate but equal” treatment was not a form of discrimination.
In reality, accommodations for African Americans were usually far inferior to those for white citizens. Carter’s memoir addresses these inequities, stressing the personal relationships between his family members and their Black neighbors and the different ways in which his father and his mother abided by the traditions and laws of segregation.
