Jimmy Carter of his home in Plains, Georgia. Carter noted in 2006 that a funeral in Washington, D.C., with visitation at the Carter Center was planned as well. In the wake of Nixon's Watergate scandal, exit polls from the 1976 presidential election suggested that many still held Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon against him. By comparison, Carter was viewed as a sincere, honest, and well-meaning Southerner. Carter began his term with a 66 percent approval rating, which had dropped to 34 percent approval by the time he left office, with 55 percent disapproving. In the 1980 campaign, former California Governor Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter were a heartfelt priority for Carter. He expanded the number of black state employees, judges, and board members. He hired Rita Jackson Samuels, a black woman, to advise him on potential appointments. He placed portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and two other prominent black Georgians in the capitol building, even as the Ku Klux Klan picketed the unveiling ceremony. During a televised joint appearance with Governor of Florida Reubin Askew on January 31, 1973, Carter stated he favored a constitutional amendment to ban busing for the purpose of expediting integration in schools. Still, Carter tried to keep his conservative