Jimmy Carter
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Challenge yourself with our comprehensive Jimmy Carter trivia quiz featuring 91 free questions with answers about the 39th President of the United States. From his early life in Plains, Georgia to his post-presidency humanitarian efforts and Nobel Peace Prize, this quiz covers the most important events and achievements of his remarkable life. See how well you know one of America's most influential leaders!
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Q 01Jimmy Carter was the first US president to be born in what kind of place?
A hospital
A hospital: Carter was delivered at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, yet the farmhouse where he grew up went without electricity for most of his boyhood.
Q 02What was Jimmy Carter's mother's profession?
Registered Nurse
A registered nurse, Lillian Carter crossed Georgia's segregation lines to counsel poor Black women on health care, and at 68 she joined the Peace Corps.
Q 03Which college did Jimmy Carter attend immediately before entering the U.S. Naval Academy in 1943?
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology was his second college: he threw himself into coursework there to improve his chances at Annapolis, where competition for places was stiff.
Q 04As a qualified undersea officer, Carter earned which Navy badge?
The dolphin
The dolphin badge marks an officer qualified in submarines; Carter chose the submarine service, then the Navy's most hazardous duty, and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.
Q 05Which officer, then a captain, led the fledgling nuclear submarine program Carter joined in 1952?
Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman G. Rickover, later called the father of the nuclear Navy, pushed his young officers mercilessly; Carter named him among the greatest influences on his life.
Q 06What event prompted Jimmy Carter to resign from the Navy and return to Georgia?
His father's death
His father's death in July 1953 put the family farm at risk, so Carter gave up a flourishing naval career to run it, a move Rosalynn deeply opposed.
Q 07For a year after Carter left the Navy, where did he, Rosalynn and their three sons live in Plains?
Public housing
Public housing was their first home back in Plains because Carter's share of the family estate proved comparatively small, and the farm barely broke even at first.
Q 08As governor in 1974, Carter dedicated a portrait of which civil rights leader in the Georgia State Capitol?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s portrait went up while Ku Klux Klan members chanted their opposition outside; it was one of three portraits of Black Georgians that Carter added to the Capitol.
Q 09After the Brown school ruling, Carter came under heavy pressure in Plains to join which new segregationist group?
The White Citizens' Council
The White Citizens' Council spread across the South to fight the Supreme Court's school desegregation rulings and won a following in Plains, but Carter refused to join.
Q 10Announcing his run in the wake of Watergate, candidate Carter made voters which simple promise?
Never to lie to them
Never to lie to them: after Watergate and Vietnam had shattered trust in government, the pledge let a little-known former governor run as an honest outsider.
Q 11Because of Carter's low name recognition early in the 1976 race, opponents derisively asked what?
'Jimmy Who?'
'Jimmy Who?' was the jibe at his obscurity; he leaned into it, opening speeches with 'My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president.'
Q 12Who was Jimmy Carter's running mate when he defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election?
Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale, a Minnesota senator, gave the ticket a Northern presence and reassured labor unions wary of a president from the South.
Q 13Carter became the 1976 front-runner by winning New Hampshire and which other early contest?
The Iowa caucuses
Q 21Which prize did Jimmy Carter win in 2002?
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize honored his decades of work for peaceful solutions to conflicts; the committee said his Camp David mediation alone had been a great enough achievement to qualify.
Q 22Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were famous for decades of hands-on volunteer work with which charity?
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity says Carter put it on the map: in 1984 he and Rosalynn led a busload of Georgia volunteers to New York City to renovate a Lower East Side tenement.
Q 23While living in the White House, the Carters' young daughter attended what kind of school in Washington?
A public school
The Iowa caucuses gave Carter a surprise victory over the other candidates, though more caucus-goers stayed uncommitted; his early campaigning there helped put Iowa on the national electoral map.
Q 14At his 1977 inauguration, Carter left his limousine and walked with Rosalynn down which Washington avenue?
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue had never seen a president walk the parade route from the Capitol to the White House; the surprise delighted the crowd.
Q 15The 1978 Camp David Accords, brokered by Jimmy Carter, led to a 1979 peace treaty between which two countries?
Egypt and Israel
Egypt and Israel signed the treaty in Washington in March 1979, six months after Carter spent 13 days shuttling between the two delegations at Camp David.
Q 16Carter signed the 1977 Panama Canal treaties with which Panamanian leader?
Omar Torrijos
Omar Torrijos signed for Panama; the treaties then cleared the Senate in 1978 with 68 votes, just one more than needed, after Carter worked tirelessly on senators of both parties.
Q 17On 1 January 1979, Carter opened full US diplomatic relations with which Communist-ruled country?
China
China won formal recognition at the price of US ties with Taiwan: Carter withdrew recognition from Taipei and ended the mutual defense treaty, a step Republicans challenged in court.
Q 18The Soviet invasion of which country ended détente and prompted the US boycott of the 1980 Olympics?
Afghanistan
Afghanistan was invaded in December 1979; Carter also cut off grain sales to the Soviet Union and withdrew the SALT II arms treaty from the Senate.
Q 19Who served as Jimmy Carter's national security adviser for all four years of his presidency?
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Polish-born Columbia professor, pressed a tough line on Moscow and clashed with the State Department's more cautious diplomats throughout the term.
Q 20The Carter Center, founded in 1982, has sent observers to monitor more than 100 of what around the world?
Elections
Elections it watched include Nicaragua's in 1990, where Carter himself was among the observers as the ruling Sandinistas lost and handed power to their rival.
A public school: she went first to Stevens Elementary and then to Hardy Middle School, in keeping with parents who frowned on presidential pomp.
Q 24Which damaged nuclear plant did Carter tour on 1 April 1979, days after its accident?
Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island had begun its partial meltdown four days earlier; Carter, a former nuclear submarine officer, said he came to learn all he could and to assure the people of the region.
Q 25To set a cost-cutting example, Carter ordered the sale of which White House perk in 1977?
The presidential yacht
The presidential yacht Sequoia, long known as the floating White House, was sold on Carter's orders; he also retired Nixon's huge limousine in favor of a smaller one.
Q 26When Jimmy left the Navy for the family business, what job did Rosalynn Carter take on?
Bookkeeper
Bookkeeper: Rosalynn taught herself accounting to manage the farm and warehouse books, and the family business grew into a real success under the couple's joint management.
Q 27In what small community near Plains, Georgia, did Jimmy Carter primarily grow up?
Archery
Archery was home from the age of four until he left for college; on the farm there, young Jimmy stacked produce on a wagon, hauled it into Plains and sold it.
Q 28Which Georgia congressman and civil rights veteran did Carter name US ambassador to the United Nations in 1977?
Andrew Young
Andrew Young helped make human rights a central focus of Carter's foreign policy, but was forced to resign in 1979 after meeting a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Q 29Governor Carter's 1971 inaugural address left which group feeling betrayed?
Segregationists who backed him
Segregationists who backed him heard him declare that 'the time for racial discrimination is over'; the speech surprised Georgians and won Carter national attention.
Q 30After seven years as a naval officer, what rank did Jimmy Carter hold when he left active duty in 1953?
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Carter walked away from a flourishing career in the new nuclear submarine program, where he had been teaching nuclear engineering to a handpicked crew.