It’s unclear how familiar Jimmy Carter is with his namesake road in Gwinnett County.
But plenty of people who were working or running errands on Jimmy Carter Boulevard on Tuesday, the former president’s 100th birthday, felt like they were very familiar with what kind of person he is. That includes people who weren’t alive during his single term in the White House more than 40 years ago. And those who weren’t living in the United States at the time.
Off I-85 near Norcross, Jimmy Carter Boulevard is a congested byway that’s lined with businesses — fast-food restaurants, retail shops, small medical offices and wholesalers, as well as entrepreneurial ventures started by people born in numerous other nations.
In 1976, county commissioners named the newly pieced together road after Carter shortly after he won election to the nation’s highest office, according to Emory Morsberger, executive director of Gateway85, which focuses on improvement to the surrounding area.
Carter, who is currently in home hospice in his southwest Georgia hometown of Plains, had previously served as governor of Georgia, but he had no particular connection to that area of Gwinnett, Morsberger said.
The naming, however, would prove prescient. Morsberger pointed to the area’s evolution as a hub for people from other countries and Carter’s decades-long effort to bridge global divides.
Gateway85 officials say there are hopes to one day erect a statue or monument to Carter along the road. That may be years off, said Morsberger, a former Republican state representative who now serves on the board of councilors for the nonprofit Carter Center, which was launched by the former president and his wife, Rosalynn Carter.
In 2023, Gateway85 unveiled banners along the boulevard celebrating Carter.
“They should put up a monument,” said Stuart Billings, a general contractor wearing a shirt emblazoned with the name of conservative political personality Tucker Carlson. “Of all the presidents, he is kind of the only one who stuck around to help people out” after serving in the White House.
Billings, who often buys construction supplies at businesses nearby, said he disagreed with some of Carter’s presidential politics, but “Jimmy Carter was a good guy. He did what he could to help out humanity.”
He added, as far as post-presidential work, “we’ll probably not have anyone like that again.”
Some could recount details of Carter’s time in office and, particularly, what he did after he was no longer commander in chief.
Rabi Bar, the general manager at a local business, recalled numerous details of Carter’s life: struggling to free Americans taken hostage in Iran during his presidency, battling economic troubles while in office, authoring many books, teaching Sunday school for years and winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I like him a lot. I like his stand for human rights,” said Bar, who grew up in Syria and is Palestinian, including “doing his part to get justice for people who don’t have a voice.”
Vishal Aggarwal, 35, was born years after Carter left office and remembers learning about him as a kid growing up in Georgia. Now, he works in his family’s real estate business, which includes the Global Mall along Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
People “have a very cynical view of politicians and how they are all terrible people,” he said. “But you look at Jimmy Carter’s career from pre-presidency to presidency to 40-plus years after presidency and he has been helping people through all of his humanitarian work and Habitat for Humanity, building houses when he is 90-something years old.”
Aggarwal’s father, Shiv Aggarwal, who is chairman of the local community improvement district, said he’s looking forward to having a Carter monument eventually built in the area. “We have to learn from his vision.”
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