The District hosted the funeral of former President James “Jimmy” Earl Carter from Jan. 7 to 9. For two days and nights, people lined up along the fence of the US Capitol, waiting to pay their respects to the former President, who lay in state under the Rotunda.
Mourners lined Pennsylvania Avenue late Tuesday afternoon as President Carter’s horse-drawn funeral caisson proceeded from the US Navy Memorial to the Capitol, as of his family followed the casket on foot.
Jimmy Carter (Oct. 1, 1924 – Dec. 29, 2024), the 39th President of the United States, was a former peanut farmer and US Navy veteran who was elected as a Democrat in Georgia’s State Senate and served as the state’s governor before being elected President in 1976. Carter lost a second election to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Carter’s post-presidential period was the longest so far in American history, lasting for more than 40 years. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn (Aug. 18, 1927 – Nov. 19, 2023). He founded nonprofit organization the Carter Center in 1982 to advance human rights and reduce human suffering, dedicating his presidential library in 1986. He founded the New Baptist Covenant organization in 2007.
Author of more than 35 books, Carter was also a highly visible volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, founding the Carter Work Project in 1984. So far the project has built 4,447 homes in 14 countries, including ten homes along Benning Road NE that Carter helped build in the summer of 1992.
The viewing at the US Capitol began the day after the four-year anniversary of the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. The Capitol Grounds were surrounded by fencing, and security was high as people waiting in line, some for upwards of three hours, to pay their respects to the former President. For the most part, the viewing was peaceful, orderly and respectful.
But the security measures proved their value Wednesday. At around 2 p.m., US Capitol Police conducting regular screenings prior to itting mourners to the building located a machete and several knives in the bag of a man seeking entry into the Rotunda. The man, a 44-year-old District resident, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of Carrying a Dangerous Weapon. US said screenings were temporarily stopped for the investigation at the north entrance of the Visitor Center, but were resumed an hour later. The viewing inside was unaffected.
A few hours later, on the opposite side of the Capitol Building, police arrested a man who attempted to light his car on fire along First Street NW near the Grant Memorial. Police say that just before 5:30 p.m. the man lit a bag on fire and placed it on top of his car. Officers arrested a 35-year-old Virginia man on site and, they said, the bag extinguished on its own.
The public viewing was not affected, and residents continued to pay their respects into Thursday morning. Thousands paid their respects over two days and over the night. The last public mourners departed the Capitol at 7:30 a.m., ahead of President Carter’s funeral, held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 10 at the Washington National Cathedral, attended by world leaders, President Joseph Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and former- and President-Elect Donald Trump.
After the State Funderal, President Carter’s remains will be returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, where Rosalynn Carter is buried and where he will be laid to rest.
