Civil-rights conviction and electoral compromise

Carter often entered Democratic contests to oppose committed segregationists, but the gubernatorial campaigns put his responsibility-centered image under strain. After losing a primary to Lester Maddox, he ran against the wealthier Carl Sanders and adopted tactics aimed more directly at winning. Carter accused Sanders of corruption without presenting evidence, met figures across the segregation divide, and criticized Sanders for publicly supporting Martin Luther King Jr. Those choices conflicted with Carter's own civil-rights views and earlier opposition to segregation. The episode is presented as a difficult case in which a politician accepted a morally bitter campaign strategy to obtain the office from which he hoped to act.