Naval integration and Carter's civil-rights stance

As a county school-board member and prominent Baptist, Carter began speaking in favor of integration during the civil-rights struggle. That position is linked partly to service in a United States Navy that had been moving toward integration while he was in uniform. The experience gave Carter a national institution against which to compare the segregation surrounding him in Georgia. Distrust of an opposing candidate then helped push him into a state Senate race. Naval personnel policy had influenced a veteran's expectations of civilian public life.