In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Ga. Former President Carter called Wednesday, June 3, 2020, for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying silence can be as deadly as violence. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. Sunday school teacher Kim Fuller makes a point during class and the old man sitting on the front pew raises his eyebrows quizzically. That old man is her uncle, former president Jimmy Carter and Fuller's unique challenge is to serve as his substitute in the class he usually teaches himself. Fuller is the eldest daughter of Carters late brother Billy Carter, and she has served as the regular replacement for the worlds best-known Sunday school teacher since Carter underwent brain surgery in November. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Ga. Former President Carter called Wednesday, June 3, 2020, for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying silence can be as deadly as violence. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Former President Jimmy Carter called Wednesday for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying “silence can be as deadly as violence.”
The 95-year-old former president issued a statement through the Atlanta-based Carter Center to address the angry and sometimes violent protests that have roiled the nation in wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
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Carter made no direct mention of President Donald Trump's handling of the protests and the racial unrest that has fueled them. But he said: “We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this.”
Carter noted he had declared “the time for racial discrimination is over” during his 1971 inauguration speech as Georgia's governor, and bemoaned that he's repeating those words almost 50 years later.
“We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination,” Carter said. “But violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution.”
He said his decades working to improve human rights worldwide have taught him that people of influence can't remain silent.
“People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy,” Carter said.
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