Mary Prince went from a Georgia prisoner to Amy Carter’s White House caretaker. It’s a story difficult to imagine in any modern presidency but Jimmy Carter’s.

The story may sound crazy or hard to believe at face value, but while in the White House in 1977, Carter hired Mary Prince, a young Black woman from Georgia, to be his daughter Amy’s nanny.

They also ignored reporters’ questions about her, Gerald Rafshoon, who served as White House communications director for part of Carter’s presidency, said. As Amy’s nanny, Prince lived in a ...

However, Prince soon was able to secure a job at the Georgia governor’s mansion as a trusty, where she quickly found herself working as a nanny for Carter’s eldest daughter. “Amy and I—we hit it off ...