He greeted an 80,000-strong crowd at Newcastle Civic Centre with the words "Haway the lads" to deafening cheers.
President Carter wanted to recruit people for an exchange programme between the north-east of England and his home in Atlanta, Georgia.
His visit on 6 May 1977 is being remembered and celebrated with film footage and talks at the civic centre.
Mr Carter's wife Rosalynn had set up the  Friendship Force to give people in different countries the chance to stay in each others' homes.
In July 1977, hundreds of people from the region jetted off to Atlanta, among them former BBC Look North television presenter Mike Neville.
He said: "Few of us had been to America before - also we were on a jumbo jet and one had never landed at Newcastle Airport before, which was a thrill in itself.
"It was a buzz, I don't think anybody slept the night before. It was just a total, utter thrill.
"The reaction when he got off the plane in America was unbelievable, the crowd cheered and screamed."
Democrat Mr Carter became the 39th president when he was elected in 1976.
He chose to visit Tyneside just a few months in to his term. He left office in 1981.

Columnist and government critic Farhad Mazhar sparked a police hunt after leaving his Dhaka home on Monday morning.
There were reports of a ransom demand.
Police said Mr Mazhar, 69, was eventually found on a bus travelling to the capital from the south-western city of Khulna. It is unclear if he had been abducted.
Human rights groups say enforced disappearances and abductions are rising in Bangladesh.
Mr Mazhar is a supporter of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Party officials say many of their activists and supporters have been detained illegally since 2014.

Via a webpage visitors can control lights around windows, railings and doors as well as a Christmas tree in the house's garden.
The page is proving popular with hundreds of people every minute taking the chance to use the page to control the 11 different lights.
Live images of the light show are also being regularly uploaded to the web.
Ken and Rebecca-Ellen Woods of Fairbanks, Alaska started putting their lights online several years ago but this year the control system got a big upgrade.
Mr Woods, who works in IT, has built a dedicated computer-controlled switching box that has ports for every set of lights affixed to their home.
The live feed of the changing display shows lights blinking on and off at all times of day. Mr Woods told ABC News that he had got used to the constantly changing display. He added that it had got easier to live with once they only allowed lights on the exterior of the house to be controlled remotely.
There are no other houses near to the Woods household so there are no neighbours to complain about the flashing display.
This year the bill to run the hardware underpinning the light system looks set to reach more than $400 (Â£275) as millions of people take the chance to fiddle with the decorations over the Christmas period.
It is 40 years since US President Jimmy Carter visited Tyneside on his first foreign trip.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A well-known Bangladeshi human rights activist has been found on a bus after his family reported him missing.
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An Alaskan family has added online controls to the Christmas lights adorning their home.