It’s the world’s most exclusive fraternity and, on Thursday, all five members of the so-called presidents club will gather to honor one of their own.

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday.

A motorcade carried the casket into Washington for a final journey to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects. In Georgia, eight military pallbearers held Carter’s casket as cannons fired on the tarmac nearby.

The remains of Jimmy Carter, who served only one term in the White House but lived longer than any U.S. president in history, arrived at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to lie in state ahead of a Thursday funeral.