Fiction: Senator Helms’ 1990 campaign TV ad known as “Hands” was an appeal to racism and was used frequently throughout the campaign.
Truth: The ad was created and ran just a few weeks before the close of the campaign. It ran just a few times and was specifically related to an attempted veto override of a bill that would have required employers to hire on the base of pre-set quotas and not specific qualifications.
1. The Senate failed, by one vote, to override President Bush’s veto of legislation to require employers to hire and promote a percentage of their employees because of their minority status.
2. The override was defeated because it was a correctly identified as a “quota” bill by numerous individuals and groups including the United States Chamber of Commerce
3. There was also every reason to believe that such bills are not constitutional. Subsequent court decisions on similar laws have confirmed that to be the case.
4. Senator Helms opposed the bill the first time the Senate considered it and was not in favor of the veto override.
5. In a speech Mr. Gantt gave shortly after that vote, he stated that he strongly supported the legislation and had he been in the Senate, it would have become law.
6.To help voters understand the practical reality of the law Mr. Gantt favored, the Helms campaign staff created an ad explaining how it would work: People who were fully qualified for jobs could be passed over so that jobs could be filled by an individual who satisfied other criteria having nothing to do with the requirements of the job.
The point was that Mr. Gantt was comfortable with government policies requiring employers to hire and promote for the purpose of filling quotas instead of recognizing individual abilities. And, that Mr. Gantt was not bothered by the law's unfairness to those who had been passed over or the constitutional questions it raised about equality under the law.
7. By the time the ad made it to television, there were less than two weeks left to the campaign. There were accusations that this was a planned last-minute attack, but of course that simply was not true since the vote and Mr. Gantt’s comments had happened just a few days earlier.
8. The ad could not in any case be declared “racist” by anyone who knew the issue since minority classifications were not limited to race.
9. The Helms campaign had no more interest in a race-based vote than it did in race-based jobs. The campaign was never about Mr. Gantt being black, it was always and only about him being a liberal. We wanted our support to be based on the job I had been doing and nothing more.
10. The ad was intended to point out this difference: Senator Helms believes every person is entitled to go as far as he or she can by making the most of every talent and every opportunity and know the satisfaction of personal success. Mr. Gantt has less confidence in the ability of individual citizens to handle challenges without excess government involvement.
Response to an interview question from Jim Morrill on the Charlotte Observer on August 29, 2005:
Q. Some people have a hard time believing your assertion that race was not at the heart of your opposition to the civil rights movement, a Martin Luther King holiday and ads in your race against Harvey Gantt. What would you say to them?
The truth is the truth whether people choose to accept it or not. Let me be very clear. From my earliest days I was taught to respect all people. It is just that simple. I didn’t need to shift my position because it was always on the side my parents expected me to take and modeled by their example. I never took the time to argue with the nonsense claims that I was a racist because I knew the truth and more importantly every African-American with whom I had ever enjoyed a friendship or who worked with me in any capacity knew the truth, too.
I opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday because I thought it was a “politically correct” rush to confer an honor that the Federal government had waited more than eighty years to confer on George Washington. There were too many questions about information in sealed files for me in good conscience to agree to the holiday. I would have enthusiastically supported a holiday that honored the progress of African-Americans and their many contributions to our nation.
The well-known “hands” ad to which you probably refer had nothing to do with race and everything to do with a quota bill that I opposed and Mr. Gantt said he would support if he was elected. That bill was just plain wrong and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed that quotas like those proposed in the bill are unconstitutional. This particular bill was not only unfair to job applicants, it was also unfair to employers who would have been forced to somehow prove that they had no intention of hiring anyone but the best qualified applicant.
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Fiction: Jesse Helms did not accomplish much as a Senator because he was
often alone or on the minority side of an issue.
Truth: Senator Helms’ record demonstrates the effectiveness of his deliberate and principled leadership. He
didn’t seek popularity and he did not seek credit, his goal was to do what he believed was in America’s
best interests.
For example:
1. When he came to Washington in 1973, Senator Helms was a member of the minority party and a part of a small conservative minority within the party. By 1994, when he became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republicans were in the majority and conservatives were the majority of the Republican caucus and he played a major role in making this happen.
2. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Helms worked with the Clinton Administration to restructure the State Department, resulting in the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. This act brought the U.S. Arms Control, Information and Foreign Aid agencies under the direction of the Secretary of State, saving the taxpayers millions of dollars, while promoting a more cohesive American foreign policy.
3. Senator Helms partnered with Senator William Frist to introduce the first major legislation to provide US funding for the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The legislation provided more than $500 million in aid and encouraged US pharmaceutical companies to provide medicines to HIV/AIDS patients throughout Africa. Senator Helms leadership role made it acceptable for conservatives to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic and laid the groundwork for the Bush Administration’s efforts that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
4. Senator Helms willingness to take a stand on controversial social issues set a standard for conservatives, leading to important pro-life and pro-family victories, the banning of taxpayer funding for obscene art and other important achievements.
5. He fought the International Criminal Court, and his legislation, the American Service Members Protection Act -- which bars any U.S. cooperation with the court -- became law with overwhelming bipartisan support.
6. Senator Helms led the effort in the Senate to bring former Cold War adversaries Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into the NATO alliance.
7. He fought the "U.N. empowerment" agenda of former secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali, and the U.N. reform legislation which he insisted upon, known as the "Helms-Biden Law," passed the House and Senate by overwhelming majorities. As a result, he became the first legislator in history to address the U.N. Security Council.
8. Senator Helms played a major role in winning the Cold War. His support for freedom fighters in Eastern Europe and around the world is legendary. Next to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul, no one did more to bring the Soviet Empire to its knees. (back to top)
Fiction: Senator Helms statement, "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down
here. He'd better have a bodyguard."
Truth: A Clinton reference that was run without the joke that preceded it.
Excerpt from an interview with Law and Order
When Senator Jesse Helms talked with a reporter from the Raleigh News and Observer and mentioned Bill Clinton's unpopularity on military bases in the state, he illustrated his point with an anecdote about a Southern sheriff who had just been defeated in an election. 'He had this big fella with him, about 6 foot 7and 270 pounds," said Helms. 'Somebody asked, 'Who's that?' The sheriff answered. Any body who can't get more votes than I did better have a bodyguard.' "Helms then added: 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He better have a bodyguard." The News and Observer ran just the Clinton reference without the entire joke that preceded it, and the Associated Press picked up the story. Soon the media were reporting that the Secret Service was investigating Helms' comments, and the editorial page of the New York Times called for Helms to step aside as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (back to top)
Fiction: Senator Helms is racist and has opposed the progress of African
Americans.
Truth: From his childhood Senator Helms was taught to respect all people and to understand that all
Americans had as their birthright life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In his earliest correspondence, Jesse Helms rejected the doctrine of white supremacy and as manager of WRAL-TV he hired both minorities and women in responsible positions, even proposing to set up a department at WRAL for the sole purpose of training minority candidates for significant career opportunities. As a US Senator he was known and appreciated by the Capitol workforce for his genuine friendship and interest in them. Individuals like James Meredith and Claude Allen have recounted their staff experiences with Senator Helms many times. In fact, Senator Helms was responsible for the hiring of Claude Allen in 1985 as the first African-American to serve on the Republican or Democratic professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The archives of WRAL editorials from the 1960’s include Jesse Helms’ high praise for African-Americans such as Rev. Leon Sullivan, Asa Spaulding and others whose leadership demonstrated that dreams matched by diligence could offer any American a better future. These editorials make plain the Senator’s respect for those who wanted to better their lives through their own labors and his frustration over those who preferred the free ride of government handouts. That frustration had nothing to do with color and everything to do with a failure to appreciate all that America had to offer anyone who was willing to pursue their goal. An editorial praising the way in which a young architecture student by the name of Harvey Gantt integrated Clemson University illustrates Jesse Helms’ support of progress that was genuine and sustainable.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms Says:
“It has always been my belief that people of goodwill on all sides of an issue can resolve their differences without the intervention of the government. We will never know how integration might have been achieved in neighborhoods across our land, because the opportunity was snatched away by outside agitators who had their own agendas to advance. We certainly do know the price paid by the stirring of hatred, the encouragement of violence, the rise of suspicion and distrust. We do know that too many lives were lost, that businesses were destroyed, and millions of dollars were diverted from books and teachers to support the cost of buses and gasoline. We do know that turning our public schools into social laboratories almost destroyed them.”
Upon the Senator’s retirement Walter Russell Mead wrote in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal:
“… If Mr. Helms can be seen as one of the great conservative figures of American history, calling the nation to remain faithful to traditional values in the midst of rapid social change, he also deserves to be remembered as one of a handful of men who brought white Southern conservatives into a new era of race relations.
This was not my initial impression of Mr. Helms, when as a young boy in North Carolina during the civil rights movement I listened to his anti-integration, anti-Martin Luther King commentaries on WRAL-TV. But once the civil-rights legislation of the 1960s was enacted, Mr. Helms--along with some of his erstwhile segregationist colleagues like South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond--did something very revolutionary for Southern white populists.
He accepted the laws and obeyed them.
This is not how Southern politicians responded in the 1870s and 1880s. Populists like South Carolina's "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman did not just fulminate against civil rights laws. They led movements of armed, organized resistance, intimidating black voters at the polls, defending racial lynchings and, in Tillman's case, being directly and openly involved in the murder of black political leaders.
Even as the passions of the civil-rights movement were at their height, Messrs. Helms and Thurmond (whose father was Ben Tillman's lawyer) shunned violence. Without ever losing their credentials as hard-core defenders of Southern values, they hired African-American staffers and gave African-Americans the same level of constituency service they gave whites. Even their opposition to affirmative action is based on their claim that these principles violate what ought to be a color-blind stance on the part of the government.
That is something no white Southern politician, and especially one representing Mr. Helms' core supporters of farmers and small-town whites, would have ever said before Jesse Helms came along. It is something they all say now.
Mr. Helms could have followed the Tillman path and led the white South into violent resistance; he also could have failed to carry his supporters with him into grudging acceptance of the new racial order. He disciplined and tamed the segregationist South even as he represented it to a hostile nation. We are all better off because he managed this difficult high- wire act.” (back to top)
Fiction: Jesse Helms was a part of a ‘vast rightwing conspiracy’ to harm President
Clinton.
Truth: There never was a conspiracy. History has shown that President Clinton created his own problems.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms says:
“And it made me laugh (before it made me mad) to hear that three old friends from North Carolina (Lauch Faircloth, David Sentelle, and I) having lunch together, catching up on the news, telling stories, and swapping medical advice were assumed to be plotting the ouster of the President of the United States. As the saying goes these days, “Please!”
There is, of course, no proof that there was a plot or conspiracy because, of course, there was not one. Unfortunately, because I couldn’t imagine that anyone would ever care, I didn’t think to jot down notes on our unremarkable lunch conversation – or even the punch lines to Lauch’s usual collection of good jokes. All people have to do is choose whether to trust in the word of one highly respected federal judge and two United States Senators, or the opinion of theorists like James Carville and company.
Whenever I hear this baseless conspiracy charge or see it written about as if it were fact, I remember an old proverb: ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth.’ “ (back to top)
Fiction: Senator Helms refused to change his opinions even when presented with
the facts.
Truth: To the contrary he insisted on having the facts before he offered an opinion and when new facts came to
light he reviewed them and made changes when appropriate. The most well known change was on his
position on expanded funding to stop the devastation caused by AIDS in Africa. He credits Franklin
Graham of Samaritan’s Purse and the singer and activist Bono for presenting those facts to him.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms says:
"It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong."
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Fiction: Jesse Helms opposed black nominees for federal posts.
Truth: Senator Helms opposed liberal nominees. Among the many African-Americans whose nominations he
supported were Claude Allen, Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice. These people
had in common, not their race which was irrelevant to Senator Helms, their proven fitness for the
assignments for which they were nominated and their commitment to the conservative principles set
forth in the Constitution.
In his memoir, Here's Where I Stand, Senator Helms says:
“The Clinton Administration might also be known in history for its unapologetic nominations of some of the most unsuitable people in America to make and carry out government policies. Actions really do speak louder than words.” (back to top)
Fiction: Jesse Helms was on the staff of the 1950 Willis Smith campaign for Senate
and the staff was responsible for inflammatory campaign flyers.
Truth: Jesse Helms was a newsman on WRAL radio and was never employed by the Smith campaign or a
part of its operations. Neither Jesse Helms nor the Smith for Senate campaign ever had a part in
producing the inflammatory materials that were circulated during that time. Unregulated and
unmonitored small groups and individuals who were strongly opposed to Senator Graham did produce
such materials. Willis Smith made it abundantly clear to his own staff that he would leave the campaign
if any of them were ever to be involved in that sort of campaign.
Sources – Hoover Adams, member of the Smith for Senate staff and political historian Dr. Jonathan Gentry*.
*Source: The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. LXXXII, Published January 2005 All That’s Not Fit to Print: Anti-Communist and White Supremacist Campaign Literature in the 1952 North Carolina Democratic Senate Primary by Jonathan Gentry (back to top) |
