JESSE HELMS: AMERICAN CHAMPION

Richard Barrett

Just four days ago, I had been alerted to what was called the "Helms
Center." It apparently was a library, dedicated to Jesse Helms, in
North Carolina, so I perused the organization's website, expecting
some tribute to the life and works of one of the nation's greatest
segregationists. To my shock, I found nothing about the extraordinary
Helms' career in behalf of blood, people and nation, but, rather,
just some hum-drum references to "free-enterprise." Oh, no, I
shuddered, recalling the funeral of Lester Maddox, where none of the
stellar, defiant and legendary deeds of the man, who wielded the
axe-handles, to drive Negroes out of his restaurant, catapulting him
to Georgia's Governor's chair, was even mentioned. Not wanting the
same sins of omission to dog Helms, I fired off a stiff protest to
the proprietors of the Helms Center.

"I just happened upon your Helms Center website and felt obliged to
express how appalled I was. How tragic that such a statesman, such a
larger-than-life man-of-his-people as Jesse Helms, would be reduced
by you to just some mere 'politician.' Free enterprise? Certainly, but
what about segregation, freedom and defiance?

"I knew Jesse Helms. He arose because he stood in the gap, when
integration threatened the rights and liberties of his people, as it
still does, and when men of his stature are so sorely needed. He was
a staunch segregationist, from which proceeded all of his attributes
of patriotism, anti-Communism and humanity. I attended the funeral of
Lester Maddox and heard the 'figures' eulogize the Helms-contemporary
by saying that he was elected because 'he was a Sunday-School
teacher,' who 'loved his wife.' Good qualities, but he was elected
because he drove the Negroes out with the axe-handle and demanded,
'I want my rights.'

"I perused your 'three principles,' which you claim marked the life
of Jesse Helms. I did not see 'segregation' among them. I read
closer. Maybe they would have been couched in terms sometimes used
for the same ideals, such as 'states-rights,' 'constitutional-government'
or 'resistance to usurpation.' But, no.

"I looked, once again, in vain, for reference to how Jesse Helms
had stood against King Day, how he had championed the
cause-that-will-not-die of Harry Byrd, Marvin Griffin, James O.
Eastland, Eugene Talmadge and the countless others, who placed
Americanism over Africanism and freedom over submission.

"Jesse Helms became a Republican, because he stood in solidarity with
Strom Thurmond, who had led whites out of the darkening Democratic
Party, in hopes of establishing a segregated GOP. He succeeded, but
was done in by faithless disciples, incompetent confederates and,
now, you of so little vision. How very sad.

"I felt mournful, as I noticed the typos on your shoddy website and
wondered, 'Didn't this man deserve better?' Perhaps it is part of the
mortality of man and fatality of life that a Jesse Helms is without
peer, even to 'carry on.' Yet, I would like to believe that his
legacy of heroism endures, despite your shame and denigration."

I received no response. The website said that the message would be
delivered to Senator Helms. I wondered if it ever was. As soon as I
learned that Senator Helms had died, however, I released a statement
to the press.

"Jesse Helms will be remembered as a revered, unreconstructed and
unrepentant segregationist, ahead of his time. He was a mentor to me
and countless others."

Senator Helms had given me my first appearance on television in North
Carolina. He was, then, the manager at WRAL-TV in Raleigh and, no
sooner had I arrived in town, unannounced, than he gave me air-time,
on no more strength than that I was speaking out against communism
and was a Vietnam-veteran. Maybe being from Mississippi, also,
helped. I told him that I was trying to arouse patriotism and that
was enough for him. Strom Thurmond, also an ardent segregationist
of his day, had opened the doors to Jesse Helms, by wooing
segregationists to the Republican Party and, in effect, taking the
GOP over. I remained a Democrat, albeit a "conservative" one, but I
consider that Senator Helms helped me to get my start, to "make a
name" for myself and to understand what it meant to gain the
confidence of great and small, in a mighty cause.

Senator Helms waged the most-tenacious and historic battle against
the King Holiday, prompting his partisans to say that if we had done
then, what we need to do now, the nation would have been spared all
of its problems. Later on, in some ghosted memoirs, Senator Helms was
portrayed as crediting his stance on "abortion" for his acclaim, much
the way Trent Lott once claimed that Mississippi supported Thurmond
because he was for a "strong-military." But, as Mark Bablin, a former
campaign-official for George C. Wallace, remarked, "Everyone knew
what Jesse Helms stood for." North Carolina had acquitted the
patriots who had shot it out with communists and won. The Tar-Heels
had voted down the so-called Equal Rights Amendment. And, they were
nearly unanimous in their support for the segregationist
presidential-bid of Governor Wallace.

I read quickly over the eulogies, as they were being reported.
Senator Helms was accorded many accolades, such as he was a
"gentlemen," a "conservative" or a "friend," but none expressed
appreciation that he had been a segregationist, who stood against
rioters, handouts and blackmail. Senator Helms was reelected by
sticking to his guns against affirmative-action, in his fray against
Negro Harvey Gant, but he was done in by the incompetence, some
say betrayal, of the aide of his most-loyal protégé, Senator
Lauch Faircloth. Faircloth had succeeded to the seat of the
unshakeable-segregationist John East. Senator Helms had been a
staunch opponent of Israel, in keeping with his "America First"
doctrine. He, especially, resented the heavy-hand of the Israeli
Lobby, which continually vowed to defeat him.

Toward the end of his career, in which he had become the last holdout
against integrating his staff, Senator Helms decided to soften his
stance against Israel, which proved to be his undoing. He raised no
objection, for instance, when the Republican National Committee
installed Neill Newhouse to manage the Faircloth-campaign and by the
time Faircloth realized that he had been sabotaged, by not responding
to attacks by his integrationist-opponent, it was too late. I had
inquired if Senator Helms might receive visitors, insofar as his
health was not good, but I was told that he was too ill. I recollected
my speech to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which I said that
"some call it segregation, some call it nationalism, some call it
patriotism," but we are talking about the American way-of-life. And,
Senator Helms was its champion.

I remembered once urging Senator James O. Eastland to get more
young people involved in the segregationist-cause. "I'll call you about
it," he said, but it somehow slipped his mind. I offered to help Ross
Barnett write a book to explain why he had stood so tall for
segregation. "It's being taken care of," he assured, but it never
was. And, then, there was Gerald L. K. Smith, who erected a monument,
which he said would be a beacon against communism, integration and
aliens. But, when his board of directors died, the project fell into
the hands of his very opponents. Yet, the monuments to Senator Helms
are not buildings, libraries or statues, but backbones that stand for
segregation, lungs that swell for majority-rule democracy and lips
that shout for freedom. And a name imperishably intertwined with
the Fourth-of-July.

http://www.nationalist.org/docs/reports/2008/070401.html
Copyright 2008 The Nationalist Movement