Editing Jesse Helms (section)

===Entry into politics===
[[File:Richard Russell quotation at Helms Center in Wingate, NC IMG 4263.JPG|200px|right|thumb|[[U.S. Senator]] [[Richard Russell Jr.]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] told Helms in 1952 that he hoped Helms would one day become a senator; Helms achieved this 20 years later, but Russell did not live to see it.]]

In 1950, Helms played a critical role as campaign publicity director for [[Willis Smith]] in the U.S. Senate campaign against a prominent [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]], [[Frank Porter Graham]].<ref name="Borstelmann TCWA 65">{{cite book | last = Borstelmann | first =Thomas | title=The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=2003 | pages =65–66 | isbn =0-674-01238-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWqjxBEPPlEC&pg=PA65 | access-date=July 14, 2008}}</ref> Smith (a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the [[American Bar Association]]) portrayed Graham, who supported school [[desegregation]], as a "dupe of communists" and a proponent of the "[[miscegenation|mingling of the races]]".<ref name="Borstelmann TCWA 65"/> Smith's fliers said, "Wake Up, White People",<ref name="Borstelmann TCWA 65"/> in the campaign for the virtually all-[[white primary|white primaries]]. Blacks were still mostly [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchised]] in the state, because its 1900 constitutional amendment had been passed by white Democrats with restrictive voter registration and electoral provisions that effectively and severely reduced their role in electoral politics.<ref name="Borstelmann TCWA 65"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Article VI. Suffrage and Eligibility to Office – Qualifications of an Elector.|url=http://core.ecu.edu/umc/Wilmington/scans/ticketThree/articleSix.pdf|publisher=[[East Carolina University]]|access-date=November 19, 2016}}</ref>

Smith won and hired Helms as his administrative assistant in Washington. In 1952, Helms worked on the presidential [[1952 United States presidential election|campaign]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.]] After Russell dropped out of the presidential race, Helms returned to working for Smith. When Smith died in 1953, Helms returned to Raleigh.

From 1953 to 1960, Helms was executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He and his wife set up their home on Caswell Street in the [[Hayes Barton Historic District]], where he lived the rest of his life.<ref name="Christensen TNO 4 Jy">{{cite web |last=Christensen |first=Rob |title=Jesse Helms dead at 86 |work=The News & Observer |location=Raleigh, NC |date=July 4, 2008 |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/v-print/story/1130628.html |access-date=December 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080712233014/http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/v-print/story/1130628.html |archive-date=July 12, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1957, Helms as a Democrat won his first election for a [[Raleigh City Council]] seat. He served two terms and earned a reputation as a conservative gadfly who "fought against everything from putting a median strip on Downtown Boulevard to an [[urban renewal]] project".<ref name="Christensen TNO 4 Jy"/> Helms disliked his tenure on the council, feeling all the other members acted as a private club and that Mayor [[William G. Enloe]] was a "steamroller".{{sfn|Link|2008|p=60}} In 1960, Helms worked on the unsuccessful primary gubernatorial campaign of [[I. Beverly Lake Sr.]], who ran on a platform of [[racial segregation]].<ref name="Drescher TOGW">{{cite book | last = Drescher | first =John |author2=David Espo | title=[[Triumph of Good Will: How Terry Sanford Beat a Champion of Segregation and Reshaped the South]] | publisher=University Press of Mississippi | year=2000 | isbn =1-57806-310-8 }} - [https://books.google.com/books?id=LpMukF2ifkEC Link to book profile], accessed on July 14, 2008 on Google Books.</ref>  Lake [[1960 North Carolina gubernatorial election#Primary elections|lost to]] [[Terry Sanford|future Senator Terry Sanford]], who ran as a racial moderate willing to implement the federal policy of school integration. Helms felt [[desegregation busing in the United States|forced busing]] and forced racial integration caused animosity on both sides and "proved to be unwise".<ref name="Drescher TOGW"/>