Editing Jesse Helms (section)

==Social and political views==
{{Conservatism US|politicians}}

===Views on race===
Jesse Helms was accused of racism throughout his career. Two years before Helms's 2003 retirement from the Senate, David Broder of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' wrote a column headlined "Jesse Helms, White Racist", analyzing Helms's public record on race, a record he felt many other reporters were side-stepping. He said that Helms was willing to inflame racial resentment against [[African-Americans]] for political gain and dubbed Helms "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country".<ref name=broder>{{cite news|last=Broder|first=David S.|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10822-2001Aug28.html|title=Jesse Helms, White Racist|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=August 29, 2001|access-date=December 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010915182729/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10822-2001Aug28.html|archive-date=September 15, 2001|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Early in his career, as news director for WRAL radio, Helms supported [[Willis Smith]] in the 1950 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, against [[Frank Porter Graham]], in a campaign that used racial issues in a divisive way, in order to draw conservative white voters to the polls.<ref name="LATimes-obit">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-helms5-2008jul05-story.html |title=Former Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86 |last=Neuman |first=Johanna |work=Los Angeles Times |date=July 5, 2008 |access-date=December 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219003353/http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-helms5-2008jul05,0,1728319,full.story|archive-date=February 19, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Portraying Graham as favoring interracial marriages, the campaign circulated placards with the heading, "White people, wake up before it is too late"; and a handbill that showed Graham's wife dancing with a black man.<ref name="LATimes-obit"/><ref>Campbell, Karl E. (2017). "Tar Heel Politics in the Twentieth Century: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Plutocracy ", in Larry E. Tise and Jeffrey J. Crowe (Eds.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=k7M1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 New Voyages to Carolina: Reinterpreting North Carolina History]''. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|9781469634586}}. pp.&nbsp;241–268; here: p.&nbsp;254.</ref> When Smith won, Helms went to Washington as his administrative assistant.

Helms opposed [[busing]], the [[Civil Rights Act]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2008/07/05/controversial-helms-stood-by-his-beliefs/27757170007/|title=Controversial Helms stood by his beliefs|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|via=[[Tuscalossa News]]|last=Woodward|first=Whitney|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=July 5, 2008|access-date=May 4, 2023|archive-date=August 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813033333/https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2008/07/05/controversial-helms-stood-by-his-beliefs/27757170007/}}</ref> and enforcement of the [[Voting Rights Act]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/16/us/voting-rights-bill-passes-a-key-test.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|title=Voting Rights Bill Passes A Key Test|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=June 16, 1982|access-date=May 4, 2023|archive-date=May 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524110213/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/16/us/voting-rights-bill-passes-a-key-test.html}}</ref><ref name="Luebke THP">{{cite book | last = Luebke | first =Paul | title=Tar Heel Politics 2000 | publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]]| year=2007 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=3rUwKxNZJJkC | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn = 978-0-8078-4756-5}}</ref><ref name="Heineman GIAC">{{cite book | last = Heineman | first =Kenneth J. | title=God is a Conservative: Religion, Politics, and Morality in Contemporary America | publisher=NYU Press| year=1998 | url =https://archive.org/details/godisconservativ0000hein | url-access = registration | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn = 978-0-8147-3554-1}}</ref><ref name="Longley DRC">{{cite book | last = Longley | first =Kyle |author2=Jeremy D. Mayer |author3=Michael Schaller |author4=John W. Sloan  | title=Deconstructing Reagan: Conservative Mythology and America's Fortieth President | publisher=M.E. Sharpe| year=2007 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=HdvlNzSjgTIC | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn = 978-0-7656-1591-6}}</ref> Helms called the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress", and sponsored legislation to either extend it to the entire country or scrap it altogether.<ref name="Reagan backs extension" />  In 1982, he voted against the extension of the Voting Rights Act.<ref name="Michaels TLW 14 Jy"/>

Helms reminded voters that he tried, with a 16-day filibuster, to stop the Senate from approving a [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day|federal holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.]],<ref name="John Nichols 4 Jy"/> although he had fewer reservations about establishing a North Carolina state holiday for King.<ref name="Michaels TLW 14 Jy"/> He was accused of being a [[racial segregation|segregationist]] by some political observers and scholars, such as ''[[USA Today]]''{{'s}} DeWayne Wickham who wrote that Helms "subtly carried the torch of [[white supremacy]]" from [[Ben Tillman]].<ref name="Wickham USA 8 Jy">{{cite news|last=Wickham |first=DeWayne |title=Helms Subtly Carried Torch of White Supremacy |work=USA Today |date=July 8, 2008 |url=http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/helms-subtly-ca.html#more |access-date=July 12, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802025535/http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/helms-subtly-ca.html |archive-date=August 2, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Dyson OM">{{cite book | last = Dyson | first =Michael Eric | title=Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion | publisher=Basic Civitas Books| year=2003 | url =https://archive.org/details/openmikereflecti0000dyso | url-access = registration | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn = 978-0-465-01765-2}}</ref><ref name="Crowther GATR">{{cite book | last = Crowther | first =Hal | title=Gather at the River: Notes from the Post-millennial South | publisher=LSU Press | year=2005 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=E15SdQQFnJwC | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn = 978-0-8071-3100-8}}</ref><ref name="Curry OM">{{cite book | last=Curry | first=George E. | author2=Cornel West | title=The Affirmative Action Debate | publisher=Basic Books | year=1996 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2xSlM895ewC | access-date=July 13, 2008 | isbn=978-0-201-47963-8 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Helms never stated that segregation was morally wrong and expressed the belief that integration would have been achieved voluntarily but that it was forced by "outside agitators who had their own agendas".<ref>{{cite news| title = Helms apologetic on AIDS, not segregation| newspaper = Winston-Salem Chronicle| pages = A2| agency = Associated Press| date = June 16, 2005| url = http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn85042324/2005-06-16/ed-1/seq-2}}</ref>

In 1990, former [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]] mayor [[Harvey Gantt]] ran against Helms in a "bid to become the nation's only black senator" and "the first black elected to the Senate from [[Southern United States|the South]] since [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]".<ref name="The 1990 Election"/><ref name="Lee Jy 8"/>
Helms aired a late-running television commercial titled "[[Hands (advertisement)|Hands]]", also known as "White Hands", that showed a white man's hands crumpling an employment rejection notice while a voiceover said, "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is."<ref name="Lee Jy 8"/><ref name="Sex in Adverti"/><ref name="Age of Propaganda"/><ref name="Cornwell 7 Jy"/><ref name="the Mommy War"/> During the same election, Helms's campaign mailed 125,000 postcards to households in predominantly African-American precincts falsely claiming if people voted without updating their addresses on the electoral register since their last move they could go to jail.<ref>Link (2007), pp. 379–80</ref>

Helms was one of 52 senators to vote to confirm [[Clarence Thomas]], an African American, to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] as an associate justice in 1991.

In 1993, after [[Carol Moseley Braun]], the first black woman in the Senate and the only black senator at the time, persuaded the Senate to vote against Helms's amendment to extend the patent of the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]] insignia, which included the [[Confederate flag]], Moseley Braun claimed Helms ran into her in an elevator, and that Helms turned to [[Orrin Hatch|Senator Orrin Hatch]] and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]" until she cries," and proceeded to sing the song about "the good life" during [[slavery in the United States|slavery]].<ref name="Helms Whistling Dix"/><ref name="fair1"/><ref name="Winston-Salem 5 Jy"/><ref>''Chicago Sun-Times'', August 5, 1993</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/helms-subtly-ca.html |title=Helms subtly carried torch of white supremacy |work=USA Today |author=Wickham, DeWayne |date=July 8, 2008 |access-date=August 29, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802025535/http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/helms-subtly-ca.html |archive-date=August 2, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="John Nichols 4 Jy"/> In 1999, Helms unsuccessfully attempted to block Moseley Braun's nomination to be [[United States Ambassador to New Zealand]].<ref name="Helms Whistling Dix"/>

Besides opposing civil rights and affirmative action legislation, Helms blocked many black judges from being considered for the federal bench, and black appointees to positions of prominence in the Federal Government. In one instance, he blocked attempts by President Bill Clinton over a period of years to appoint a black judge on the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.<ref name="Michaels TLW 14 Jy">{{cite web | last = Michaels | first =Cash | title=The racial legacy of Jesse Helms | work=The Louisiana Weekly | date=July 17, 2008 | url =http://www.louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory=200 | archive-date=November 28, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128112037/http://louisianaweekly.com/news.php?viewStory=200}}</ref> Only when Helms's own judicial choices were threatened with blocking did attorney [[Roger Gregory]] of [[Richmond, Virginia|Richmond]], Virginia get confirmed.<ref name="Michaels TLW 14 Jy"/>

===Views on homosexuality===
{{quote|Nothing positive happened to [[Sodom and Gomorrah]] and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle.|author=Jesse Helms|title=''The New York Times''<ref name="Holmes, NYT 5 Jy"/>}}

Helms had a negative view of  lesbian, gay, [[bisexual]], and [[transgender]] ([[LGBT]]) people and [[LGBT rights in the United States]].<ref name="Briscoe DV 14 Jy">{{cite web | last=Briscoe | first=Ben | title=LGBT rights step forward as 'Old Guard' leader passes away | work=Dallas Voice | date=July 14, 2008 | url=http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=77327 | access-date=July 15, 2008 | archive-date=January 20, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120033809/http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=77327 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Holmes TWSJ 5 Jy"/>  Helms called homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches" and tried to cut funding for the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] for supporting the "gay-oriented artwork of photographer [[Robert Mapplethorpe]]".<ref>Jesse Helms, "Tax-Paid Obscenity." ''Nova Law Review'' 14 (1989): 317. [http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/novalr14&div=35&id=&page= online]</ref><ref name="The Week 18 Jy">{{cite web | title=Jesse Helms: The Far-right Senator Who Refused To Compromise | work=The Week | date=July 18, 2008 | url=http://theweekdaily.com/article/index/87141/3/3/Jesse_Helms | access-date=July 12, 2008 | archive-date=October 3, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003124045/http://theweekdaily.com/article/index/87141/3/3/Jesse_Helms | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1993, when then-president [[Bill Clinton]] wanted to appoint [[closeted|'out']] lesbian [[Roberta Achtenberg]] to assistant secretary of the [[Department of Housing and Urban Development]], Helms held up the confirmation "because she's a damn lesbian", adding "she's not your garden-variety lesbian. She's a militant-activist-mean lesbian".<ref name="Holmes TWSJ 5 Jy">{{cite news | last = Holmes | first =Elizabeth | title=Jesse Helms (1921–2008): Ex-Senator Served North Carolina for Three Decades | work=The Wall Street Journal | date=July 5, 2008 | url =https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121521859205329713 | access-date=July 15, 2008}}</ref>  Helms also stated "I'm not going to put a lesbian in a position like that. If you want to call me a bigot, fine."<ref name="Briscoe DV 14 Jy"/> When Clinton urged that gays be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces, Helms said the president "better have a bodyguard" if he visited North Carolina.<ref name="The Week 18 Jy"/> His views on gay and lesbian citizens were depicted in the 1998 documentary film ''[[Dear Jesse]]''.

Helms initially fought against increasing federal financing for [[HIV/AIDS]] research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from "unnatural" and "disgusting" homosexual behavior.<ref name="Holmes, NYT 5 Jy"/> In his final year in the Senate, he strongly supported [[HIV/AIDS in Africa|AIDS measures in Africa]], where heterosexual transmission of the disease is most common, and continued to hold the belief that the "homosexual lifestyle" is the cause of the spread of the epidemic in America.<ref name="Holmes, NYT 5 Jy"/><ref name="Najafi TWB 17 June">{{cite web|last=Najafi |first=Yusef |title=Helms regrets AIDS stance: Former senator 'wrong' on AIDS funding because families hurt |work=The Washington Blade |date=June 17, 2005 |url=http://www.washblade.com/2005/6-17/news/national/helms.cfm |access-date=July 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726083329/http://www.washblade.com/2005/6-17/news/national/helms.cfm |archive-date=July 26, 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During his 1990 campaign against Harvey Gantt, Helms ran television commercials accusing Gantt of running a "secret campaign" in homosexual communities and of being committed to "mandatory gay rights laws" including "requiring local schools to hire gay teachers".<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

In 1993, when he voted against confirming [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], he cited her support for the "homosexual agenda" as one of his reasons for doing so.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-08-04/news/9301270900_1_judge-ginsburg-high-court-appointment-senate-judiciary-committee|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610091817/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-08-04/news/9301270900_1_judge-ginsburg-high-court-appointment-senate-judiciary-committee|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 10, 2015|title=Ginsburg To Join High Court|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=August 4, 1993|access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref>

In his 2017 memoir, ''[[Logical Family: A Memoir|Logical Family]]'', gay author [[Armistead Maupin]] recalls that Helms described homosexuality as an "abomination" when he was working for him as a young man.<ref name="logicalfamily7682"/> Maupin adds that he later gave an interview about his first novel on the same TV station, and said, "I worked here when Jesse Helms was here. Now he's in Washington, ranting about militant homosexuals, and I'm out running around being one."<ref name="logicalfamily7682"/>