Like many folks in Eastern North Carolina, as a child I was usually in front of the television at 6:25 p.m. to watch Jesse Helms give his nightly diatribe on WRAL.
My family and I were among those who considered it to be generally just snide, mean-spirited ramblings and not to be taken very seriously.
It was about this time, in the early ‘60s, however, that my father told me who Jesse really was. He wasn’t just this strange guy who sounded like he had a mouth full of marbles and who didn’t seem to like anything or anybody. No, my father explained to us that Jesse was the man who masterminded the defeat of Frank Porter Graham in the 1950 primary for the U.S. Senate through the use of a racist whisper campaign.
My old man didn’t equivocate about Jesse’s role in that election, and given that he was an experienced country newspaper editor and publisher and involved in NC politics, I believe he knew what he was talking about.
Given the exalted status of Dr. Frank in our household, Jesse was the arch-villain.
Our family’s relationship with Jesse became more personal after my brother Paul Dickson III was elected president of the student body at UNC in the spring of 1965.
That summer after he took office, he was apprehended in the early-morning hours leaving a fraternity house with a young lady. I’m not sure what the rules are for such behavior these days, but it was frowned upon back then. So she was suspended from summer school, while he was reprimanded. Injustice, certainly; but the judgments were rendered by two separate bodies. My brother was almost 24 at the time and had already done a tour of duty with the Air Force in Vietnam.
When school came back into session, the cry grew for Pete (that’s how he was known in our family) to resign. Those were great times around the dinner table back in Raeford. Voices were raised, coffee cups rattled and emotions were high as the discussion ebbed and flowed.
Given that Pete Dickson’s ambition in his high school yearbook was to “out-argue everyone in North Carolina,†he wasn’t inclined to back down from anyone, including his father.
In the end, I remember Paul the father telling Paul the son that he should do what he thought was right, that he would be behind him 100 percent. That made a big impression on this 14-year-old boy.
Pete went back to Chapel Hill and told the student leaders and administrators who had asked him to resign that he’d only step down if the students themselves asked him to.
In his own words, “To let any group of individuals other than the students themselves determine who should remain their President would be to abrogate the responsibility placed in me last spring.†A recall petition was circulated but failed to get enough signatures and he remained as president.
So it was that Paul Dickson III came squarely into Jesse Helms’ sights.
“It still takes two to tango,†Jesse said on September 28, 1965 (Viewpoint number 1195). Referring to the unequal punishments received by my brother and his friend, Jesse continued, “But it hardly seems fair that her partner in the incident can remain on campus and in office as president of the student body, with only a reprimand on his record.â€
But remain in office he did, with momentous times to come, and more scrutiny by the future senator.
“If the General Assembly does not take action against the law in the current session, let no man say that we are not willing to ripple the waters.†These words are probably the most quoted of Pete’s public speaking. He delivered them April 1, 1965 as part of his inaugural address upon assuming the student body presidency.
“The law†he referred to was the Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers, better known as the Speaker Ban Law. Jesse Helms frequently referred to it as the Communist Speaker Ban Law. This law was passed in June 1963 at the very end of the legislative session.
In the fall and winter of 1965-66, the speaker ban was a regular subject on the front pages of North Carolina’s daily newspapers. The reputation of our university was being sullied by this embarrassing denial of free speech and UNC students were none too happy about it.
My brother was a pivotal player in rallying on-campus opposition to the speaker ban. He was quoted regularly and his image appeared frequently on the front page of The Daily Tar Heel.
The situation was brought to a head on February 7, 1966 when the executive committee of the UNC Board of Trustees voted to ban Herbert Aptheker and Frank Wilkinson from speaking on the Chapel Hill campus. Pete spoke to the trustees at that meeting, arguing against the ban, but to no avail.
Before the trustees’ meeting, more than 800 students and faculty rallied in Memorial Hall to pass a resolution
supporting Aptheker speaking on campus. Less than a day following the trustees’ vote, more than 350 students met to form the Committee for Free Inquiry.
Jesse, a staunch defender of the speaker ban and frequent critic of its foes, was at his unflattering best with his comments on those proceedings.
“A noisy bunch of troublemakers who are about to be consumed by their own self-importance,†was how Jesse referred to these students who simply wanted to exercise what they assumed to be their right of free speech. (Viewpoint number 1290, February 10, 1966)
He really let his paranoia show when he said, “The campus at Berkeley, California provides an instructive example of how relatively small student groups have been used – and quite effectively – by the communist conspiracy, all around the world.â€
Whew.
“As for the leaders of this pipsqueak rebellion, they hardly merit any respectful attention at all,†he jabbed at the UNC students.
And for Paul Dickson III, he had this to say: “The president of the University student body, meanwhile, strikes us as being living proof that all gall is not divided into three parts.â€
“It has already been seen what he does with his liberties,†Jesse adds, concluding that, “Nothing could be more obvious than his need of being called home by his parents for a spanking.â€
I’m not sure what else Jesse had to say publicly about my brother, but Aptheker and Wilkinson came to Chapel Hill that spring anyway, creating the basis for the test case against the speaker ban.
For the record, in the case Dickson, et al. v Sitterson, et al., the speaker ban was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district court in 1968. That “pipsqueak rebellion†did its job and helped rid North Carolina of this ridiculous statute.
We weren’t so lucky with Jesse Helms. I’ve often thought about how Pete would have reacted to Jesse’s reign as a senator. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been quiet.
Paul Dickson III died in an automobile accident in 1972, the same year that Jesse Helms was elected to his first term in the U.S. Senate.
Robert Dickson is the publisher of The Carrboro Citizen.
Great column on an important time and event in UNC history.