New Political Biographies Shed Light on North Carolina History Special to the Daily Reflector by Erik Estep
As the temperatures remain hot this summer, so does the political rhetoric during this election season. For those interested in a cooler perspective, there are some very illuminating resources in the North Carolina Collection at Joyner Library.
Most Americans remember Senator Sam Ervin as the courtly chair of the Select Senate Committee that investigated the Watergate break-in and other political crimes. He was a folksy combination of Andy Taylor and Atticus Finch, patiently questioning the corrupt, sweaty Nixon officials over their unconvincing lies and getting them to unknowingly incriminate themselves. But, of course, he was much more complex than that.
In Senator Sam Ervin: Last of the Founding Fathers, author Karl E. Campbell makes the case that behind that good 'ol boy demeanor was a man of piercing intelligence, who defended segregation intellectually rather than by making strident, emotional appeals. Ervin cloaked his defense of segregation in a reverence for the Constitution. Or, alternatively, Ervin's constitutionalism logically led to his defense of segregation against an aggressive federal government. Thus, Ervin saw Nixon's crimes as a threat to the Constitution in the same way as the Nixon administration's modest federal efforts at racial justice.
Relying extensively on the archival record, Campbell carefully traces Ervin's rise to national prominence and curious celebrity during the Watergate hearings. His biography is the most current and scholarly. For those interested in popular and anecdotal history there is the contemporaneous A Good Man: The Life of Sam J. Ervin Jr. by Dick Dabney. To hear Sam Ervin in his own voice read his memoir Preserving the Constitution: The Autobiography of Senator Sam J. Ervin Jr.
A biography of a very different North Carolinian is Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism by William Link. Timely because of Helms' death, Link places Helms within the shifting landscape of politics in the American South. Helms career was long enough that he started out in the Democratic Party and was one of the first important political figures in the South to switch parties and join the Republican Party, thus making it easier for other conservatives to cross party lines and shatter 100 hundred year taboo against the Party of Lincoln.
Helms style was the opposite of Ervin's. Helms background as a television opinion commentator and newspaper editorialist gave him with a rhetorical edge over his opponents. Helms knew what racial buttons to push in his appeals to white voters. 100 Proof Pure Old Jess is a compilation of juicy quotes and memorable cartoons of Helms. If you are interested in Helms' own account of his career, the appropriately titled Here's Where I Stand, is a characteristically unapologetic memoir.
Anyone interested in North Carolina politics and culture will find the North Carolina Periodicals Index (NCPI) an invaluable resource. The NCPI covers many popular magazines such as Our State as well as scholarly and professional journals. Patrons can learn about the popular perception of Sam Ervin's defense of the Constitution or Jesse Helms fervent defense of desegregation. The articles in the index are painstakingly abstracted, so researchers will have a good idea about what the article is about before they go to the shelves. There at least eleven articles on Jesse Helms alone.
Please feel free to stop by Joyner Library's North Carolina Collection this fall to get your political fix. We are open from 8 am to 10 pm Monday through Thursday, 8 am to 6 pm on Friday, 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, and 1 pm to 10 pm on Sunday. Our professional department of librarians will be happy to show you how to access our rich resources. Before visiting us you may also want to look at our informative webpage http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/index.cfm.
Erik Estep is a librarian and faculty member in the Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection of J.Y. Joyner Library at East Carolina University.
