Terry Sanford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Terry Sanford
United States Senator from North Carolina
In office November 5, 1986 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Jim Broyhill
Succeeded by	Lauch Faircloth
66th Governor of North Carolina
In office January 5, 1961 – January 8, 1965
Lieutenant	Harvey Cloyd Philpott (1961)
Preceded by	Luther H. Hodges
Succeeded by	Dan K. Moore
Born	August 20, 1917(1917-08-20) Laurinburg, North Carolina
Died	April 18, 1998 (aged 80) Durham, North Carolina
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Margaret Rose Knight
Religion	Methodist

James Terry Sanford (August 20, 1917 – April 18, 1998) was a Democratic politician and educator from North Carolina, where he served as a state senator from 1953–1961, governor from 1961–1965, and United States Senator from 1986–1993. Sanford was noted for his progressive leadership in the fields of civil rights and education, and served as President of Duke University from 1969 –1985.

[edit] Personal life

Sanford was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina to Cecil and Elizabeth Sanford. He became an Eagle Scout in Laurinburg's Troop 20 of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Shortly before Sanford passed away, he related his Scouting experience to journalist David Gergen and said that it "...probably saved my life in the war. Boys who had been Scouts or had been in the CCC knew how to look after themselves in the woods...What I learned in Scouts sustained me all my life; it helped me make decisions about what was best."^[1] The BSA recognized him with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award as an adult.^[2]

Sanford graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and its law school. He served as a special agent in the FBI for two years.^[3] During World War II he enlisted as a private in the US Army as a paratrooper, parachuted into France in combat with the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was awarded the Bronze Star, attained the rank of first lieutenant, and was discharged in 1946.^[3] Sanford also served in the North Carolina Army National Guard (1948-1960). He married Margaret Rose Knight on 4 July 1942, and had two children with her, a son, Terry Jr., and a daughter, Elizabeth.^[4]

[edit] Gubernatorial career

He was an assistant director of the Institute of Government of the University of North Carolina from 1946–1948, then began the private practice of law in Fayetteville, NC. He served one term as a state senator (1953-55),^[5] before running for governor in 1960. Sanford was elected to the governorship of North Carolina in 1960 and served through January 1965.^[6]

Driven by his belief that a person could accomplish anything with a good education, Sanford nearly doubled North Carolina's expenditures on public schools during his term. He began the consolidation of the University of North Carolina system to ensure its solvency and strength and oversaw the creation of the North Carolina Community College System. He conceived the idea for the Governor's School of North Carolina for talented children.^[7] He established the North Carolina School of the Arts to keep creative children in their home state. And he fought for racial desegregation — even sending his son to a desegregated public school at a time when such a position was politically unpopular and possibly dangerous. He also established the North Carolina Fund under the leadership of George Esser; it was meant to fight poverty and promote racial equality across the state.^[8]

Tax increases to finance these educational programs were controversial. Sanford introduced a tax on food in those tax increases, which many nicknamed "Terry's Tax". That tax in particular roused much opposition and was decried as regressive by many including some who normally supported the governor. These taxes and the food tax in particular diminished Sanford's popularity and were energetically exploited by his political opponents.^[7]

Governor Sanford was a close political ally of President John F. Kennedy, a fact that disturbed some North Carolina Democrats who were unhappy with U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's efforts to push for civil rights.^[9] According to President John F. Kennedy's personal secretary Evelyn Lincoln, Sanford was Kennedy's choice for vice president on the 1964 Democratic ticket, had Kennedy lived. In 1968 she wrote a book titled Kennedy and Johnson in which she reported that President Kennedy told her that Lyndon B. Johnson would be replaced as Vice President. Lincoln wrote of that November 19, 1963 conversation, just before Kennedy was assassinated:^[10]

Additionally, Sanford used his leverage with the White House to blaze the trail for Research Triangle Park (RTP), which sparked an economic surge in the state, eventually luring IBM to the Triangle area as well as the United States Environmental Protection Agency.^[9][11][12]

After his term ended, Sanford opened a law firm. He had agreed to serve as Lyndon Johnson's campaign manager in 1968 just prior to Johnson's withdrawal on March 31, and in September he took over as the campaign manager for Democrat Hubert Humphrey in his race against Republican Richard Nixon for the presidency.^[4] President Johnson wanted Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic presidential nominee, to pick Sanford as his running mate. However, Humphrey ultimately picked Edmund Muskie of Maine. Though Sanford received a number of offers from the private sector during this period, he was interested in a position that would allow him to keep his political prospects open.

[edit] President of Duke University

In 1969, Sanford accepted the presidency of Duke University, a position he held for the next sixteen years.^[13] While involved in nearly every aspect of the university, Sanford primarily focused on fund-raising, athletics, and relations with the Duke trustees, and he maintained a policy of accessibility to the students. This approach helped him defuse the initial crisis of his tenure, student unrest over the Vietnam War. Addressing the protests with a mixture of tolerance and determination to maintain control of the campus, he met with students and successfully avoided the campus shutdowns that plagued other campuses at the time.^[14]

Perhaps the greatest controversy of Sanford's presidency was his effort to bring Richard Nixon's presidential library to Duke. Sanford raised the subject with Nixon during a visit with the former president at his New York City office on July 28, 1981, and continued to court him in the months that followed. The proposal became public in mid-August, creating considerable controversy among the faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the university. Though Sanford enjoyed some support for his effort, most of the faculty were against the propoal, with the largest concern being that the facility would be a monument to glorify Nixon rather than a center of scholarly study. Sanford tried to engineer a compromise, but the proposal by the Duke Academic Council of a library only a third the size that Nixon wanted and their rejection of a Nixon museum to accompany the site ultimately led Nixon to decline Sanford's offer and site his library elsewhere.^[15]

[edit] Campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination

Though Sanford enjoyed his time as Duke's president, he still harbored political ambitions. But as the 1972 presidential primary season began, Sanford was approached by several people who felt that the field of Democratic candidates was weak. Sanford was particularly motivated by a desire to challenge Alabama governor George Wallace in an effort to show that Wallace did not represent Southern opinion. Announcing his candidacy on March 8, he faced long odds in a crowded field, he realized that he could not win a majority of delegates in the primary, but he hoped to win enough to emerge as a compromise candidate in a deadlocked convention. Yet in the North Carolina primary, Sanford received 100,000 fewer votes than Wallace, and at the 1972 Democratic National Convention he received only 77½ votes, finishing fourth behind George McGovern (1,864.95), George Wallace (381.7), and Shirley Chisholm (151.95).^[16]

Undeterred, Sanford began preparations two years later for a run for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination.^[17] Announcing his candidacy on June 1, 1975. he juggled campaign appearances with his obligations as president of Duke. While he developed a following among educators, he had not hit upon a satisfactory campaign theme by the new year. Then, while campaigning in Massachusetts in January, he suffered sharp pains and was disgnosed with a heart murmur. On January 25, Sanford withdrew from the primaries, the first Democratic candidate to drop out from the race.^[18]

[edit] Senate career

After retiring as president of Duke University in 1985, Sanford remained active in Democratic state politics. After failing to find a willing candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican John P. East,^[19] Sanford announced his own candidacy for the nomination. His opponent was Congressman Jim Broyhill, who was appointed to the seat on July 3 following East's suicide on June 29.^[20] Despite being attacked as a liberal, Sanford defeated Broyhill by three percentage points in the November election. He took office a day later, as a special election to serve the last two months of East's term had taken place the same day.^[6]

Sanford found his years in the Senate frustrating ones. He was concerned about the runaway deficit spending of the era, and he pursued Central American economic development issues as an alternative to the Republican-driven military policies for the region. During his time in the Senate, he was involved with the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development, based at Duke University. He served on these Senate committees: Select Committee on Ethics (Chair); Special Committee on Aging; Budget; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs including the Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy and Subcommittee on Securities; and Foreign Relations including Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Chair), Subcommittee on African Affairs, and Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere and Peace Corps Affairs.^[21] His voting record was liberal when compared to his Democratic colleagues from the South, and he campaigned successfully against passage of a constitutional amendment prohibiting flag-burning with a counter-campaign promoting the Bill of Rights. Yet Sanford felt that his record of accomplishment in the Senate paled before that of his time as governor, and he seriously contemplated retiring and pursuing other projects before agreeing to run for reelection.^[22]

Sanford's opponent in the 1992 election was Lauch Faircloth, a former Democrat turned Republican who had served as a highway commissioner in Sanford's administration. Enjoying substantial backing from the political organization of Sanford's Senate colleague, Jesse Helms, Faircloth accused Sanford of being a tax-and-spend liberal beholden to special interests. While initial polls showed Sanford enjoying a comfortable lead, an operation for an infected heart valve kept him from campaigning for much of October and raised doubts as to whether Sanford was capable of serving another term. On November 3, 1993, Faircloth won the election by a 100,000-vote margin.^[23]

[edit] Later life

Sanford wrote several books, including But What About the People?, Storm Over the States, and Outlive Your Enemies:Grow Old Gracefully.^[24] He also taught classes and campaigned for the construction of a major performing arts center in the Research Triangle area that would provide a permanent home for the American Dance Festival, the North Carolina Symphony and the Carolina Ballet.^[25]

Sanford announced in late December 1997, that he had been diagnosed with inoperable esophageal cancer, and that his doctors had told him he had just a few months remaining. After his release from the hospital, Sanford's condition slowly deteriorated. Sanford died peacefully in his sleep from cancer while surrounded by his family at his Durham home. He was 80 years old. Sanford is entombed in Duke University's Chapel.^[4]

[edit] Legacy

Sanford was one of the most important public figures of the postwar South.^[26] Sanford's long and productive life touched countless Americans by being a key role in the transformation of Southern politics into the New South.^[27][28]

"His work and his influence literally changed the face and future of the South, making him one of the most influential Americans of the last 50 years," President Bill Clinton said in a statement issued from the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile.^[29]

In recognition of Sanford's efforts in education and in countless other areas, a 1981 Harvard University survey named him one of the 10 best governors of the 20th century.^[4] Duke University has since established an undergraduate and graduate institute in public policy called the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.^[30] Fayetteville High School, in Fayetteville, NC, was renamed "Terry Sanford High School" in his honor in 1968.^[31][32]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Alt, Patricia Maloney (1971). "The Evolution of Community Action: Training Goals and Strategies of the North Carolina Fund". M. A. Thesis. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. 
• Drescher, John (2000). Triumph of Good Will: How Terry Sanford Beat a Champion of Segregation in and Reshaped the South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-578-06310-8. 
• Leloudis, James L.; Korstad, Robert R. (2003). "Citizen Soldiers; The North Carolina Volunteers and the South's War on Poverty", in Elna C. Green: The New Deal and Beyond: Social Welfare in the South since 1930. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 138-162. 
• LeMay, Erika N. (1997). "Battlefield in the Backyard: A Local Study of the War on Poverty". M. A. Thesis. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. 

v • d • e Governors of North Carolina Caswell • Nash • Burke • A. Martin • Caswell • Johnston • A. Martin • Spaight • Ashe • Davie • Williams • Turner • Alexander • Williams • Stone • Smith • Hawkins • Miller • Branch • Franklin • Holmes • Burton • Iredell • Owen • Stokes • Swain • Spaight Jr. • Dudley • Morehead • Graham • Manly • Reid • Winslow • Bragg • Ellis • Clark • Vance • Holden • Worth • Holden • Caldwell • Brogden • Vance • Jarvis • Scales • Fowle • Holt • Carr • Russell • Aycock • Glenn • Kitchin • Craig • Bickett • Morrison • McLean • Gardner • Ehringhaus • Hoey • Broughton • Cherry • W.K. Scott • Umstead • Hodges • Sanford • Moore • R.W. Scott • Holshouser • Hunt • J. Martin • Hunt • Easley

v • d • e United States Senators from North Carolina Class 2: Johnston • Martin • Franklin • Turner • Stokes • Branch • Brown • Mangum • Reid • Bragg • Abbott • Ransom • Butler • Simmons • Bailey • Umstead • Broughton • F. Graham • Smith • Lennon • Scott • Jordan • Helms • Dole Class 3: Hawkins • Bloodworth • Stone • Franklin • Stone • Locke • Macon • Iredell • Mangum • Strange • W. Graham • Haywood • Badger • Biggs • Clingman • Pool • Merrimon • Vance • Jarvis • Pritchard • Overman • Morrison • Reynolds • Hoey • Ervin • Morgan • East • Broyhill • Sanford • Faircloth • Edwards • Burr