November 6, 1990: Jesse Helms is elected to a 4th term as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He did not deserve this, but he got it. There are several people to blame.
One of them is Michael Jordan.
Nike signed Jordan as an NBA rookie in 1984, thinking he would be the next NBA superstar. They were right: Despite an injury-plagued rookie season, his scoring and dunking made him the player ever kid who loved basketball wanted to be -- even though he went through his 1st 6 seasons without having reached the NBA Finals.
Although born in New York City -- on February 17, 1963, at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, where boxer Mike Tyson would be born 3 years later -- Jordan lived in Wilmington, North Carolina from age 5 until he began studying and playing at the University of North Carolina in 1981. Despite having maintained a home in Chicago since his rookie year, he has always considered North Carolina his home State.
He had helped the University of North Carolina win the National Championship as a freshman in 1982, but, with his head coach having instituted his passing-first "Four Corners" offense, it became a joke among NBA fans that the only man who could hold Michael Jordan to under 20 points was Dean Smith.
Although from conservative Kansas, Smith was a Democrat, who had helped integrate the athletic program at UNC. So was Harvey Gantt, who, in 1963, became the 1st black student at Clemson University in South Carolina. The 2nd was Lucinda Brawley, who became Gantt's wife. An architect, he was elected to the City Council in Charlotte in 1973, and Mayor in 1982 and 1986. In 1990, the Democrats nominated him to run for the U.S. Senate for North Carolina, against Jesse Helms.
He was born on October 18, 1921, in Monroe, outside Charlotte. Ironically, he got his start as a sportswriter, with the News & Observer, out of Raleigh. He moved into the news section, then became a newscaster for WRAL-Channel 5 in Raleigh. He did TV editorials, promoting white supremacy. He helped elect Willis Smith to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, and later for Senator Richard Russell of Georgia. He was twice elected to the Raleigh City Council, then went back to WRAL, doing editorials with the same kind of noxious racism.
Like many Southern Democrats, he switched to the Republican Party over civil rights. He called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress." He was elected to the Senate in 1972, using the slogan, "Jesse: He's One of Us." He became a darling of the conservative movement, particularly the religious conservatives, opposing abortion, labor unions, environmental causes, food stamps and the Equal Rights Amendment; and was a staunch anti-Communist.
He stood by President Richard Nixon all the way, remaining his friend even after his 1974 resignation; and supported Governor Ronald Reagan's campaign against incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Primaries, his support of Reagan in the North Carolina Primary vital in keeping that campaign going, keeping Reagan viable in 1980, when he won.
In 1984, the Democrats sensed that Helms was vulnerable in a run for a 3rd term. The other most popular politician in the State, James B. Hunt, limited to 2 consecutive terms as Governor, was nominated, and it was very close: Helms won 51.7 percent of the vote, to Hunt's 47.8, a margin of less than 87,000 votes. Had Reagan not overwhelmingly won re-election, Helms likely would have lost.
His reputation as "Senator No" increased, as he opposed everything the Democrats wanted, and even some things that less-conservative Republicans wanted. He would have to run for a 4th term in 1990 without the "coattails" of a popular Republican President -- George H.W. Bush was now in office, and wasn't especially popular as the Congressional campaign began -- and Democrats thought Gantt could beat him.
The North Carolina Republican Party mailed over 125,000 notices, almost exclusively to black voters, telling them that they were not eligible to vote, and warned that if they went to the polls they could be prosecuted for voter fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Helms campaign. A settlement was reached, and the activity was stopped.
With the polls neck and neck, Helms aired a late-running television commercial titled "Hands." It showed a white man's hands crumpling up a rejection notice. a voiceover says, "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?"
The advertisement compared Helms to Gantt by saying that Gantt was "for racial quotas" and that Helms was against them. In particular, it accused Gantt of supporting "Ted Kennedy's racial quota law." Such a law did exist, and the Massachusetts Senator was hardly its only supporter. But, as a stand-in for everything conservatives hated about liberals, Ted was a convenience, even though he and Helms remained friendly in the Senate chamber.
Another Helms television commercial accused 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." There was no such campaign.
Desperate to get rid of the Senator who had embraced his role as the biggest bigot in American politics, now that former Governor George Wallace of Alabama had repented somewhat in his later career, Democratic activists in North Carolina asked Michael Jordan to do a TV ad endorsing Gantt. Jordan's own mother asked him to do the ad. Jordan said, "Look, Mom, I’m not speaking out of pocket about someone I don’t know. But I will send a contribution to support him." And he did. But he didn't do the ad.
On November 6, Helms got 52.5 percent of the vote, to Gantt's 47.4, a winning margin of 106,000 votes. No stranger to sports and its lore, Helms paraphrased Casey at the Bat: "There's no joy in Mudville tonight. The mighty ultra-liberal establishment, and the liberal politicians and editors and commentators and columnists, have struck out."
The Democrats gained only 1 seat in the Senate, and 7 in the House. Among the new Senators were Democrat Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who eventually died in a plane crash while running for a 3rd term; and Republican Larry Craig of Idaho, whose career crashed and burned at an airport, through his own folly.
In 1992, Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois became the 1st black Democrat, and only the 2nd black person (after Republican Ed Brooke of Massachusetts in 1966), to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote. In a widely publicized incident on July 22, 1993, she reported that Helms deliberately sought to offend her by whistling the Southern song "Dixie" as the two shared an elevator.
Also in 1992, Bill Clinton was elected President. On November 22, 1994, the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Helms said of his home State, "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He'd better have a bodyguard." He said Clinton was unpopular, and that he had not meant it as a threat. (For the record, although Clinton finished 2nd in North Carolina to Bush in a 3-way race with Ross Perot, it was by 71,000 votes, and he got more votes in the State than Helms had ever gotten to that point.)
In October 1993, Jordan stepped away from basketball, for reasons that are still debated. In March 1995, he returned. Chicago Tribune beat reporter Sam Smith, in his book The Second Coming, wrote about the attempt to get Jordan to endorse Gantt, who was getting read for a rematch with Helms in 1996. Smith wrote that Jordan said he wasn't into politics, didn't know the issues -- "And, as he later told a friend, 'Republicans buy shoes, too.'" This soon entered the public mind as, "Republicans buy sneakers, too."
People who opposed Helms were furious. They thought Jordan had sold out, putting Nike and what it paid him ahead of his own people. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, "He took commerce over conscience." Football legend Jim Brown said, "Money has changed today's black athletes. Those who have the ability as African men to bring a change in a community that so desperately needs it are concentrating only on their own careers, some charities and how much money they can make." A joke developed: "Jordan stays at the Ritz, because he sold out to crackers."
Gantt himself didn't seem to mind, saying, "It's been blown way out of proportion. They make it sound almost as if had he endorsed my campaign, we would have won. We don't know that. I don't hold it against him."
In 1996, his comeback complete and his legend as an all-time great secured, Jordan hosted a fundraiser for Gantt at his Chicago steakhouse. It didn't work: Helms won 52.6 percent to Gantt's 45.9. Gantt has never run for office again.
Helms served out that 5th term in the Senate, and did not run again in 2002. He died on July 4, 2008, with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois the nominee-in-waiting, though not yet the official nominee, for President of the Democratic Party. Had Helms lived just 4 more months, he would have seen America elect a black President.
Helms died of vascular dementia: Heart trouble causing dysfunction of the brain, confounding those who doubted that he had either. When he announced in 2001 that his health had convinced him not to run for another term, Washington Post political columnist David S. Broder called him "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country." As we have since seen, Broder was grossly premature. Even as he died, newspeople pussyfooted around his hideous rhetoric, toward various groups that he perceived as enemies of God and America.
In 2008 and 2012, Jordan endorsed Obama. In 2016, responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, Jordan said, "I can no longer stay silent."
In 2017, in response to a nasty tweet that Donald Trump issued against Steph Curry of the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, LeBron James tweeted to Trump, "U bum." Apparently, despite also being signed to Nike, LeBron didn't give a damn whether Republicans bought sneakers, too. Asked about this, Jordan said, "I support L.J."
*
November 6, 1990 was a Tuesday. Soccer star André Schürrle and Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang were born.
Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 96-91 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Charlotte Hornets, 113-105 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 102-95 at the Orlando Arena.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 106-94 at the Miami Arena.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 98-96 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-108 at the Chicago Stadium. Jordan scored 33.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 145-135 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Kevin Smith scored 35 for the Rockets.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 130-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-123 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 102-85 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.
And there were 7 games in the NHL:
* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.
* The Chicago Blackhawks and the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Calgary Flames, 6-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
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