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Quick Facts
- NAME: Jesse Helms
- OCCUPATION: U.S. Representative
- BIRTH DATE: October 18, 1921
- DEATH DATE: July 04, 2008
- EDUCATION: Wingate University, Wake Forest College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Monroe, North Carolina
- PLACE OF DEATH: Raleigh, North Carolina
- Nickname: "Senator No"
- Full Name: Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr.
Best Known For
Republican, Jesse Helms was a United States Senator from North Carolina who served for five terms (1973-2003). He was known for his right-wing politics and opposition to civil rights legislation.
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Play NowJesse Helms. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:50, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816.
Jesse Helms. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Jesse Helms." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 02:50 http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816.
"Jesse Helms," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Jesse Helms," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Jesse Helms [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816.
Jesse Helms, http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Jesse Helms. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-helms-262816. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Helms fought against busing for school integration and opposed creating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Race figured prominently in Helms's 1990 and 1996 re-election campaigns against Harvey Gantt,
Contents
a former mayor of Charlotte and an African American. Some of his advertisements featured language and imagery to play on some white people's concerns about affirmative action. His 1996 campaign was also cited by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating civil rights and voting laws.
Retirement
Not long after being elected to his fifth consecutive term in 1996, Helms began to experience some health problems. He had knee replacement surgery in 1998 and successfully battled prostate cancer as well as a rare bone disease. In January 2002, Helms announced his retirement from the Senate and had surgery to replace a valve in his heart a few months later.
In 2005, Helms provided admirers and detractors with an inside look into his life with his autobiography, Here's Where I Stand. In the book, he stated that he was "not the least bit racist"; and took aim at the news media, saying that it does not support traditional values.
Helms married Dorothy "Dot" Coble in 1942. The couple had three children, Jane, Nancy, and Charles.
Jesse Helms died July 4, 2008, of natural causes in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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