The Making of a Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics from Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory

5. Dirges in the Dark

116 c h a p t e r f i v e Dirges in the Dark Beginning in the mid-1960s, a small group of students, left-leaning intellectuals , and Quakers stood like sentinels at such locales as the sidewalk outside the Chapel Hill post office. Their anti–Vietnam War protest was a lonely one. Then, in 1968, antiwar sentiment began to spread even in conservative North Carolina. But 1968 would be the least peaceful of years. Peace groups organized and grew on college campuses. The more privileged sons of North Carolina—the ones who could afford to go to college and thus gain long-term student draft deferments—began to feel threatened as the war expanded. So far, the war had been fought disproportionately by youth from the working class. They, their families, and North Carolina’s large military community felt a sense of betrayal when reading of or witnessing on the screen the loud protestations from Chapel Hill or California. North Carolina elites, corporate and political, also seethed. But many of their college-age sons and daughters inched toward sympathy for the demonstrators, fearing that they or their loved ones might be drafted to fight in an ever-expanding tropical hell. By late 1967, Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy began what at first seemed a quixotic presidential campaign opposing Lyndon Johnson and the war. Then came a major American setback as communist forces mounted the early 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. McCarthy made a strong showing in the first primaries in New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Claiming the torch of his brother, Robert Kennedy entered the presidential race in April 1968, running against both Johnson and the war. Johnson withdrew from the race. On the night of April 4, while standing on a Memphis motel balcony, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Riots broke out in Chicago, Washington, and other cities. Large North Carolina cities were placed under states of emergency, night curfews, and National Guard Dirges in the Dark / 117 control for a few days, although violence occurred on only a small scale. North Carolinians held peaceful marches and candlelight vigils for King. Most marchers were black, but a few whites, including ministers, participated . In Wilson, a young attorney, Jim Hunt, then president of the North Carolina Young Democratic Clubs, joined a march and church service. Not quite two months later, on June 3, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy as Kennedy celebrated his California primary victory in a Los Angles hotel. With the most passionate of leaders gone, political convention time grew nearer. In Johnson’s place, the fervent liberal vice president, Hubert Humphrey, now a pariah to many liberals because of his unswerving support for the Vietnam War, became front-runner for the Democratic nomination . McCarthy and a late entry, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, gained delegates, but they possessed neither the insider status nor the drive to prevail in the caucuses and backrooms where large numbers of delegates were selected. McCarthy supporters had packed precinct caucuses and county conventions in North Carolina’s cities and academic centers. They made headway and won control of the party apparatus in Orange County (Chapel Hill). But party regulars of a more conservative bent would choose most of the state delegates to the national convention in Chicago. Since 1916, North Carolina had held party primaries to choose nominees for governor and other state offices, but presidential primaries with the possibilities of a more democratic selection process did not come until 1972. The party caucuses and state conventions chose nominees to the state convention. The incumbent governor (still Dan Moore) traditionally wielded strong influence on delegate selection. Candidates for state office nervously eyed national trends. Most were unenthusiastic about all of the possible Democratic presidential nominees , fearful that their liberalism would hurt the state ticket. Closer to home, the candidates were worried about the social unrest, black protests in the streets, and campus protests. Candidates feared a voter backlash that would hurt the state Democratic ticket. the law-and-order primary Since 1964, Bob Scott had been the favorite for the 1968 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He had the name and impeccable connections with agricultural interests. As the son of former governor Kerr Scott, Bob Scott had links to the liberal wing of the party. However, the younger Scott never warmed to the Sanford administration and its intellectual brain trust. 118 / Dirges in the Dark Scott had been peripherally involved...