In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

228 c h a p t e r t e n Breaking New Ground There were few hints of a dramatic political turn. The middle class prospered . Inflation slowed. The urban South led the nation in economic growth. North Carolina’s cities and resort areas boomed. Charlotte pursued a major cleanup after a blast from Hurricane Hugo in September 1989, a storm that had continued to wreak havoc when it moved inland from the South Carolina coast. Despite its severity, the damage was a mere hiccup for what had become one of America’s most dynamic cities. Most political observers assumed that George H. W. Bush would coast to reelection in the 1992 presidential election and that Jesse Helms would be elected to a fourth term in the Senate in 1990, probably defeating a moderate white Democrat. The conventional wisdom said that the Democrats had a permanent majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republicans appeared to have the long-term advantage in electing presidents, an electoral vote lock based on strength in the South, the Midwest, the West, and parts of the Northeast. North Carolina had a Republican governor, but Democrats still held the upper hand in the state legislature. Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Joe Mavretic temporarily led a coalition of Democrats and Republicans after the 1989 coup, but few observers thought that the Republicans could win a legislative majority on their own. Before the decade was out, old notions about political norms would be challenged as never before. Underlying economic and social forces reshaped the state, which was on the cusp of moving from majority rural to majority urban. From 1980 to 1990, North Carolina’s population had grown from 5,881,776 to 6,628,637— enough that it gained a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Metropolitan areas—mainly in the urban crescent close to Interstate 85—and resort communities led the way. The rural nonfarm population grew fast Breaking New Ground / 229 in zones twenty to forty miles from cities. New houses filled old farm fields. Early twentieth-century dwellings met the wrecker’s ball or decayed except in a few cities, where the grander ones became valued trophy properties. At mainstream restaurants, blacks and whites often dined together. And no longer did the presence of an interracial couple automatically evoke raised eyebrows or icy stares from the whites in the room. the gantt challenge Harvey Gantt’s campaign was the central story of the 1990 election season. Through the 1980s, blacks had little chance to win statewide Democratic primaries. They might lead in the initial primary, only to lose the runoff. In 1990, Gantt, a former mayor of Charlotte, hoped to change this dynamic . He sought the Democratic nomination and the challenge of facing Helms. The leading white progressive Democrats—the Sanford and Hunt crowds—feared that Gantt’s race and liberalism made him a sure loser. Hunt had no appetite for taking on Helms after the 1984 bloodbath. Instead , he eyed a 1992 race for governor, when Jim Martin would be ineligible to run again. Congressional Democrats did not want to vacate their safe seats to pursue a losing cause. William Friday, the retired president of the state university system and host of a popular public television interview program, might have been the Democrats’ dream candidate. At seventy, he remained full of energy. He was a keen student of politics who had managed to stay above the partisan fray. Democratic money sources, notably organized labor from outside the state, promised to pour money into a Friday Senate campaign. His polling numbers looked good. Friday was intrigued by the idea until he received a visit from a former UNC student and personal friend who worked for the Raleigh law firm of top Helms strategist Tom Ellis. The young attorney warned Friday that the Congressional Club had a thick file him. Friday believed that the attorney had approached him as a friend and not as an agent of the Helms’s forces. He decided not to run, fearing that a bitter race would tarnish his sterling reputation and that of the university. While never politically close, Friday and Helms long maintained a friendly personal relationship. Harvey Gantt was a World War II baby, born near the front edge of the baby boom on January 14, 1943, in Charleston, South Carolina, where his father worked in the busy shipyard. At the time, South Carolina vied with Mississippi as a...

Share