Helms Aide Stirs Furor with Racial Accusation News Article from the New York Times

    (c) L990, The Boston Globe, JuIy 23, L990

If they do, he and others s&y, it could transform Democratic politics
nationwide - reducing Southern Democrats' long resistance to liberal
presidentiat nominees and making Southern officeholders more attractive as
candidates for national office.

Southern populists also can teach their northern counterparts the attraction
of appealing to t'the enormous resentment[ against the rich in these days of
savings and loan bailouts and capital gains tax cuts, Bond said. I'If Democrats
rai-se the class issuerrr he added, Itthey will win, win, win.tt

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Copyright (c) 1990 The New York Times Company,'
The New York Times

JuIy 21, l-990, Saturday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section ti Page 8, Column L, Nati-onal Desk

LENGTHI 74O words

HEADLINE: Helms Aide Stirs Furor With Racial Accusation

BYLINE: By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN

BODY:
The head. of the N.A.A.C.P. and a black civil rights pioneer employed by

Senator Jesse Helms have clashed over assertions by the Helms aide that some
American bl-ack leaders are controlled by 15 powerful white men and are engagred
in criminal and immoral activi-ti-es.

The Helms staff member is James H. Meredith, whose enrollment at the
University of Mississippi in 1962 touched off riots that left two dead and
hundreds injured. On Monday, in a news release on Mr. Helms's Senate

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(c) l-990 The New York Times, July 2L, l-990

stationery, he said many leaders of the Nati-onal Associ-ation for the Advancement
of Colored People and some black Democratic leaders were puppets of a sma11
group of "liberal elite" whites.

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He said he knew the names of the whites but he refused to divulge them or the
names of any of the blacks he said were being controlled. He also charged that
many of the 3rOOO detegates at an N.A.A.C.P. convention in Los Angeles last
weekend were involved in drug use, crime and immoral activities. He offered no
evidence for any of his assertionsr

Compelled to Respond

Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director of the N.A.A.C.P., declined to respond
at firit, saying he would not "dlgnify the stupidity of his a11egations. " But
on Wednesday, he said the wide publicity given the Meredith assertions and the
fact that they appeared on Mr. Helms's stationery compelled him to respond.

Describing the assertions as "sheer nonsense" and "ludicrousr" Mr. Hooks
suggested that they were part of a "sinister, devious and unholy plot" to aid
Mr. -ttelms,s political career, and he caIled on the North Carolina Republi-can, a
staunch opponent of civil rights legislation, to disavow and censure Mr.
Meredith.
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(c) 1990 The New York Times, July 2L, 1990

, rT pose the guestion whether this entire episode is influenced by the fact
that Senator Helms's opponent in the general election is Harvey Gantt, the
Democratic candidate, who happens to be bIack, " Mr. Hooks said at a news
conference in New York. Mr. Gantt is a former Mayor of Charlotte.

Mr. Helms, in a statement Wednesday, said he had not authorized Mr.
Meredithrs news release and faulted hirn for using his Senate stationery and his
free mailing privileges. But he addedz "It is his right to express his opinion,
and I would think the press would respect that - even if he does not espouse the
liberal ideas the press supports. "

euestions yesterday about the affair were referred by members of the
Senatorrs staff in Vlashington to a spokesman, Eric Lundgren, who did not return
two phone ca11s to a reporter seeking comment. The office said Mr. Meredith was
unavailable.

A Harsh Critic
Mr. Meredith, after desegregating the University of Mississippi, was wounded

in a civil rights march in Mississippi in L966. But in later years, he becarne a
harsh critic of the civil rights establishment and he has denounced integration
and argued that a white liberal elite wants to keep blacks down under the
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(c) 1990 The New York Times, July 21, 1990

pretext of helping them.

The 58-year-old Mr. Meredith has held many jobs, including financial planner
and tree flrmer, in various parts of the country and has made a number of trips
to Africa to promote black economic development. Last September, he joined Mr.
Helms's Washington staff as a domestic policy adviser.

Many blacks expressed surprise at his appointment, noting that Mr. He1ms,
since his election to the Senate in L972, had been a scathing critic of domestic
programs favored by many blacks, a defender of South Africa's white minority
government and an opponent of efforts to make the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

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Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.

But Mr. Meredith, at the tirne of his appointment, said he did not believe
Senator Helms was hostile to blacks. "l have never seen anyone sustain that
charge or give one iota of evidence, " he said.

Mr. Meredith, in his assertions on the Helms stationery this week, accused
American black leaders, especially in the N.A.A.C.P. and the Democratic Party,
of selling out to a cadre of white conspirators.

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(c) 1990 The New York Times, July 2L, l-990

,,Ihe truth of the natter is that the liberal elite - with knowledge and fuII
thought on the part of the black elite -have deliberately set up a phenomenon as
part of their political power control, of taking a handful of selected blacks,
giving them high rewards and using them to control the black popu1ation, " Mr.
Meredith said. I{r. Hooks, in his news conference, said "the charges were so
outlandish that no sane person could give them any degree of credibility. "
GRAPHIC: Photos: James H. Meredith, Ieft, a civil rights pioneer enployed by
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, has clashed with Benjanin L. Hooks of the
N.A.A.C.P., after asserting that several prominent blacks were puppets of a
group of "1iberal eIite" whites. (Photographs by Associated Press)

SUBJECT: BLACKS (IN US); ELECTIONS; ELECTION ISSUES

ORGANIZATION: DE},IOCRATIC PARTY; NATIONAL ASSN FOR THE ADVANCE}IENT OF COLOR
PEOPLE (NAACP)

NAII{E: I,ICFADDEN, ROBERT D,. MEREDITH, JAMES H; HELIT{S, JESSE (SEN); GANTT, HARVEY;
HOOKS, BENJAUIN L JR

GEOGRAPHIC: NORTH CAROLINA

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Copyright (c) 1990 NewsdaY, Inc.;
Newsday

June 6, l-990, Wednesday, CITY HOI{E EDIIION

SECTIoN: NEWSi Pg. 14
other Edition: Home Pg. L2

LENGTH: 115 words

HEADLINE: Helms' B1ack Rival

BYLINE: Compiled from News Dispatches

KEYWORD: NORTH CAROLTNA; ELECTION,. BLACKS; FIRST; SENATE; CANDIDATE,. ].990;
HARVEY GANTT, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, RESULT

BODY:

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