Terry Sanford
James Terry Sanford (August 20, 1917 – April 18, 1998) was an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford served as the 65th Governor of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965, was a two-time U.S. presidential candidate in the 1970s, and served as a U.S. senator from 1986 to 1993. He was a strong proponent of public education and introduced several reforms and new programs in North Carolina's schools and institutions of higher education as the state's governor. From 1970 to 1985, Sanford served as the president of Duke University.
For the American track and field sprinter with the same name, see James Sanford. For the American jurist, see Edward Terry Sanford.
Terry Sanford
Bunn Frink
Junius Powell
Ray Walton
Arthur Williamson
April 18, 1998 (aged 80)
Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
2
1942–1945
1948–1960
Born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Sanford became a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1939. During World War II he joined the United States Army and saw combat in the European Theater. Following the war, Sanford attended and graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began a legal career in the late 1940s, soon becoming involved in politics. He served one term in the North Carolina Senate and managed W. Kerr Scott's U.S. Senate campaign in 1954 before running for governor in 1960. Focusing on improving education and economic opportunity, he defeated segregationist I. Beverly Lake, Sr. in the Democratic primary and was subsequently elected governor in the general election. Taking office in 1961, he pushed a controversial tax increase through the state legislature to double public spending on schools and created a commission to study further education. Growing increasingly anxious about opportunities for black students, he became the first Southern governor to call for an end to racially discriminatory employment practices in 1963 and used law enforcement to protect civil rights demonstrators. He also created the North Carolina Fund to alleviate poverty and lobbied for a major environmental research facility to be located at the Research Triangle Park.
Leaving the governorship in 1965, Sanford remained active in Democratic Party politics and engaged in the practice of law before being hired as President of Duke University in 1970. While there, he increased the school's fundraising, managed student protests, and created new institutions to study public policy issues. Retiring in 1985, he successfully ran for a U.S. Senate seat the following year. In Congress he maintained a liberal voting record, cofounding the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development, objecting to the passage of a Flag Desecration Amendment, and criticizing American involvement in the Gulf War. Defeated in a bid for re-election in 1992, he spent his later years practicing law, writing, and teaching at Duke before he died of cancer in 1998. He is remembered in North Carolina as the "education governor" and served as a role model for several other Southern governors.
Early life[edit]
Youth[edit]
James Terry Sanford was born on August 20, 1917, in Laurinburg, North Carolina, United States. He was the second of five children of Elizabeth Terry (née Martin) and Cecil Leroy Sanford.[1] His father ran a hardware store[2] while his mother worked as a teacher.[3] The Sanfords enjoyed a middle class standard of living. During the Great Depression, Cecil's hardware store was forced to close and the family was unable to pay rent, but the company which owned their house allowed them to stay.[4] Cecil struggled to find steady work and performed temporary jobs while Elizabeth returned to full-time teaching. Despite the family's economic troubles, the Sanfords never went hungry and Terry later reflected that he never thought of his family as poor.[4] He and his brother worked odd jobs to make money in their youth, including raising chickens and pigs, selling vegetables, picking cotton, planting tobacco, and delivering newspapers.[5]
Education[edit]
By November 1933 Sanford's father had found a new permanent job and purchased a house, and the following year Sanford graduated from high school.[5] In the fall of 1934 Sanford enrolled at Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton. He worked part-time to pay for his tuition and lived at his parents' home while he studied there, but he found the instruction lacking and dropped out after one semester.[6] In the fall of 1935 he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[7] He worked various jobs to pay for his tuition[8] and during his senior year he settled on majoring in political science.[9] After graduating in 1939 Sanford decided to enroll in law school.[10]
While studying at the University of North Carolina School of Law, Sanford befriended Professor Albert Coates.[11] He also took an increased interest in student politics, and won a seat in the newly created student legislative council.[12] In that position he chaired the body's ways and means committee until he was elected its speaker. Early in 1941 he found work at UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, which was managed by Coates.[13] In 1940, as World War II intensified and the likelihood of American involvement increased, the United States enacted a draft, and many students voluntarily joined the Armed Forces. Sanford attempted to get a commission in the Army Air Corps. Although he had earned his pilot's license, the corps determined he was nearsighted and thus unfit to fly. He then unsuccessfully applied to join the Marine Corps and the Navy.[14]
FBI and military service[edit]
With Coates' help, Sanford applied to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which waived its requirement of a law degree and admitted him. After completing his semester exams, he began training in December 1941.[15] He was posted as a special agent in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis.[16] He married Margaret Rose Knight, a woman he had met at UNC-Chapel Hill,[17] on July 4, 1942, and they later had two children: Terry Jr. and Elizabeth.[18] Sanford pursued a position in the Armed Forces—as the United States had since entered the World War II—being especially intrigued by the new paratrooper units. After securing leave from the FBI, he enlisted in the Army on December 7, 1942.[19] He was sent to Camp Toccoa in Georgia for training and was assigned to a medical detachment in the 501st Infantry Regiment.[20] After eight weeks he was made a staff sergeant, and following jump training at Fort Benning he was sent to Camp Mackall and made assistant first sergeant. After a month he was promoted to first sergeant.[21] He underwent officer training in 1943, and became a second lieutenant, and was made a platoon commander in A Company, First Battalion of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment.[22]
Sanford's unit was shipped to Italy in May 1944.[23] He first fought in combat against German forces in June in the mountains north of Rome.[24] In August he parachuted into southern France as the leader of B Company, First Battalion in Operation Dragoon.[25] By December he had achieved the rank of first lieutenant.[26] That month the German army launched a counteroffensive through the Ardennes region in Belgium, initiating the Battle of the Bulge. Sanford and his unit were quickly deployed to the village of Soy.[27] While his company was holding a ridge line near the Soy-Hotton road, fighting broke out and Sanford captured a German major who had run through the American lines, restraining him by grabbing his belt.[28] In early January 1945 he received a shrapnel wound to his hand while walking through a German machine gun ambush near the town of Bergeval.[29] In late February, the 517th Regiment was recalled to Joigny in preparation for a new airborne operation, but it and subsequent assaults were dropped as Allied ground forces made steady advances over German-held territory. For his service in France and his wounds Sanford was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.[30]
Early legal career and Institute of Government[edit]
As the European theatre wound down in April 1945, preparations were made to deploy the 517th Regiment in the Pacific War. Japan surrendered before it was done, and Sanford was released from duty. He re-enrolled at UNC Law School for the fall 1945 semester to finish his courses and earn his degree.[31] He graduated in 1946, and took the bar examination; he was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar in November. That fall he also was hired by Coates to serve as an assistant director of the Institute of Government and held the job until 1948.[32][33] He then decided to pursue a career as a lawyer, and wanted to establish himself as a leading figure in a community so as to pave the way for a bid to become Governor of North Carolina.[a] He decided to move to Fayetteville, which he thought was appropriately sized as a small city and not too far away from Laurinburg. After moving there in 1948 he worked in Charlie Rose Jr.'s law firm, before setting up his own practice with L. Stacy Weaver.[35] Sanford served as a company commander with the rank of captain in Company K of 119th Infantry Regiment of the North Carolina Army National Guard from 1948 to 1960.[36]
Early political career[edit]
Young Democratic Clubs and Graham campaign[edit]
In the runoff 1948 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Sanford supported W. Kerr Scott, and after Scott was elected governor he appointed Sanford to a position in the North Carolina State Ports Authority.[37] In 1949 Sanford was elected president of the North Carolina Young Democratic Clubs (YDC).[38]
In March 1949 Scott surprised many Democrats when he appointed liberal UNC President Frank Porter Graham to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat.[39] Graham's seat was subject to a special election in 1950. In the Democratic primary he was challenged by conservative Willis Smith. Sanford was friends with Smith's son and respected him, but admired Graham and was "all out" for him. As YDC president, he had to keep his public stance on the primary neutral, though Smith's campaign accused him of showing his favoritism.[40] Graham won a plurality of the vote in the first primary, and Smith called for a runoff election.[41] The campaign then took on racial overtones, as Smith's supporters attacked Graham for his support of civil rights.[42] Sanford wanted to improve Graham's support in Cumberland County, and approached Graham's local campaign manager to ask for a precinct he could canvass. He then took a job working in the Cumberland Mills area south of Fayetteville.[43] During this time he kept a notebook where he jotted down lessons he was learning from campaigning. Of the 25 to 30 pages he filled, Sanford reflected, "I learned one thing. That is, don't ever let them get off the defensive. Frank Graham let them get off the defensive. He was just so nice and sweet."[44] Graham won the Cumberland Mills precinct but lost the statewide primary.[45] Sanford shortly thereafter visited Graham and vowed "to get even, to rectify that injustice."[44]
North Carolina Senate tenure[edit]
In 1952 Sanford ran for a seat in the 10th district in the North Carolina Senate, defeating a former legislator in the Democratic primary with 75 percent of the vote and facing no opposition in the general election.[46] He was sworn in on January 7, 1953,[47] and served one term to 1955,[33] deciding not to run for a second term.[48][b] He served on the Judiciary, Education, Conservation and Development, and Finance committees, but did not get his desired seat on the Appropriations committee.[50] Sanford shared a room with another legislator at the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh while the North Carolina General Assembly was in session and worked at his law firm in Fayetteville in the evenings and on weekends. He found his legislative tenure dull and restrictive.[51] He mostly worked on minor legislation affecting local issues, but developed a rapport with several political journalists, who sought him for quotes on their stories about statewide affairs.[48]
Immediate post-gubernatorial career[edit]
By the time his term was over, Sanford was very unpopular in North Carolina.[167] Discontent over the sales tax on food gradually faded and his favorability ratings improved over subsequent years.[168] After leaving office, he returned to Fayetteville and opened a new law firm in Raleigh with some of his former colleagues.[169] In 1966, he published But What About the People?, a book about his tenure as governor. The following year, he released Storm Over the States, a study of the role of state governments in handling American public issues.[170]
In 1967, Sanford mulled over the possibility of challenging conservative Democrat Sam Ervin for his U.S. Senate seat, who he thought of as a "constitutional racist".[168] He ultimately decided against it after concluding that the contest would divide the Democratic Party and he would lose on account of his civil rights positions.[167][171] He then agreed to serve as President Johnson's campaign manager in the 1968 presidential election just before Johnson's withdrawal on March 31.[18] Vice President Hubert Humphrey then became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, and considered including Sanford on his ticket as the vice presidential candidate.[172] Sanford attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and delivered the speech seconding Humphrey's nomination for the party's endorsement. He was embittered by the disdain with which the delegates treated the outgoing President Johnson, and disapproved of Humphrey's choice of Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine for as his vice presidential candidate. Johnson offered to appoint him United States Secretary of Agriculture for the last few months of his term, but Sanford declined.[173] He subsequently served as chairman for the Citizens for Humphrey-Muskie Committee[172] and in that position helped fundraise for Humphrey's campaign and encouraged the candidate to break from Johnson's views on the controversial Vietnam War. Humphrey lost the election to Republican Richard Nixon.[174]
Senate career[edit]
1986 campaign and election[edit]
In late 1985 Sanford began consulting his friends on the possibility of running in the 1986 Senate election.[167] Sanford declared his candidacy in January 1986. The announcement surprised and embittered his longtime friend and political ally Lauch Faircloth, who had wanted to run for the seat with Sanford's support and was angered by rumors that Sanford had denigrated his own chances in an election. After the misunderstanding, Faircloth and Sanford did not speak with one another until shortly before the latter's death.[229] Sanford won the Democratic primary with 409,394 votes, easily defeating the nine other candidates and marking the first time he had won a statewide election since 1960.[230] His opponent in the general election was Republican U.S. House Representative Jim Broyhill as the incumbent senator, Republican John P. East, had declared his intention to retire.[231] After East committed suicide on June 29, 1986, Broyhill was temporarily appointed to the seat on July 3, pending the election to fill it on November 4.[232] During the campaign Sanford stressed his accomplishments as governor and his military service.[233] Critics of Sanford primarily focused on three areas: his promotion of opportunities for minorities, "tax-and-spend" education funding, and his anti-poverty efforts.[150] Sanford initially maintained a positive campaign, but attacked Broyhill as "no friend of education" and criticised his failure to minimize President Ronald Reagan's free trade policies which hurt the textiles industry after Broyhill released a television ad that condemned his imposition of the sales tax on food while serving as governor.[234] Sanford defeated Broyhill by three percentage points in the November election[150] earning about 60,000 more votes, securing victory in the contest to serve the last months of East's term and the subsequent six-year term.[235] He was sworn in to office on December 10 by his friend and former law partner Judge James Dickson Phillips Jr. on the steps of the United States Capitol.[236] He was sworn in again to the full six-year term on January 6, 1987.[237]
Later life and death[edit]
Shortly after the Senate race, Sanford was hired by Duke University to teach a course on state government.[277] In 1993 he formed a law firm with former South Carolina governor Robert Evander McNair, but he eventually withdrew and formed another firm with former North Carolina governor James Holshouser in Raleigh. Sanford also finished his last book, Outlive Your Enemies: Grow Old Gracefully, a narrative about aging and health, and began work on a novel about a journalist addressing major issues of the 20th century.[278] He supported several business ventures and remained in contact with various politicians, including President Clinton.[279]
In December 1997 Sanford went to Duke Medical Center after experiencing a low-grade fever for several days, fearing he had a heart infection. Doctors discovered cancer in his esophagus and liver and ruled that it was inoperable.[280] He died on April 18, 1998, at his home.[281] His funeral was held four days later at Duke Chapel, and it was attended by 17 U.S. Senators, four former governors, 100 members of the General Assembly, and the North Carolina Council of State. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division acted as an honor guard.[282] Sanford was entombed in the chapel's crypt.[277]