Jesse Helms

1921 – 2008

Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was an American politician who represented North Carolina in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2003 and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001. He filibustered the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 1983, was the loudest Senate opponent of federal AIDS funding during the height of the epidemic, blocked the U.S. ratification of the international convention on the rights of the child, and built his political base on racially charged campaigning—including his 1990 "Hands" ad against Black opponent Harvey Gantt. He once referred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the "University of Negroes and Communists."

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM