donbosco
Inconceivable Member
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Thinking about who might be among the Greatest North Carolinians? Here’s a strong bid for Number One on the list. #OTD (October 14) in 1886 Frank Porter Graham was born in Fayetteville. A graduate of #UNC, Class of ‘09, he earned his law license in 1913, and an M.A. in History at Columbia University in 1916. He played second base for the Tar Heel varsity baseball team (his older brother, Moonlight Graham, played at Carolina and then while a Med Student there, at the University of Maryland. He was made famous as the seminal character in the movie ‘Field of Dreams.’). Young Frank was also head cheerleader and editor of ‘The Tar Heel’ campus newspaper.
Graham also studied at The London School Of Economics, The Brookings Institute, and The University of Chicago. He ‘took a break’ during World War One and served in the US Marine Corps (somehow he convinced them to take him - he stood but 5-6). He returned from “The Great War” to teach history @UNC. In 1930 he was appointed and served until 1949 as the first President of the combined University of North Carolina System. A champion of working people via organized labor as well an active proponent of equal rights, Graham was appointed United States Senator by Governor Kerr Scott in 1949. In 1950, Conservative Democrat Willis Smith, whose campaign mastermind was a young Jesse Helms, ‘primaried’ the Progressive Liberal Graham and by combining the smear of ‘race traitor,’ and socialist won enough votes in the four person contest to call for a run-off. Graham had earned 49% in the first round to Smith’s 41% but needed at least 50%.
In the second round the Helms-orchestrated lies and dirty politicking worked and Graham lost. That campaign strategy became a model for the ‘modern conservative’ that endures to the present and was the standard program for Helms throughout his own career as a journalist and politician. (Read about those dirty, dishonest days here: https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/1950-senate-campaign ) His faith in humanity shaken but not broken, Graham went on to work for peace, specifically between India and Pakistan, at the United Nations.
A rare thing in his times, a true Southern Liberal, “Dr. Frank” WAS North Carolina at its best and he spent his lifetime battling the state’s worst impulses and those who would work to bring them to fruition. His ethos once embodied that of the University of North Carolina. Of late those outside of the classrooms and libraries have set their minds to diminish Carolina and make of her a second-class institution where bad ideas rank equally with the best. https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../university-president-u-s... .[See link here to a one-hour documentary on Dr. Frank that is well-worth the time: ]
