"We were very, very segregated. Black families living in little houses, shacks we called them.  Our children played with them and we associated with them.  Friendly, but very segregated.  You don’t ask them in for Sunday lunch."

Jesse Helms did not say this. The comment was made in 1995 by Ray House, principal of Monroe High School from 1932 to 1944, which included the years Jesse Helms was a student there.  Helms said of House, "Next to my own father, he made a greater impression on me than anybody else."

"In so many ways I think the relationship between the races was far better than it is now. Now I could give you a thousand examples of why I’m convinced of that. I don’t know of anybody who ever persecuted anybody of another race."

Jesse Helms said this in 1996 regarding race relations in his hometown of Monroe, N.C. during the 1920s and ‘30s.

"I don’t remember that my parents said, 'You will not play with so and so anymore.'  It just happened.  And it happened when I went to school.  They weren’t there."

Jesse Helms did not say this. The comment was made by Helms's childhood schoolmate, Henry West, who in 1999 recalled the racial segregation he witnessed growing up in Monroe, N.C., during the 1920s and ‘30s.

“A lot was lost by this unwise push for integration."

Jesse Helms said this in 1996 regarding the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 declaring that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students deny black children equal educational opportunities. 

"There is not one shred of evidence to suggest that England’s gun law has prevented a single criminal from carrying a gun.  And you know something?  There’s little likelihood that anybody’s gun law will."

Jesse Helms said this during one of the WRAL-TV "Viewpoint" editorials he delivered between 1960-1972, during which he took staunchly conservative stances on issues including civil rights, busing, crime and foreign relations.

"The fact that Harvey Gantt was African-American and we were running an ad about quotas?  Sure they were connected.  The blunt fact is that that ad was playing directly to racial fears."

Jesse Helms did not say this. The comment was made by former Helms political ally Carter Wrenn regarding a controversial Helms television ad aired in the closing days of the 1990 Senate campaign against Democrat Harvey Gantt. The ad alleged that Gantt, an African-American, supported racial hiring quotas. Helms defeated Gantt by a margin of four percentage points.

"People have feelings about racial issues and we exploited those feelings in the campaigns very ruthlessly to our benefit."

Jesse Helms did not say this. The comment was made by Carter Wrenn, who was director of Helms’s former political action committee,The Congressional Club (later The National Congressional Club), from 1975 to 1996.    

"Just think about it. Homosexuals, lesbians, disgusting people, marching in our streets demanding all sorts of things including the right to marry each other."

Jesse Helms said this during his 1990 Senate campaign.

"I will fight to preserve the right to life of unborn children, and all other forms of humanity."

Jesse Helms said this in 2005 during a videotaped World AIDS Day appeal.

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