1960

In 1960, Jesse Helms accepted A. J. Fletcher's offer to become news director at WRAL radio and television on the condition that he could deliver what he called ''free enterprise" editorials. Helms wrote and read on the air over 2,700 "Viewpoint" commentaries between November 1960 and February 1972. They were televised five times a week at the end of WRAL's evening news broadcast, rebroadcast the following morning, transmitted by the 70 "Tobacco Network" radio stations across North Carolina, and published by newspapers throughout the South.

1961

Throughout the ‘60s, Helms criticizes religious leaders’ involvement in the civil rights movement.  In a 1961 Viewpoint, he labels a liberal Raleigh minister "a man who tries to mix religion and politics, or considers them inseparable." 

1962

The Helms family adopts a nine-year-old boy, Charles, who suffers from cerebral palsy.

1964

Racial tensions in the South are as high as at any point since the turn of the century.  According to a Helms Viewpoint, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are facts of life which must be faced."  He frequently attacks Martin Luther King, Jr., claiming that some of King's associates "can be labeled and proved as Communists and sex perverts."  He calls the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaws segregation in restaurants, waiting rooms, hotels and workplaces, "the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress."

The Federal Communications Commission holds up renewal of WRAL's license after formal complaints of one-sidedness.  While concluding that WRAL had not complied with the Fairness Doctrine, the F.C.C. renews the station’s license.

1968

Following his “southern strategy,” Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon promises southern conservatives he will ease integration pressure and discourage busing.  In November, Nixon becomes the first Republican presidential candidate to win in North Carolina in 40 years.