[audio:https://www.johndavisconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/April-21-Marc-Basnights-Best-Friend.mp3|titles=April 21 Marc Basnight’s Best Friend] “If you see him, tell him I said to ‘take it easy.’ But he doesn’t know how to do that.” Hubert Poole, former NC Senate Sergeant at Arms, speaking about Sen. Marc Basnight Note: In light of the tornado disaster, with flags flying at half-mast in honor of those
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“If you see him, tell him I said to ‘take it easy.’ But he doesn’t know how to do that.”
Hubert Poole, former NC Senate Sergeant at Arms, speaking about Sen. Marc Basnight
Note: In light of the tornado disaster, with flags flying at half-mast in honor of those who lost their lives in North Carolina, I thought it more appropriate to write about something other than politics. This is about a happenstance talk with Marc Basnight’s best friend yesterday while cleaning up storm debris.
Early Response Team
A couple months back, my wife and I decided to sign up for an Early Response Team training program sponsored through our church by the Office of Emergency Services of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Little did we know how soon our training would be needed.
When the devastating news began to be reported about the extent of destruction and loss of life caused by tornadoes here in North Carolina last Saturday, we knew that the phone call or e-mail would be coming soon. After all, five thousand homes were damaged here in Wake County.
Early Response Team training focuses on mitigating the damage to homes caused by natural disasters. One of the most common tasks is getting trees off houses and covering gaping holes in roofs with tarps to keep the rain from causing further damage.
On Monday, the expected email arrived. The Early Response Team at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church was needed on Wednesday to help get trees off the houses of elderly homeowners … including the home of the parents of Bettye Poole, a member of our Sunday School class.
The center on Shaw University’s 1947 CIAA Championship team
On Wednesday morning, I joined the group of 10 volunteers in front of the church. We were briefed about the tree removal work that we would be doing in the Madonna Acres neighborhood near St. Augustine’s College. We were assigned 8 homes, and would begin with Bettye Poole’s parents.
It was surreal to drive through Raleigh’s beautifully groomed neighborhoods and then turn right on Delany Drive and see total destruction. Trees were down everywhere. Not a house was spared. The utility crews were already there replacing downed power lines.
Within minutes the roar of chainsaws signaled that the work had begun. No one had to be assigned a task. Everyone just began to cut and drag limbs to the street.
After several hours of removing debris, I decided to take a break. I noticed that Betty Poole’s 85-year-old father was sitting on the porch watching us work. I went over and introduced myself. Thus began one of those memorable conversations that life treats us to once in a blue moon.
Turns out that Hubert Poole, a Marine during WWII, had been the center on Shaw University’s 1947 CIAA Championship basketball team. He had also been a teacher and coach at Ligon High School here in Raleigh when it was an all-black school during segregation. I told him about my first job as a seventh grade English teacher at an all-black school in Marion County, Mississippi … two years prior to integration.
We traded stories about the awkward and sometimes hostile experiences of public school integration.
In Mississippi, public schools were integrated in January 1970. It had been 16 years since the US Supreme Court rendered segregated schools unconstitutional in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision. Since that time, the priority of the white only administrators in Marion County had been avoiding integration. No attempt had been made to develop an orderly process for matters like assigning teachers to schools … and classes to teachers.
Assigning teachers to schools by drawing names out of a box
In December before integration was to begin, teachers were notified by the administration to assemble in a gymnasium for the purpose of assigning teachers to schools. Upon arrival, we were shocked to learn that our assigned schools would be chosen by drawing names out of a box. Each principal would draw names of teachers until the number of teachers to be assigned to that school was reached. No consideration was given to matters like the subject we were trained to teach.
We were assured that the assignment would be temporary, only from January until the end of the school year in May. That would give the county school officials time to come up with a more suitable means of assigning teachers to schools. We all sat silently. No one dared say anything. That’s how awkward the racial atmosphere was during the early days of integration.
I will never forget the introduction of the principals by the white Marion County School Superintendent at the meeting in the gymnasium. He introduced the white principals as “Mr. Smith” or “Mr. Jones,” and introduced the black principals by their first names only … “James,” or “William.” Looking back, I shake my head at the thought that he didn’t realize the extent of his disrespect. Little had changed since the days when slave owners listed their slaves by first name only along with other inventory when their estates were settled: “1 Negro boy, James, age 45” “1 Negro boy, William, age 53.”
My name was drawn by “Mr.” Mabry, principal at the all white Bunker Hill School on the all white side of the county. Bunker Hill School was a long, ranch style wooden building, with two wings of classrooms, four on each wing, separated by the library, lunch room and the principal’s office. Bunker Hill School was first grade through eighth grade. There was no kindergarten.
The black and white teachers “assigned” to Bunker Hill met with Mr. Mabry a couple of days before school was to begin to discuss class assignments. He began by saying that under the circumstances, the only way he knew to make class assignments fairly was for teachers to select their classes in the order of seniority. He had written the names of the subjects to be taught on the blackboard. The older teachers went first, getting to chose subjects and the grade level with which they had training and experience.
I was the youngest teacher, and the last to choose. There was nothing left to choose. I was stuck with 7th grade Science, 8th grade American History, 6th grade Boys Physical Education, and two Study Halls. Remember, I had been a 7th grade English teacher. Irrelevant.
As I entered the building on the first day of school, I had to run the gauntlet of angry white parents loitering on both sides of the hallway. “He’s one of the nigger teachers,” I heard someone say.
Marc Basnight’s best friend
All of these experiences came back as I sat on the front porch with Hubert Poole yesterday listening to him talk about integration here in Raleigh; about pickup trucks with gun racks and hostile students.
After retiring from a life-long teaching career, Hubert Poole became Sergeant at Arms in the North Carolina Senate. Over two decades, he became a respected and beloved member of the Senate family.
“I started in the Senate at about the same time as Marc Basnight,” he told me, adding, “I’m Marc Basnight’s best friend.”
Poole went on to tell me about the kindnesses extended to him by Senators over the years, Democrats and Republicans, and how he knew what they were going to say on the floor before they said it. I could have talked with Mr. Poole all afternoon, but it was time to get back to work.
As I was walked down the porch steps he said, “If you see Marc Basnight, tell him I said to take it easy.” I knew just how well he knew Basnight when he added, “But he doesn’t know how to do that.”
Out of the devastation of a tornado, a conversation by happenstance took place yesterday with someone who had lived through the devastation of Jim Crow laws. I am so pleased that as a member of the Early Response Team at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church I had the opportunity to help Hubert Poole mitigate the tornado damage to his property. After all, he devoted his life to mitigating the damage of a segregated school system here in Wake County.
Hubert Poole was a member of segregation’s Early Response Team.
– END –
Please subscribe to the John Davis Political Report for the 2011-2012 election cycle. The Premium subscription is $485 a year. Subscribe online today at www.johndavisconsulting.com/subscribe.
The Advantage subscription is $4,850 per year. This subscription covers the John Davis Political Report with unlimited distribution rights to your employees or trade association members, along with private political briefings for you, your employees and leadership team, all conducted personally by me at your offices or conference locations. Call me if you are interested and I will come visit with you: 919-696-3859.
Sincerely,
John N. Davis, John Davis Political Report
[audio:https://www.johndavisconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JDPR-MARCH-30-2011-Ferraro.mp3|titles=JDPR MARCH 30 2011 Ferraro] “Do not put such unlimited powers into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which
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From a letter written by Abigail Adams to her husband, John, who was attending the Continental Congress, March 31, 1776“Do not put such unlimited powers into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems
When Abigail Adams threatened in her March 31, 1776 letter to her husband, John, that women would “foment a Rebellion” if they were not given a say in the new laws of the land, he wrote in reply, “We know better than to repeal our Masculine systems.”
The exchange between Abigail and John Adams amplifies the most important conclusion in this report: women were not given equal rights by men, they had to seize them.
March is National Women’s History Month. The 2011 theme is, “Our History is Our Strength.” President Obama issued a proclamation in which he stated that this is the month during which, “we reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments of women and honor their role in shaping the course of our Nation’s history.”
Likewise, Gov. Beverly Perdue, North Carolina’s first woman governor, formally announced Women’s History Month with a proclamation that included this bit of history: “WHEREAS, in 1774, fifty-one women organized the Edenton Tea Party, one of the earliest political acts taken by North Carolina women in protest of the taxation of the colonies without representation within the British government.”
This report is written in honor of Women’s History Month and on the occasion of the death of Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman Vice Presidential candidate of a major political party in American history (Mondale/Ferraro defeated in 1984 by Reagan/Bush). Although she did not live to realize her dream of attending “the inauguration of first woman president of the United States,” surely she must have been made proud a thousand times over as women, inspired in part by her example, seized opportunities to lead throughout every walk of life.
Women Governors and State Executive Elective Offices
North Carolina Leads the South with Women Elected to State Executive Offices
State Executive Elective Offices: In 2011, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, women hold 69 of the nation’s 317 state executive elective offices (38 Democrats, 30 Republicans, and one independent) … including six governorships.
Gov. Beverly Perdue, North Carolina’s first women governor, chairs the Council of State, comprised of 9 statewide executive elective offices. Women hold 5 of the 9 positions, including Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry, Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, State Treasurer Janet Cowell and State Auditor Beth Wood.
In addition to Gov. Perdue here in North Carolina, Oklahoma has a Democrat woman governor. There are four Republican women serving as governor, including Arizona, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and New Mexico.
- Ella Grasso (D-CT) was the first woman governor elected in her own right (1974)
- 34 women have served as governor in 26 states (19 Democrats, 15 Republicans)
- All but 3 women governors have been elected since Ferraro’s 1984 VP race[1]
- NC leads the South in 2011 with 6 women elected to state executive offices (5D, 1R)
- Women currently serving in state executive elective offices in Southern states: AL 5, OK 3, FL 2, TX 2, KY 2, AR 1, SC 1
- GA, VA, TN, LA and MS have “0” women serving in state executive elective offices
North Carolina’s Battle of the Sexes since 2000: Women 23, Men 8
In 1996, Elaine Marshall, a Democrat from Lillington, became North Carolina’s first woman elected to a statewide executive office. Marshall out-raced her GOP opponent, “The King” of NASCAR, Richard Petty, by several car lengths.
Since November 2000, there have been 31 statewide general election races in North Carolina that pitted a man against a woman, including state judiciary offices, state executive offices, and federal statewide offices. Women have won 23 of those 31 races, including two women elected to the U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat.
As a result of those 23 statewide wins, women have the majority of the Council of State and the North Carolina Supreme Court. The seven-member court includes Chief Justice Sarah Parker, Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson (NC’s first African American woman on the court), Justice Robin Hudson and Justice Barbara Jackson.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals had an 8/7 female majority until Gov. Perdue appointed Judge Cressie Thigpen in January to fill the unexpired term of Judge Barbara Jackson, shifting the Court of Appeals to 8/7 male judges.
A toilet, not a urinal, in the judge’s chambers … or go to jail!
Susie Sharp was the first woman to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court. She was appointed in 1962 by Democratic Gov. Terry Sanford to fill an unexpired term. Rhoda Billings was the first Republican woman on the Supreme Court, appointed by GOP Gov. Jim Martin. In 1986, Justice Billings was appointed Chief Justice, the first Republican woman.
In 1974, Sharp became the first female in the U.S. to be elected Chief Justice of a state Supreme Court, with a landslide 74% of the vote. However, in the early days of her distinguished career, while serving as the state’s first woman Superior Court Judge, she was not so well received.
On the occasion of the unveiling of Sharp’s portrait at the Supreme Court in 1996, Franklin Freeman, a former Associate Justice, gave the formal address in which he told the story of her confrontation with Burke County commissioners over the matter of the need for a toilet in the judge’s chambers.
“The Burke County commissioners refused, upon learning of her assignment to their county, to modify the only bathroom facilities in the judge’s chambers; a sink and a urinal that hung on the wall. Judge Sharp opened court on Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. and ordered the sheriff to “invite” the county commissioners over to the courthouse. By 11:00, the courthouse was aflutter with the scurrying about of plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, while the county commissioners narrowly avoided a few nights repose in the county jail.”
Restated for emphasis: women were not given equal rights by men, they had to seize them.
Here are the 31 statewide races in North Carolina since election year 2000 that pitted a woman candidate against a man:
Election Year 2000
Secretary of State
Elaine Marshall (D) defeated Harris Blake (R)
Commissioner of Labor
Cherie Berry (R) defeated Doug Berger (D)
Commissioner of Agriculture
Meg Phipps (D) defeated Steve Troxler (R)
Court of Appeals
Robin Hudson (D) defeated Paul Stam (R)
John Martin (D) defeated Wendy Enochs (R)
Election Year 2002
U.S. Senate
Elizabeth Dole (R) defeated Erskine Bowles (D)
Court of Appeals
Martha Geer (D) defeated Bill Constangy (R)
Sanford Steelman (R) defeated Loretta Biggs (D)
Election Year 2004
Lt. Governor
Beverly Perdue (D) defeated Jim Snyder (R)
Superintendent of Public Instruction
June Atkinson (D) defeated Bill Fletcher (R)
Commissioner of Labor
Cherie Berry(R) defeated Wayne Goodwin (D)
Supreme Court
Sarah Parker (D) defeated John Tyson (R)
Court of Appeals
Linda McGee (D) defeated Bill Parker (R)
Barbara Jackson (R) defeated Alan Thornburg (D)
Election Year 2006
Supreme Court
Sarah Parker (D) defeated Rusty Duke (R)
Patricia Timmons-Goodson (D) defeated Eric Levinson (R)
Mark Martin (R) defeated Rachel Lea Hunter (D)
Election Year 2008
President
Obama/Biden (D) defeated McCain/Palin (R)
Governor
Beverly Perdue (D) defeated Pat McCrory (R)
Secretary of State
Elaine Marshall (D) defeated Jack Sawyer (R)
Auditor
Beth Wood (D) defeated Les Merritt (R)
Treasurer
Janet Cowell (D) defeated Bill Daughtridge (R)
Superintendent of Public Instruction
June Atkinson (D) defeated Richard Morgan (R)
Supreme Court Justice
Justice Robert Edmunds (R) defeated Suzanne Reynolds (D)
Court of Appeals Judge
Judge Linda Stephens (D) defeated Dan Barrett (R)
Cheri Beasley (D) defeated Doug McCullough (R)
Sam Ervin IV (D) defeated Kristen Ruth (D)
Judge Jim Wynn (D) defeated Jewel Ann Farlow (R)
Election Year 2010
United States Senate
Sen. Richard Burr (R) defeated Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (D)
Supreme Court Justice
Judge Barbara Jackson (R) defeated Judge Bob Hunter (D)
Court of Appeals Judge
Judge Martha Geer (D) defeated Dean Poirier (R)
Ferraro’s Dream: the inauguration of the first woman US President
When Abigail Adams wrote to her husband on March 31, 1776, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or Representation,” little did she know that the “Rebellion” would take two centuries.
John Adams would follow George Washington as the nation’s chief executive, elected President of the United States in 1796. It would be exactly 200 years later, 1996, before the first woman would serve in an executive role as important as Secretary of State of the United States … the highest-ranking cabinet secretary in line of succession in the event of the death or incapacity of the president. Her name was Madeleine Korbel Albright.
Madeleine Albright was born in Prague, the daughter of a Czech diplomat. She was appointed Secretary of State in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, becoming the 64th US Secretary of State. Since Albright, two women have been appointed Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, appointed by Republican President G.W. Bush in 2005, and the current US Secretary of State, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2009.
Although Geraldine Ferraro died last week before realizing her dream of attending “the inauguration of first woman president of the United States,” surely she took great pride in just how close Hillary Clinton came to winning the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, and in seeing another woman run on a major party presidential ticket with the selection of Sarah Palin by GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
She didn’t live to see a woman president, but she lived to see tens of thousands of women elected to governmental service and ascend to the highest positions of respect and authority in public and private life; she lived to see tens of millions of women seize their equal rights and opportunities.
One day these awe inspiring words will be spoken, and when they are, we will remember Geraldine Ferraro: “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mister ….”
[1] Refers to women elected in their own right.
Please subscribe to the John Davis Political Report for the 2011-2012 election cycle. The Premium subscription is $485 a year. Subscribe online today at www.johndavisconsulting.com/subscribe.
The Advantage subscription is $4,850 per year. This subscription covers the John Davis Political Report with unlimited distribution rights to your employees or trade association members, along with private political briefings for you, your employees and leadership team, all conducted personally by me at your offices or conference locations. Call me if you are interested and I will come visit with you: 919-696-3859.
Sincerely,
John N. Davis, President