...you would know that he was neither a bigot nor a racist. He simply resisted the modern day pressure to disregard the Constitution to fix perceived problems. He had no problem with integration, per se. He had a great problem with the federal government overstepping its Constitutional authority to impose integration upon states and individuals to the n'th degree. Senator Helms realized that the Bill of Rights included a Ninth and Tenth Amendment. Far too many politicians forget that. He (and many people, to include me) opposed the King Holiday simply because Martin Luther King, Jr, is hardly a man who should be held up for adoration. His economic policies were borderline Marxist, and his personal life made Bill Clinton look like the pinnacle of moral virtue. Senator Helms simply didn't believe in shortcuts to equality, especially when someone else had to unfairly pay for it. He fought the patchwork of cluged-up, quick fixes politicains leapt on, from affirmative action to school busing. He was a man of far greater wisdom and thought than most of his contemporaries in the Senate.