A disliked GOP in 1960s North Carolina
The Republican Party was in such disgrace in the mid-1960s in North Carolina that one Democratic politician was urged by his fellows to stop attending baseball games with Holshouser.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with James E. Holshouser Jr., January 31, 1998. Interview C-0328-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACK FLEER:
-
You mentioned that 1) you were part of a fairly small delegation, 2)
Republican legislation didn't have much of a chance unless
you could persuade some Democrats to support it, but you also mentioned
that you loved the legislature.
- JAMES E. HOLSHOUSER, JR.:
-
Well I did. It was intellectually challenging and I enjoyed the give and
take. And I enjoyed the company of the legislators. Sometimes you find
out things later that disappoints you. Young Sam Ervin, the judge and
son of the Senator, was a legislator there and we went down to see a lot
of Davidson ballgames. That was when Fred Headsal was playing at
Davidson and they ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated, number
one team in the country preseason in '65. I found out later
that some Democrats really got on Sam for going to the ball games with
me because I was Republican. It was just not good for his career to be
seen that much with a Republican.
- JACK FLEER:
-
This was other members of the legislature?
- JAMES E. HOLSHOUSER, JR.:
-
Yes, talking to him. And I don't know that they meant to be
bad so to speak. I think they meant to be giving him good advice. That
is just how Republicans were viewed at that point.
