Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. (October 18, 1921–July 4, 2008) was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001.
Helms was an outspoken conservative who opposed many progressive policies regarding race such as school integration, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Helms also reminded voters that he tried, with a 16-day filibuster, to stop the Senate from approving a national holiday to honor black civil-rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Helms was also a "master obstructionist", and a self-described "redneck. He opposed, at various times, civil rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, tax increases, abortion, foreign aid, communism, and government support for modern art with nudity. Helms brought "an aggressiveness" to his conservatism, like his rhetoric against homosexuality, and employed racially charged language in his campaigns and editorials. He combined this with cultural, social and economic conservatism which often helped his legislation win overwhelming support. He was an icon of conservatism in the United States respected for his steadfastness of convictions; he "never apologized" for his past views on most of these issues, with the exception of the AIDS pandemic.
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