Amid the torrent of words and images remembering the life of Nelson Mandela, who passed away yesterday, very little reporting in North Carolina media has made mention of Mandela’s arch foe in the U.S. Congress, the late Senator Jesse Helms, and other prominent North Carolina politicians who sought to undermine Mandela’s effort.

Most notably, Helms, the powerful chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, used his position to block attempts to force the South African government to the negotiating table through sanctions. (The bill Helms famously filibustered also called for Mandela’s release.) The bill passed congress, but was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan. Large majorities in the House and Senate later voted to override the veto.

Both Helms and fellow North Carolina Republican James Broyhill voted against the override of Reagan’s veto. Four of the six Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation voted to override Reagan’s veto while Republicans Howard Coble, Bill Cobey, William Hendon and John McMillian voted no. Democrats Charles Rose and Walter Jones Sr. did not vote.

U.S. Congress — SUMMARY OF THE COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-APARTHEID ACT

USA Today — Nelson Mandela Praised by Congressmen Who Opposed Anti-Apartheid Act

The story of the effort to assist the South African government to hold on to power and maintain the apartheid system features many well known conservative names, including William F. Buckley, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Jerry Falwell. There are also several North Carolina names on the list. Former state senator John Carrington’s company, for instance, sold forensic gear to the South African government. And several of the state’s prominent politicians followed Helms’ lead in condemning Mandela as a communist and a terrorist. Helms was one of three members of congress to boycott Mandela’s historic speech before congress in 1994.

There are a few references and quotes scattered about on the internet, but many of the editors and reporters who covered these events are still around and likely have much more buried in old campaign notebooks. We’ll see if any of that surfaces.

That said, here’s a roundup of items and ideas that might be missing from your local coverage.

NTY Archive (1986) — Senate, 78 to 21, Overrides Reagan’s Veto and Imposes Sanctions on South Africa

”The thrust of this legislation,” said Senator Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican, ”is to bring about violent, revolutionary change, and after that, tyranny.”

AP Archive (1995) — Report: Conservative Think Tank Was Front for Apartheid

Helms, now chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, served as chairman of the editorial advisory board for the foundation’s publications, Newsday said. Helms said through a spokesman he did not know anything about the group. “We never had any relationship with them,” said Marc Thiessen.

The Atlantic — Apartheid’s Useful Idiots

For many years, a large swath of this country failed Nelson Mandela, failed its own alleged morality, and failed the majority of people living in South Africa. We have some experience with this.

Foreign Policy — Apartheid Amnesia: How the GOP conveniently forgot about its role in propping up a white supremacist regime.

PolicyMic — The Surprising Republican Civil War That Erupted Over Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

AP (via WTVD in 2005) — Who is John Carrington?

The firm did business with governments around the world — selling police and spy equipment in the Middle East, South Africa, the Philippines and Latin America, including fingerprint powder, mobile crime labs, rape kits, finger ink for voting and bomb detectors. He once sold 10,000 electric batons to the Saudi government. It provided a good living for Carrington, with an $887,872 house in the Wakefield subdivision and a $1.3 million beach house at Salter Path. He also cultivated a bit of a politically incorrect bad boy image. When he was the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in 1984, he was asked whether he did an extensive business with the apartheid government of South Africa. “Nowhere near what we’d like to do,” Carrington replied.

Further reading

Facing South — From Selma to Soweto: Nelson Mandela and the Southern freedom struggle

Global Nonviolent Action Database — University of North Carolina students win divestment from apartheid South Africa, 1986-1987