James Terry Sanford served as governor of North Carolina from 1961-1965, but throughout his long public career, he served his state and country in a variety of other roles as well. Born August 20, 1917, in Laurinburg, Sanford was the second of five children in a middle-class family. He attended college at Presbyterian Junior College (modern St. Andrews Presbyterian College) and then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating from the latter in 1939. While at the university Sanford met fellow student Margaret Rose Knight, whom he would marry in 1942. The couple would have two children.
Following graduation, Sanford entered the University of North Carolina School of Law. He became active in student politics and served on the student legislative council. While continuing to study law, Sanford joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in December 1941 and after training, he was assigned to duty in Ohio and Missouri. Following the entry of the United States into World War II, Sanford enlisted in the Army on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor. He was assigned first to the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment as a medic, and then to the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. In the latter regiment, he saw combat in Italy, southern France, and Belgium (the Battle of the Bulge).
Following the war, Sanford reentered law school and graduated from the university in 1946. He was admitted to the state bar later in the year. Already entertaining ambitions to one day run for governor, he became assistant director of the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Government before becoming a full-time attorney in Fayetteville. He also served as a company captain in the North Carolina Army National Guard. A slow but steady rise in the Democratic Party of North Carolina and state government followed over the next few years, including a job in the North Carolina State Ports Authority, presidency of the North Carolina Young Democratic Clubs, state senator representing the 10th District, and campaign manager for former governor W. Kerr Scott’s successful 1954 run for the U.S. Senate, culminating with his successful run for governor in 1960.
As governor, Sanford focused on education, working with key legislators to successfully pass his plan for raising teacher salaries and per-pupil spending on education. The plan was supported by a raise in taxes which led to a public backlash, however, with the rejection of an important bond referendum and the loss of Democrat seats in the next General Assembly election. Nevertheless, Sanford stood by his policy and touted the benefits that resulted from it nationwide. Due to greater educational funding expenditures in other states and the rise of inflation, North Carolina's spending on education had fallen once again by the end of his tenure.
Sanford’s interest in supporting education extended beyond improving the state’s public schools to higher education. He appointed a Governor’s Commission on Education Beyond High School in 1961, which made recommendations for increasing enrollment in North Carolina’s colleges and universities. Further recommendations on consolidating the state’s junior colleges and technical schools into a single community college system were adopted by the General Assembly, which created a Department of Community Colleges within the State Board of Education. Sanford also supported the establishment of the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Sanford also fought poverty in the state. In this drive, he sought private support because he believed that he had lost support in the battles over education expenditures. Sanford saw the role that racial discrimination played in poverty among North Carolina’s Black citizens, so he sought a solution that addressed poverty across racial lines. The result was the establishment of the North Carolina Fund, an incorporated organization to battle poverty in partnership with various city leaders of the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic organizations. The North Carolina Fund was studied by officials of the Lyndon Johnson administration as it developed its own “War on Poverty” programs, although Sanford was ultimately critical of the federal efforts.
Sanford took office at a time when the Civil Rights movement battled to roll back the “Jim Crow” segregation laws which were prevalent in the Southern states and many other parts of the nation as well. Sanford addressed the situation in his inaugural address, calling for respect and understanding across racial lines and avowing that no one should be denied the right to enjoy the benefits of first-class citizenship. He enrolled his children in an integrated school (albeit one with only one black student). Although having opposed racism since his days as a college student, Sanford originally lacked a gubernatorial strategy to combat it. Initially hesitant because of the inevitable political backlash and the distraction it would cause to his educational and economic platforms, he nevertheless decided to act. He hired or appointed blacks to various state positions, boards, and commissions, and consulted black leaders on issues related to race and civil rights. He also integrated state parks and assigned the State Highway Patrol to keep track of buses carrying Freedom Riders civil rights activists to protect them from potential violence. He gradually adopted a more proactive attitude towards advancing civil rights because of his travels to promote his education policy; in addressing black children, he felt that he was promising potential opportunities that were not real. He became the first Southern governor to advocate the end of discrimination in hiring and employment practices. Advocacy did not translate into major change, however, and many young Black activists felt that he was not doing enough on behalf of civil rights.
Sanford left office as an unpopular governor, although he gradually was viewed more favorably as the years passed. He resumed his law practice but continued to be active in state and national politics. In December 1969 he was selected to be the new president of Duke University. Upon inauguration, he immediately ended a cap on the number of Jewish students who could be enrolled at the school. Facing a budget deficit and a small endowment, he worked to attract more students, increase enrollment, and increase annual donations. He also sought to improve relations between the student body and the administration, declaring opposition to the Vietnam War, supporting peaceful protest, and increasing student involvement in administration operations. He established the Institute of Policy Studies and Public Affairs, now the Sanford School of Public Policy.
In 1972, while still president of Duke, a student petition drive for Sanford to make a presidential run influenced him to enter the race, against the advice of friends. Focusing his efforts mainly on North Carolina, he dropped out after losing to segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace in the state primary. A second run two years later ended when he dropped out due to health problems and campaign costs. His effort to bring former president Richard Nixon’s presidential library and museum to Duke in 1981, where Nixon had studied law, failed due to widespread opposition from faculty and students. He finally retired from Duke in 1985.
In 1986, Sanford successfully won election to the U.S. Senate. He supported efforts to bring about an end to the civil war in Nicaragua and created an International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development to promote regional development under the oversight of the Center for International Development Research at Duke University. As in the case of the North Carolina Fund, the commission would be funded by private philanthropy. The commission became informally known as the “Sanford Commission,” although he was not a member. He also participated in efforts to recruit Democratic candidates for the 1988 presidential election. He ran for reelection in 1992 but could not fully participate due to major health issues, losing to Republican candidate Lauch Faircloth.
Sanford devoted his remaining years to law and teaching at Duke. He died of cancer at home on April 18, 1998, and was interred at Duke Chapel.
References
Howard E. Covington, Jr. and Marion A. Ellis, Terry Sanford: Politics, Progress & Outrageous Ambitions (1999)
John Drescher, Triumph of Good Will: How Terry Sanford Beat a Champion of Segregation and Reshaped the South (2000)
Memory F. Mitchell, ed., Messages, Addresses, and Public Papers of Terry Sanford, Governor of North Carolina, 1961-1965 (1966)
Sam Raga, ed., The New Day (1964)
Terry Sanford, But What About the People? (1966)
Terry Sanford, A Danger of Democracy: The Presidential Nominating Process (1966)
Terry Sanford Papers, Manuscripts Department, Duke University
Terry Sanford Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill