2012 Democrats to convene in Crown Town

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Stephen Fletcher

We have to thank, once again, Jack Hilliard for today’s post. . . . “Thanks again, Jack!”

What is one thing the following cities have in common?:

Chicago, Illinois,
Los Angeles, California
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Miami Beach, Florida

How about a hint? Next year Charlotte, North Carolina can be added to the list.

The answer: each of the four cities listed above has hosted the Democratic National Convention—and Hugh Morton photographed all four.

Adlai Stevenson supporters in crowd at the 1956 Democratic National Convention held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Ill.

Next September 3rd, when the 46th Democratic National Convention gavels to order in Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena, the party’s presidential nominee will most likely already be known. That wasn’t the case, however, back in 1956 when the Democrats gathered in Chicago. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, who had been the party’s presidential candidate in 1952, was again selected on the first ballot getting about 66% of the votes, but the real fireworks came when he asked the delegates to selected the candidate for vice president. Thirteen names were offered, including Luther Hodges of North Carolina. But in the end, two candidates were seriously considered: Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. It took two ballots for Kefauver to gain the nomination. As was the case in 1952, the Republicans swept the general election with Eisenhower and Nixon.

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy accepting presidential nomination at the 1960 Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photograph cropped by editor.)

A few days before the 1960 convention opened in Los Angeles, John F. Kennedy, the leading candidate, received two new challengers when Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate majority leader from Texas, and Adlai Stevenson II, the party’s nominee in 1952 and 1956, announced their candidacies. But in the end, neither Johnson nor Stevenson could match the talented Kennedy team headed by Robert Kennedy. Giving one of John Kennedy’s nominating speeches was Duke University President and future North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford. JFK won on the first ballot gaining 53 percent of the voting delegates, and went on to defeat Richard Nixon in the close 1960 general election.

Supporters of Lyndon Baines Johnson holding a large balloon at 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Supporters of Lyndon Baines Johnson holding a large balloon reading "N. Carolina for LBJ" at 1964 Democratic National Convention, held in Atlantic City, N.J.

The 1964 convention, held in Atlantic City, was a little more cut and dried. The favorite going in was incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been Kennedy’s vice president and became president in November of 1963 following Kennedy’s assassination. Johnson was selected by acclamation. The ’64 convention took place less than a year after John Kennedy’s assassination and on the final day of the gathering, Robert Kennedy introduced a film in honor of his brother’s memory. When Robert Kennedy appeared on the convention floor, the delegates erupted in twenty-two minutes of uninterrupted applause, causing him to break into tears. LBJ soundly defeated Barry Goldwater in the 1964 general election.

Politicians at podium during the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, U.S. Senators George McGovern, Henry Jackson, and Edmund Muskie, then-Duke University president Terry Sanford. (Photograph cropped by editor.)

Eight years later, the Democrats gathered in Miami Beach for their 36th convention. The convention itself turned out to be one of the most unusual political events in recent history. A solid 57 percent of the delegates selected George McGovern of South Dakota as their presidential candidate, but the selection for vice president turned out to be somewhat of a joke. Seventy-seven people were nominated for the position. Some of the more famous names were Jimmy Carter, Shirley Chisholm, Ted Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. There was a group of North Carolinians on the ballot including Skipper Bowles, Jim Hunt, Terry Sanford, and Nick Galifianakis. Then there was the list that included Dr. Benjamin Spock, CBS-TV anchor Roger Mudd, and “Joe Smith,” the fictitious character from the 1956 Republican convention. In the end, Thomas Eagleton of Missouri was selected as the vice presidential candidate. When it was disclosed that Eagleton had undergone mental health treatment (including electroshock therapy), he withdrew and was replaced on the ballot by Sargent Shriver.

Shirley Chisholm at the 1972 Democratic National Convention

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first major-party black candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photograph cropped by editor.)

The 1972 convention prime time sessions began in the early evenings and lasted until the wee hours, and the bizarre vice presidential balloting caused McGovern’s acceptance speech to begin at 3:00 a.m. (EDT). The unorthodox behavior of the Democratic National Convention delegates was “rewarded” by voters in the November, 1972 general election. The party’s nominees lost in the worst landslide in US history.

It is expected that the Queen City hosting the 2012 convention will generate more than 150 million dollars for Charlotte and surrounding metropolitan areas, and will bring in more than 35,000 delegates and special guests. It will be the kind of event that Hugh Morton would have attended and documented in his own special way.

Charlotte, Noth Carolina circa 1970s-1980s

Charlotte, North Carolina circa 1970s-1980s

Donorians and the Good WILLmington Mission

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Stephen Fletcher

Before there was an Environmental Protection Agency, before there was an Earth Day, before Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring, there was Donora.

—W. Michael McCabe, Regional Administrator of the Mid-Atlantic Region, United States Protection Agency, 1998.

Tucked inside a horseshoe curve of the Monongahela River twenty miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lies the once industrial powerhouse town of Donora. The 2010 United States Census counted 4,781 residents in Donora; in 1948, however, approximately 14,000 people called Donora home—except for one week in late November when a national tragedy sent 40 of its citizens to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina.

Donora’s industrial roots took hold in the early 1900s—at first the site of a wire plant, rod plant, and steelworks, and then a zinc works. Donora’s continual industrial growth, especially after World War II, made it one of several important small “steel cities” along the Monongahela River as it wends from the coalfields of northern West Virginia through what became known as “The Mon Valley” before reaching Pittsburgh to help the Allegheny River form the Ohio River.

With industrial growth came constant pollution. I grew up sixty miles east of Donora in Johnstown—another small steel city—in the 1960s and early 1970s. During these years I also spent many, many days visiting my grandparents in Bridgeville thirty miles northwest of Donora. I can still remember the horrible smells from the Koppers chemical plant there if the wind blew in the wrong direction, and the drive back to Johnstown through Pittsburgh with smoke billowing steel mill furnaces towering right next to the “Parkway East” interstate highway. And though not as bad as the infamous 1940s when Pittsburgh often saw streetlights burning during the day, the 60s and 70s still had their fair share of air pollution. It’s funny, however, that while growing up in western Pennsylvania I never heard about “The Donora Death Smog” of 1948; that is, until a few weeks ago when I saw the Hugh Morton photograph above, made in Wilmington, North Carolina—and came to learn something about my own regional heritage.

On Wednesday, October 27th, 1948 an air inversion formed above Donora, trapping a deadly smog over the city. Many people became seriously ill. By the time rain dissipated the inversion on Sunday, 19 had people died, and between 4,500 and 7,000 (estimates vary) had been afflicted in some way. The negative health affects of the smog, however, lasted well beyond those few days, especially since the air was usually polluted to some degree, inversion or no. The Death Smog of Donora quickly became front page national news.

After reading this news in Wilmington, North Carolina, L. C. LeGwin approached his friend Bill Broadfoot with the proposition that Wrightsville Beach had a lot of what Donora did not—fresh air and sunshine. Broadfoot was president of the Wilmington Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce), and LeGwin proposed that they invite fifty citizens from Donora for an all-expenses-paid week to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach. Broadfoot made a proposal to the Jaycees, which it approved, and on November 2nd—only two days after the sickening smog lifted—Jaycees secretary John H. Farrell called Donora’s mayor with the invitation.

A week later, doctors in Donora had a list of citizens most in need of help. Volunteers and donors in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach stepped up with free medical care, dinners, concerts, bakery goods, eggs, cereal, milk, vegetables, ice cream, pier fishing, laundry and dry cleaning, haircuts, newspapers, and more. Government regulations, however, prevented airlines from providing free flights. After a telegram appealing to President Truman (who was vacationing after his successful reelection in Key West, which included a brief two-hour stop at Cherry Point and New Bern, also photographed by Morton on November 7th) lead to a plea to the Civil Aeronautics Board. After a few days more of bureaucratic resolve, the C.A.B. issued an exemption that permitted a round-trip flight on Capital Airlines—with one of its two hubs at the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin twenty miles upriver from Donora—for a $2,000 fee to be paid by the Jaycees through fund raising. Finally on November 18th—a week before Thanksgiving Day—a plane donning “Good WILLimgton Mission” especially painted on its side landed at Wilmington’s Bluethenthal Field.

The Pennsylvania guests, or “Donorians” as the Wilmington Morning Star dubbed them, stayed in heated homes and apartments around the Lumina (the large building seen left of center in the above bird’s-eye view of Wrightsville Beach). The week’s activities were many and, needless to say, Hugh Morton and camera were often in attendance. The Wilmington Morning Star published five Morton photographs during that week, including one very similar to the image below made on Friday, November 19th when the Donorians rode in a motorcade to Orton Plantation. The photograph’s caption noted that their tour was “personally conducted” by Billy Broadfoot and Mrs. Betsy Sprunt. (The Sprunt family owned Orton Plantation from 1884 until selling it in December 2010.)

A second photograph’s caption exclaimed, “Donorians See First Moss”—to which I can attest that Spanish Moss is not native to western Pennsylvania—as Cesare Valreri “adorns” Elizabeth Chiedor with the natural garland gathered during their tour of Orton Plantation.

There is a detailed account of the festivities held during the Good WILLmington Mission in chapter twelve, “Escaping Donora’s Deadly Smog” in the book, Wrightsville Beach: The Luminous Island by Ray McAllister (2007). Among their activities, a photograph of their tour of Airlie Gardens on Saturday, November 20th is neither in the newspaper nor in the Morton collection. A Morton photograph made during a dinner at the Trail’s End restaurant appeared in the November 23rd edition of the newspaper; the negative is in the Morton collection, but it is deteriorated.

An image similar to the “Donate to Donora” photograph (above) depicted Jaycees treasurer Tom James and president Billy Broadfoot raising money for the chartered air flight during the gala farewell party at the Cape Fear Armory on Wednesday night. (The gentlemen in the picture above are unidentified.) The published version didn’t appear in the newspaper until Friday morning, however, with the headline “Feed the Kitty”—published politely, perhaps, after the visitors had returned because the newspaper said they were still short $1,400 to cover the cost of the flights. The photograph below also ran in the Friday newspaper, although cropped as a tight vertical centered on Wilmington mayor pro tem James E. L. Wade and his farewell kissers.

The Donora Smog Museum emblem touts, “Clean Air Started Here October 1948.” I find myself wondering about the connection between the Donora Smog and Hugh Morton’s later efforts to document photographically the harmful effects of acid rain in mountains forests. There may not be a direct connection, but the experience may have been one of those small stepping stones along the way to Morton’s campaign against acid rain, which culminated in his award-winning (CINE Golden Eagle, 1994) film, “The Search for Clean Air” narrated by Walter Cronkite.

The View from the Best Seat in the House

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Stephen Fletcher

Sports are in full swing this time of year here at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—especially with both Tar Heel basketball teams making it to the “Sweet Sixteen” round of the women’s and men’s NCAA Basketball Championship tournaments. So given the current climate of this sporting season, our frequent guest contributor Jack Hilliard offers us an overview of Hugh Morton’s sports photography.

[Photograph cropped by the editor.]

A famous UNC basketball anecdote says fans were warned not to block the view from “Mr. Morton’s seat.” But “Mr. Morton’s seat” was not always confined to a single place.

When TV basketball analyst Billy Packer tells the story of his first encounter with legendary sports photographer Hugh Morton, it goes something like this:

“I was an assistant coach at Wake Forest in the early 1960s, and on this particular day, I was assigned to scout the North Carolina Tar Heels during an ACC Tournament game. I was having a problem because this photographer kept standing up in front of my courtside position. ‘Sit down,’ I yelled. But to no avail. And he was also pulling for the Tar Heels and that didn’t set too well either. Then I hollered, ‘if you don’t sit down, I’m going to knock you down.’ I then felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a policeman. The officer said, calm down son . . . you don’t understand . . . that’s Mr. Hugh Morton. You will calm down and do what he wants you to.”

Hugh MacRae Morton, for almost seven decades, was called the dean of North Carolina photographers and his sports photography became legendary during that time. It was routine for him to come up from the North Carolina coast or down from the North Carolina hills to cover sporting events in the Triad and Triangle. In a time long before digital cameras and Photoshop, from his “front row seat” he became a “laureate with a lens,” documenting the sports heroes from NC State, Duke, Wake Forest and of course his beloved Tar Heels from UNC. The images frozen by his camera lens comprise the who’s who in North Carolina sports history—David Thompson and Everett Case from NC State . . . Ace Parker and Wallace Wade from Duke . . . Bones McKinney and Dickie Hemric from Wake . . . and Charlie Justice and Michael Jordan from Carolina. The list goes on: Dean Smith, Jim Beatty, Tony Waldrop, Mia Hamm, Lenny Rosenbluth, and Don McCauley. When the Tar Heels played for a championship (1982 and 1993) or were invited to a bowl game (1949 and 1950), Hugh Morton was there. But Hugh Morton was more than the photographer who got the picture of the big play; Morton got pictures of the coaches, the mascots, the fans, and the cheerleaders. Sportswriters, broadcasters, and administrators were also included in his portfolio. And with many of those folks, he became friends and followed them away from the gridiron or hardwood and captured them at play in sports other than their specialty.

During UNC’s “Golden Age of Sports” (1946-1949) Morton took some of his most famous and imaginative images. He photographed golfing great Harvie Ward, tennis star Vic Seixes, all-America divers Norman Sper and Sara Wakefield, and the incomparable Charlie Justice. In fact, that golden age is often called the “Justice Era”: a time when Morton photographs could often be found in, and on the cover of, national magazines.

Hugh Morton’s North Carolina sports photography was not limited to the campuses of the Big Four. He brought hang gliders to soar off and sports cars to race up his mountain, you know, the one they call Grandfather, and each summer there was the Highland Games. There was golf from the 1951 Ryder Cup in Pinehurst, to the Azalea Open in Wilmington, to a 1959 PGA event in Greensboro—all were Morton photo favorites. Then beginning in 1963 he became a fixture at the induction ceremonies for the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. NASCAR greats Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson and Richard Petty were photo favorites from the Hall. The World Series, the Kentucky Derby, and NFL games are also part of his body of work.

When big name athletes—Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Clyde King, “Catfish” Hunter, Billy Joe Patton, Arnold Palmer, and Yogi Berra among others—came to Chapel Hill, or Wilmington, or Grandfather Mountain, Hugh was there . . . and there was most often a North Carolina connection.

“What distinguished me as a photographer,” Hugh Morton once said, “was that I knew how to take my pictures to the mailbox.” Morton sent pictures to the state’s newspapers and would always relate the images to someone or something in the paper’s coverage area.

In December, 1981, Hugh Morton and writer Smith Barrier were in the middle of a book signing trip to Raleigh when Morton had an idea. Why not stop by the Governor’s office and present him a copy of their new book, The ACC Basketball Tournament Classic? As Barrier related the story: “It was pouring rain and neither of us had a raincoat. . . . The Governor wasn’t expecting us, but we set out across town to the Capitol. We walked in and Governor Jim Hunt came out and greeted us. I bet it was the first time ever that two guys in wet sweaters walked in unannounced and got an appointment with the Governor.”

Smith Barrier’s story says a lot about the man who was probably North Carolina’s premier promotional genius—and yes, he could take good sports pictures too. So pick your favorites and have a look for yourself!

A Spark of Greatness, part 4

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Stephen Fletcher

Today is the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, which A View to Hugh commemorates with the fourth and final installment of “A Spark of Greatness.” Using photographs by Morton, Edward J. McCauley, and Don Sturkey, “A Spark of Greatness” highlights some of the key events that led to Kennedy’s campaign visit to the Tar Heel State in September 1960. The story presented in A View to Hugh draws from contemporary newspaper accounts and the book Triumph of Good Will, John Drescher’s account of the gubernatorial contest between Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake that preceded Kennedy’s visit.

As the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial candidate, Terry Sanford believed that John F. Kennedy would win North Carolina in the 1960 presidential election, but to do so Kennedy would need to campaign in the state. As the Raleigh News and Observer reported on July 15th, 1960, Sanford “told newsmen he is sure that when Kennedy goes to North Carolina, ‘as he will,’ he will convince voters that he has a spark of greatness.”

The North Carolina delegates’ caucus that followed the formal nomination emphasized not only the need for vigorous campaigning in the state, but also a personal appearance by Kennedy. Kennedy did indeed campaign in North Carolina; perhaps just as importantly, as John Drescher notes, Sanford “made Kennedy’s campaign his campaign.”

There are many photographs of Kennedy’s daylong campaign tour in North Carolina in the North Carolina Collection by Hugh Morton, Burlington’s Daily Times-News photographer Edward McCauley, and Don Sturkey, chief photographer of the Charlotte Observer. Sturkey’s photograph of Kennedy, U.S. Congressman Herbert C. Bonner, and Terry Sanford riding in a convertible approaching the football stadium at the Eastern Carolina University in Greenville may be the quintessential photograph that captured that “spark of greatness” reflected by the enthusiasm of onlookers chasing the motorcade. Ironically, this image did not appear in the Observer’s coverage of Kennedy’s campaign swing through the state. (Morton and McCauley’s photographs can be seen by clicking on the links above. Sturkey’s photographs are not available online; the link, however, leads to the collection’s finding aid.)

John F. Kennedy campaigning in North Carolina. Copyright Don Sturkey, 1960.

Photograph copyright Don Sturkey, 1960.

After Richard M. Nixon’s nomination for president on the Republican ticket, pollster Lou Harris showed Nixon ahead of Kennedy in North Carolina by a margin of two-to-one. A month after Kennedy’s campaign swing through the state on September 17th, another Harris poll had Kennedy ahead fifty-one percent to forty percent. On election day, Kennedy won North Carolina with fifty-two percent of the vote.

Fast forward to January 20th, 12:51 P.M—the time Kennedy began his inaugural address. Among its memorable passages, Kennedy observed, “The world is very, very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” And among the memorable accomplishments of Terry Sanford during his governorship was the North Carolina Fund, Sanford’s innovative initiative to address the state’s dire poverty.

A Spark of Greatness, part 3

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Stephen Fletcher

This is the third post on the story behind John F. Kennedy’s campaign visit to the Tar Heel State in September 1960, drawn from newspaper accounts and the book Triumph of Good Will, John Drescher’s account of the gubernatorial contest between Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake that preceded Kennedy’s visit. There’s an interesting story that photographs by Hugh Morton and other photographers in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives can help tell. In light of the silver anniversary of that momentous campaign, and during the anniversary month of Kennedy’s assassination, I’ll be contributing a series of posts touching on that pivotal time in North Carolina and the nation.

Sanford chose Kennedy.

Sanford’s decision was a bombshell, and the reaction in North Carolina was explosive. Sanford made his decision while vacationing in Myrtle Beach after his run-off victory over I. Beverly Lake. When Sanford informed Robert Kennedy of his decision, John Kennedy was thrilled and he wanted Sanford to make one of the nominating speeches at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Sanford, mindful of that his decision would not be popular with many North Carolinians, was reluctant. “Don’t do me any favors,” Sanford told Robert Kennedy. “He really needs you,” Robert Kennedy told Sanford. At the wishes of the Kennedy campaign, Sanford delayed announcing his decision until the Saturday before the DNC in Los Angeles in order to supply a boost to the Kennedy campaign going into the convention. Sanford also agreed to deliver a nomination speech, as seen below (photograph cropped by author).

Fifty-four North Carolina delegates cast their votes for Johnson; by comparison, only eleven Tar Heel delegates sided with Sanford to back Kennedy. North Carolina’s most prominent delegates were Lyndon B. Johnson supporters, including incumbent governor Luther Hodges (who had his sights on the vice presidential nomination) and United States Senator Sam Ervin Jr., seen below holding the Wednesday, July 13th night edition of the Los Angeles Herald Express. In contrast to the larger headline stating Kennedy was slipping, a smaller headline above the two photographs reads, “‘Solid South’ is Wavering.”

How daring was Sanford’s decision? Sanford’s support of Kennedy was an important symbolic victory for Kennedy because Sanford was a southerner willing to support a presidential candidate from outside the south. Sanford broke what most thought would be a solid bloc of southern support for Johnson. But Sanford’s decision may have been even more critical facing his upcoming race for the governorship. Back home the response was often vitriolic, so much so that Sanford and his fellow North Carolina Kennedy delegates came to be dubbed the “Dirty Dozen.”

A Spark of Greatness, part 2

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Stephen Fletcher

This is the second post on the story behind John F. Kennedy’s campaign visit to the Tar Heel State in September 1960, drawn from newspaper accounts and the book Triumph of Good Will, John Drescher’s account of the gubernatorial contest between Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake that preceded Kennedy’s visit. There’s an interesting story that photographs by Hugh Morton and other photographers in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives can help tell. In light of the silver anniversary of that momentous campaign, and during the anniversary month of Kennedy’s assassination, I’ll be contributing a series of posts touching on that pivotal time in North Carolina and the nation.

John Kennedy immediately sought out Terry Sanford at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce meeting in mid January 1959. Sanford was one of only a few of the 1956 Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegates in attendance, and Kennedy knew Sanford was a potential delegate for the 1960 DNC in Los Angeles. In the above photograph, Hugh Morton captured Sanford (lower right corner) and others listening to Elizabeth “Buffie” Ives, Adlai Stevenson’s sister, during the 1956 DNC. Charlotte Observer photographer Don Sturkey (whose collection is part of the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives) attended the Chamber of Commerce gathering, but Sanford is not depicted in any of the seven surviving negatives—one of which is shown below [cropped by the author].

John F. Kennedy at Charlotte Chamber of Commerce Copyright Don Sturkey, 1959. North Carolina Collection.

A year and a half later, Sanford was more than just a potential DNC delegate from North Carolina—he was the North Carolina Democratic Party’s candidate in the 1960 race for governor. Sanford had captured the most votes among five candidates during the primary on May 28th, but not enough to avoid a run-off election. On June 25th, Sanford defeated I. Beverly Lake after a month of near-rancorous campaigning. Sanford was now a de facto DNC delegate, and he had to choose between, essentially, Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson for the party’s presidential nominee. North Carolina did not hold presidential primary elections until 1972. Prior to that time, party delegates attending their national convention declared their support for a presidential nominee. Within the state’s Democratic Party the governor and party chairman, both de facto delegates, traditionally selected the remaining delegates—by electoral district and at-large—at the North Carolina Democratic Party Convention, which had been held in Raleigh on May 19th. The party’s candidates for governor and lieutenant governor also became de facto at-large delegates.

Kennedy had impressed Sanford in Charlotte, but now as a gubernatorial candidate his choice had the potential to make or break his upcoming election battle against Republican Robert Gavin—even in a historical one-party (Democratic) state. Sanford’s campaign manager told him, “History is knocking in this opportunity to associate with Kennedy,” while another aide cautioned, “You can’t be for Kennedy. It will kill you.”

A Spark of Greatness

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Stephen Fletcher

I initially wanted to write a post for the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s campaign swing through North Carolina on 17 September 1960. The story behind Kennedy’s trip to the Tar Heel State fascinated me, however, so I launched into Triumph of Good Will, John Drescher’s account of the gubernatorial contest between Terry Sanford and I. Beverly Lake that preceded Kennedy’s visit. There’s an interesting story that photographs by Hugh Morton and other photographers in the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, can help tell. In light of the silver anniversary of that momentous campaign, and during the anniversary month of Kennedy’s assassination, I’ll be contributing a series of posts touching on that pivotal time in North Carolina and the nation.

September 17th, 1960—just nine days before this country’s first televised presidential debate—found Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy campaigning in the Tar Heel State. Two months earlier, Kennedy had emerged victorious as the party’s nominee at the Democratic National Convention, held July 11th through 15th at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The pivotal connection between these two events was North Carolina governor-elect Terry Sanford. The Kennedy–Sanford alliance crystallized during the Democratic National Convention, but first some back-story.

According to Drescher, the first time Terry Sanford spoke to John Kennedy was in early 1959, when the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce invited Kennedy to address its members. Kennedy agreed and, in return, asked the Chamber to invite delegates who attended the 1956 Democratic National Convention (DNC). Sanford had attended the DNC, but supported Estes Kefauver. Kennedy and Kefauver emerged as the two top candidates for veep after presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson decided that convention delegates would choose his running mate. Delegates select Kefauver by a final margin of 755.5 to 589, with the third place finisher Al Gore, Sr. receiving 13.5 delegates. North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges received 40 votes on the first ballot, but none after the final tally. Morton photographed Kennedy speaking to the North Carolina caucus as a candidate for vice president at the 1956 DNC, as Luther Hodges, seated to Kennedy’s right, watched and listened.

“I Too Am Glad I Was There.”

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Stephen Fletcher

Note from Stephen: Today’s post from JACK HILLIARD is presented in honor of NASA shuttle Discovery’s last mission scheduled for lift-off today, but postponed until Wednesday.

It is a cloudy, warm January afternoon on a sandy cape area east of Walt Disney World in Central Florida. It is a place where the Banana River winds its way through thick marshes. . . where you may see herons and pelicans . . . manatee and alligators . . . eagles and egrets. As you lift your eyes toward the horizon, in the distance stands the mighty Saturn V (pronounced “five”) Rocket . . . all 363 feet of it fueled and ready to fly. You are at NASA’s Complex 39 Press Site at the Kennedy Space Center. Within the next six hours, Apollo 14 will begin America’s fourth trip to land a man on the lunar surface. The Mission Commander is Astronaut Alan Shepard. He was America’s first man in space about ten years earlier. The Command Module is called “Kitty Hawk” and is piloted by Stuart Roosa. The Lunar Module is called “Antaries” and is piloted by Ed Mitchell. All three men have spent time in the simulator at the Morehead Planetarium on the UNC campus.

As I stand there on the bank of the Banana River, I remember the handwritten sign on the planetarium door that said “No Class Today.” That was March 2, 1960 and students in Harvey Daniell’s Astronomy 31 Lab did not meet in the Morehead Planetarium that afternoon. The reason, America’s Mercury Astronauts were taking classes in celestial navigation in the planetarium simulator. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of the astronauts in the Planetarium that day was Commander Shepard.

Launch Complex 39, the nation’s first operational spaceport, ranks as one of history’s great engineering achievements. Three and a half miles from Pad A at the press site, several hundred media personnel have gathered including Hugh Morton. (I was not aware that he was there at the time). As always, he not only documented the Apollo launch, but went to an adjoining location, where several special NASA guests were gathered at the VIP site. Among those guests on this day . . . Vice President Spiro Agnew [left center in photograph below], the future King of Spain, Juan Carlos [far right] and his wife Princess Sophia . . . Henry Kissinger, US security advisor to President Richard Nixon . . . America’s first man on the moon Neil Armstrong [right center], and Hugh O’Brian, movie and TV star. (Editor’s note: NASA bestowed Hugh O’Brian its “Freedom Through Knowledge” Award in 1971. And is that Caspar Weinberger in the upper left?—Stephen)

As the countdown proceeds toward the scheduled launch time of 3:23 PM, a bank of clouds moves over the space center. Then, a brief shower. The countdown is at T-8 minutes and holding. We wait 40 minutes for the clouds and rain to move out of the area. Then at 3:54, comes the familiar voice of NASA’s Jack King: “This is Apollo launch control, we will resume the count at 3:55 PM.” A cheer goes up from the assembled media.

Nothing can prepare you for the sights and sounds of a Saturn V launch. Films and television are simply inadequate to convey the awe and power of the experience.

The countdown proceeds smoothly during the next eight minutes. Then at 4:03 PM on January 31, 1971, the fire and smoke of the Saturn V’s first stage becomes visible. Another cheer from all the viewing areas, even before the staccato roar of the engines is heard. (That’s a neat, unique thing about seeing a Saturn V launch in person. You see the cascade of smoke and flame long before you hear the sound of the engines, which takes longer to travel the three and a half miles. We’re use to seeing a launch on TV where the microphones are located on the launch pad and the sight and sound are together.) Finally, the Apollo 14/Saturn V rocket lifts off and is on its way to the moon.

As I stand watching this awesome site of Commander Shepard and his crew flying to the lunar surface, it of course never crosses my mind that 18 years later on June 16, 1989, I would have the honor of meeting Alan Shepard when he and four of his fellow Mercury astronauts gather at the Morehead Planetarium to celebrate several anniversaries . . . the 30th anniversary of the U. S. space program, the 40th anniversary of the Morehaed Planetarium, and the 20th anniversary of the first moon landing. When I finally get a chance to shake his hand, I tell him that I was at the Apollo 14 launch. He says, “that was a great day . . . I’m glad you were there.”

Me too.

Up in smoke?

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Elizabeth Hull

Note from Elizabeth: I hope you’ll join me in welcoming the newest addition to the Morton team, Samantha Leonard! Sam is a Greensboro native in her first year of the grad program at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, and is serving as our new digitization assistant (replacing David Meincke, who had the gall to move to California). This is Sam’s first post for V2H.

Since I started working for the Hugh Morton Collection in mid-December, I have been bombarded with many amazing images. When Elizabeth asked me to write my first blog post for A View to Hugh, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the choices. To narrow it down, I tried to think of current events. Recently, I scanned a group of negatives of various tobacco settings in North Carolina, and I immediately thought of the smoking ban for NC restaurants and bars that took effect on January 1^stof this year.

North Carolina is the country’s leading tobacco producer and has a long history with the crop; this recent ban has been met both with praise and resistance. According to an article by Gary D. Robertson, North Carolina is the 29^th state to prohibit smoking in restaurants and the 24^th state to prohibit smoking in bars, making it the first of the “tobacco states” to ban smoking in public restaurants and bars.

To understand what a big deal this is for North Carolina and why it is relevant to the Morton Collection is to know that tobacco was one of the state’s main industries while Morton was taking the bulk of his photographs. But the times are changing, with North Carolina shifting to a more services-and-technology state. Robertson writes in his article:

“In 1978, tobacco accounted for 34 percent of all farm income in North Carolina, or $1.1 billion. Thirty years later tobacco production fell to $687 million, or only 7 percent of farm income, according to federal agricultural data. The amount of tobacco grown also fell during the same period from about 850 million pounds to 390 million pounds.”

So to honor this shift in North Carolina’s history and economy, I thought it would be fitting to look at a few of Morton’s striking tobacco images:

These photographs were taken in NC tobacco fields during the 1940s to early 1950s. I thought that the first picture was interesting because this man is smoking a cigarette while working in a tobacco field; I like the second one because it shows children, adults, and both whites and blacks working together in the fields. I like to think Morton is showing us how deeply ingrained tobacco is in his subjects’ lives, whether it be through farming, pleasure, or family.
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UNC’s J-School celebrates 100 years

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Elizabeth Hull

Though September 9 was the official 100-year anniversary of the first class offered by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, celebrations and events continue to mark this milestone for one of the country’s best-regarded journalism programs. One such event is an exhibit currently on display here in Wilson Library’s North Carolina Collection Gallery, Consecrated to the Common Good, which features the above photo of Hugh Morton (as well as other notable alumni including W. Horace Carter).

Morton’s legacy is alive and well at the J-School thanks to the Hugh Morton Distinguished Professorship established by his wife Julia to help the school recruit or retain an outstanding educator and provide scholarly, research or instructional support for that person. Julia Morton is quoted in an article on the Carolina Development website as saying:

“My main purpose for establishing this professorship is because there really is no other ‘watchdog’ standing between the citizens of North Carolina and Raleigh and Washington, so it’s important that today’s journalism students know how to ask the hard questions,” Julia Morton said. “What’s more, I can think of no better way to honor Hugh than to enable others to experience and appreciate what he held dear—Grandfather Mountain, the state of North Carolina and the UNC experience.”

We hope you can join us in the Gallery next Thursday, October 15 at 5pm for a reception and exhibit viewing, to be followed by a lecture by Tom Bowers, J-School professor emeritus and author of Making News: One Hundred Years of Journalism & Mass Communication at Carolina.

A View to Hugh

Processing the Hugh Morton Photographs and Films

Category Archives: Photojournalism