THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9411240652
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The region's NAACP leaders gathered Wednesday to demand that U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms resign because of comments the North Carolina Republican made Monday about President Clinton.
Paul Gillis, the civil rights group's Virginia State Conference Area 2 chairman and a Suffolk resident, said the organization was ``appalled'' when Helms said in a newspaper interview that President Clinton ``better have a bodyguard'' if he visits military bases in North Carolina.
Area 2 of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People covers Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Isle of Wight County.
Gillis, saying he was speaking for the state organization, said the NAACP believes such statements could lead to the assassination of the president.
``We are now at a position in our lives that this mean-spiritedness coming out of our nation's capital and the country as a whole has got to stop,'' Gillis said at Wednesday's news conference in Main Street Baptist Church. ``This is something America will not tolerate. We're not ready to lose another leader by a bullet from a gun.''
Although some reports have said Helms made the comment in jest, and although he later partially retracted the statement, that is not good enough for the NAACP, Gillis said. Leaders in the state organization sent a letter to Gov. George Allen on Wednesday asking him to support them in their demand for Helms' resignation.
``We want to see Mr. Helms censured at the minimum,'' Gillis said. ``We'd like to see his resignation. We are concerned that some demented person in our military will go out and make an attack on our president because of Sen. Helms' statement.''
The Rev. Aaron L. Dobynes of Smithfield, an active local NAACP member and pastor of the Smithfield church, said it was tragic that the comment came so close to the anniversary Tuesday of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
``Helms made a statement that could possibly lead to another assassination,'' Dobynes said.
Dobynes said Helms' statement might be taken seriously because of his position as a senior senator and recognized leader who is to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the new Congress convenes in January.
``This is not an NAACP thing, not a race thing,'' Dobynes said. ``It's an American thing. People have gone to jail for statements even close to this.''
Gillis said he had talked with representatives from at least two other state NAACP chapters. He said he expects the demand for Helms' resignation to be taken on by the organization as a national cause.
Gillis said Allen was unavailable to answer his telephone calls Wednesday but state NAACP leaders will continue to pursue the issue. He said they intend to ask for a meeting with the governor and the state attorney general to discuss the situation. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., should at least be censured, NAACP critics
say
by CNB