Jesse Helms Quotes

Would it be better if I'd married a Negro woman? Would they treat my child any better? Erect fewer barriers?

The force of prejudice against marriage between black and white was such that no one would dare to brave it. It is not the legal penalty which is feared but a condemnation a thousand times more terrible.

There is no middle ground on the question of interracial marriage. A person either favors or condemns such unions. The Negroes and negrophiles in the United States today who are waging the campaign for complete racial equality must be assumed to favor the amalgamation of the races unless they have openly stated their opposition.

I was conscious of the fact that it could be to my disadvantage to marry a white guy - that some folks would hold that against me.

Myself, I happen to be married to an African-American woman, and we're together 17 years. We took a few trips to the South 15 years ago, and we were sobered by some of the reactions people had - how subtle or not-so-subtle their reactions were.

I heard we'll get you a pass because we know you're married to a black woman. You're married to a sister so we'll give you that pass but also, those who know me but also if they look at the body of work, it is the bigger picture.

South African ministers are anxious to deal out fair treatment, but are hampered by public opinion…and a degree of racial prejudice of which they themselves, as individuals, are largely free.

I am not ... in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them ... to intermarry with white people.

I flatly deny that it is a civil right for a white man to marry a black woman or for a black man to marry a white woman.

WHITE man’s government ... should not be scoffed at; that it is a prejudice in the country that no man has a right to disregard

I will not fight a Negro. I never have and I never will.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color, is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

Why should I not be able to do what is right and natural and kill those who commit such an abomination? (Inter-racial marriage)

Integration would lead to miscegenation, which will destroy our white race eventually.

The legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a negro, or descendant of a negro.

If you mix the races, you will die and go to Hell

The people who are opposing the policy of apartheid have not the courage of their convictions. They do not marry non-Europeans.

I married an Asian. I have eight biracial children, therefore I'm quite certain that I'm the last person that could be called a racist.

I remember being told by my parents when I was 4 that I couldn't go to an amusement park advertised on TV because colored kids weren't allowed there. That was a bit of a shock and really stayed with me over the years. That was how I first learned about racial segregation. Fortunately, I took it as a challenge, early on, and it motivated me. You never know how a child might respond to discrimination. It goes both ways. Some kids become embittered.

Racism is stupid. It’s an insult to God, arrogantly implying that God goofed-up when he chose to make us all different.

I'm against an all-white anything or an all-black anything.

I remember as a boy when the conversation on civil rights was won in the South. I remember a time when one of my friends made a racist joke and another said, 'Hey man, we don't go for that anymore.'

Two people will never be President in my lifetime. A woman and a black.

I don't have to really be in the 60s. Every time I hail a cab in New York, and they pass me by and pick up the white person, then I get a dose of it. Or when they don't want to take you to Harlem. I grew up with that.

Arizona has always been anti-black.