
James Terry Sanford (20 August 1917-18 April 1998) was the Democratic Governor of North Carolina from 5 January 1961 to 8 January 1965 (succeeding Luther H. Hodges and preceding Dan K. Moore) and a US Senator from 10 December 1986 to 3 January 1993 (succeeding Jim Broyhill and preceding Lauch Faircloth).
Biography[]
James Terry Sanford was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina in 1917, and he worked as an FBI special agent before serving in the US Army during World War II. After the war, he practiced law and became involved in Democratic politics. He served in the State Senate from 1953 to 1955, as Governor from 1961 to 1965, and in the US Senate from 1986 to 1993, and he focused on improving education and economic opportunity, doubling public spending to fund public schools. He also called for an end to racially discriminatory employment practices in 1963 and used the police to protect demonstrators of the Civil Rights movement. From 1970 to 1985, he took a break from politics to serve as President of Duke University, creating the North Carolina Fund to alleviate poverty and creating an environmental research facility at the Research Triangle Park. In the US Senate, he maintained a liberal voting record and criticized the Gulf War. He died in 1998.