John F. Kennedy’s East Carolina College Stadium Rally

September 17, 1960 was a red-letter date in the history of presidential campaigns in North Carolina, and a golden moment for East Carolina College. That day Senator John F. Kennedy, the 1960 Democratic presidential nominee, flew into Greenville to initiate his statewide campaign with a rally at East Carolina’s College Stadium.

Kennedy was the first successful presidential candidate to campaign in eastern North Carolina. In that historic moment, East Carolina’s role was central. At the airport, a dozen sisters from the newly founded Alpha Delta Pi sorority wore Kennedy hats and held a banner welcoming Kennedy. A motorcade parade through town followed, with a side stop at Farmers Warehouse where the auctioneer, Ray Oglesby, conducted a mock tobacco auction. Kennedy's visit climaxed with a rally at College Stadium. Reportedly, 12,000 people from over 30 counties in eastern North Carolina attended.

Each of Kennedy’s campaign stops was headline news, but that in Greenville especially so. Greenville, the geographic center of the East with a vibrant, coeducational liberal arts college of over 5,000 students, was an easy choice. Also, the newly installed president of the college, Dr. Leo W. Jenkins, was an open supporter of Kennedy and an enthusiastic advocate of student involvement in politics. In January 1960, Jenkins had invited Kennedy to give a lecture at East Carolina. Kennedy declined because of his decision to run for the presidency, but before the year was over indeed scheduled a campaign rally at the college. Eager to ensure a strong turnout, Jenkins encouraged his faculty to have their Saturday morning classes attend the rally.

The most historic moment occurred at College Stadium. In May 1960, Jenkins had been installed as the school’s new president, initiating a tenure that would last until his retirement in 1978. Jenkins’ later years as a tireless advocate of the fortunes of the East and East Carolina were underwritten with potent political connections forged that day as nearly every major Democratic politician in the state gathered in Greenville, on the ECC campus, to launch Kennedy's statewide barnstorm. Joining Kennedy on stage at College Stadium were U. S. Senator Sam Ervin, U. S. Senator B. Everett Jordan, U. S. Congressman Herbert Bonner, U. S. Congressman Harold Cooley, U. S. Congressman L. H. Fountain, Governor Luther Hodges, N. C. Secretary of State Thad Eure, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry Sanford, and a host of other elected officials, state and local, leaving no doubts about Democratic support for the Massachusetts senator. The College Stadium rally was a major success: 78 percent of Pitt County voters chose him on Election Day.

Kennedy’s campaign stop at ECC brought the campus statewide and even national prestige. By the day’s end, it was apparent that ECC had coordinated the single-most successful and electorally crucial rally of the day, easily surpassing in logistical execution and positive publicity, other stops planned for Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh. President Jenkins emerged as a more visible and clearly adroit political figure, one who had earned not only respect but substantial political capital for orchestrating the Kennedy visit and, by extension, Kennedy’s electoral victory in North Carolina. Building on this, Jenkins presided over nearly two decades of phenomenal growth for East Carolina, giving rise to an invigorated eastern North Carolina wherein East Carolina emerged as the educational engine driving the region forward in economic growth, quality of life, and political power.

Kennedy's North Carolina campaign was, by various accounts, exhausting, a blitz, a whirlwind, and “next to unbearable.” Never before in North Carolina history had any candidate for the presidency devoted, in a single day, such systematic and regionally sensitive attention to the state as a whole, including its coastal plains, its Piedmont, its western mountains, and finally its political center. From this, a special relationship between Kennedy and North Carolina grew. The following year, the new president returned, at the request of Governor Terry Sanford, to deliver the keynote address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s University Day celebration. Never before had Chapel Hill witnessed such a turnout for the event. Kennedy received an honorary degree, as did his ally in politics, Terry Sanford. Watching on were the presidents, deans, provosts, and high-level administrators of the Consolidated University of North Carolina. Perhaps Sanford recalled the successful campaign rally for Kennedy at East Carolina College the year before. While the special moment in 1961 belonged to Sanford and the Piedmont, its beginnings had been, as with so much North Carolina history, in the East.

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Sources

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