Page 147 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2023 LISBON EDITION

it being just a routine burglary. Pressing that no- But history hardly ever is cut and dry.
tion was the dogged reporting by two Wasington Ervin, in his career, fought fervently against
Post reporters – Carl Bernstein and Bob Wood- Civil Rights legislation going back to the Little
ward, who developed connections between the Rock school desegregation case, Brown vs.
burglars and the committee to reelect Nixon as Board of Education and, in retirement, the Equal
president, a race he handily won in November Rights Amendment. His opposition was cast in
1972. On the wall of the museum is a photo his strict interpretations of the Constitution and
signed by Bernstein under a portrait of Ervin. his belief in what he viewed as indiviudal rights.
As revelation after revelation of White House The Ervin story – pluses and minuses – is all
involvement was drawn out from committee wit- brought back at the small museum and library in
nesses, Nixon's popularity plummeted while his hometown. It's more than a “get out and
Ervin's rose as the intellectual side of the “sim- stretch stop” on a highway amid the beautfiul
ple country lawyer” who graduated from Har- piedmont country of North Carolina. And per-
vard Law School became apparent. haps it's a good thing that such an important
Federal judge Lawrence M. Baskir remarked part of American history resides in this small
that the senator was able “to appeal to the jury”- town, and not in Washington or some other
-the jury being the rest of the Senate, the Amer- large city.
ican people and the media. “He knew how to play Historian Dr. Troy Kickler summed up a way to
to them.” view Ervin today: “No matter what Americans
It would be truthful to say that Ervin remains think about Senator Sam's literal interpretation
an American hero for exposing a threat to the of the Constitution, we can learn some valuable
nation's democracy. He had had practice, long lessons from the Morganton native: Be yourself,
before Watergate, when he was appointed as a know you audience, never underestimate an op-
recent arrival to the Sentate to a committee that ponent, and don't judge a book by its cover.”
censured Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy for
his blatant misconduct that ruined the profess- IF YOU GO
sional lives of many. So Senator Sam also had a samervin.wpcc.edu
leading role in a pivotal case that also drew to a
1001 Burkemont Avenue, Morganton, NC
close a threat to democrartic values.
And that would be a nice ending.

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