In part one of the four-part Biographical Conversations with James B. Hunt, Jr. series, North Carolina Governor James Hunt takes you from his childhood on his family’s Rock Ridge, N.C., farm through his political beginnings as president of the Wilson County Young Democrats Club.
Jim Hunt's father, James Baxter Hunt, Sr., was a farmer and one of the creators of the Wilson County Grange chapter. His mother, Elsie Brame Hunt, was an educator, as well as the first female member of the North Carolina Board of Health.
Hunt's parents were ardent supporters, as well as personal friends, of Kerr Scott, who, in 1948, became governor of North Carolina. Hunt recalls that Governor Kerr Scott had an enormous influence on his own future ambitions because Gov. Scott illustrated that people in public office are there to serve the larger citizenry. In particular, Hunt recalls Gov. Scott's promise to pave the dirt roads of rural North Carolina, and then watching a road-paving machine lay down asphalt on a particularly dusty and bumpy trail. "That was one of the most significant moments of my life," Hunt says. "It made me realize how you can make things happen and how useful being involved in politics can be."
Jim Hunt was president of his class at Rock Ridge High School (as well as valedictorian and captain of the basketball team) and student body president at North Carolina State College during both his junior and senior years. During college, Hunt met Carolyn Joyce Leonard, a young woman from Iowa who shared many of his interests and values. The two married in 1958 and settled in Raleigh, N.C. A year later, Hunt met Terry Sanford at a banquet and would go on to serve as a volunteer in Sanford’s successful 1960 gubernatorial campaign. In 1962, the Hunt family moved to Washington, D.C. for a two-year stay, where the future North Carolina governor worked for the Democratic National Committee.
Shortly after moving back to North Carolina in 1963, Jim Hunt graduated from the University of North Carolina Law School. Distracted by politics during the summer of 1964, he failed the North Carolina bar exam. Two months later, the Hunt family, which now included a daughter, Rebecca, and a son, James Baxter Hunt III, moved to Nepal. During their two-year stay, Hunt taught agricultural techniques to Nepalese farmers and also became involved in developing a tax program for economic development. In addition, the Hunts welcomed their third child, Rachel, who was born in a Katmandu missionary hospital in 1965.
In 1966, the family returned to North Carolina where Hunt retook—and this time passed—the bar exam. He began working for a private law firm and eventually became a partner. The following year, Hunt was elected president of the Wilson County Young Democrats.
The first episode of the series ends with Hunt's reflections of 1968. The Hunts fourth child, Elizabeth, was born that year and Bob Scott was elected governor of North Carolina. On the national scene, Hunt was deeply affected by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., noting, "He appealed to the best in Americans." After attending a memorial service for King at Jackson Baptist Memorial Church—the largest African American Church in Wilson County—Hunt joined a crowd of 1,800 African American citizens who participated in a silent procession from the church to the courthouse in memory of the slain civil rights leader. In doing so, he ignored warnings that his presence could incite racial tension and perhaps lead to violence. "I was proud to be a part of it," says Hunt.
