NATION : Sen. Helms Refuses to Fire Aide

Sen. Jesse Helms says he will not fire his aide, James Meredith, for putting out a news release charging that the vast majority of delegates to the NAACP convention were drug users or engaged in immoral acts.

The charges brought demands from NAACP leaders that Helms, a conservative Republican, fire Meredith and disavow his remarks. Helms is running against Harvey Gantt, a black, in his bid for reelection to the Senate.

Meredith, a former civil rights activist who became the first black to integrate the University of Mississippi, claimed in the release mailed to North Carolina reporters that 60% of the NAACP’s delegates are drug users and 80% are immoral or criminal.

“Of course I have no knowledge whether those figures are right or wrong,” Helms said in an interview published today in the Raleigh News and Observer.

“I have found him in so many matters to be correct. But this is between the NAACP and a well-known black man. You can debate the contents of his statement all you want. But I’m not going to debate it, because I don’t know the facts.”