Tim Valentine (third from right) and young farmers, February 9, 1984 to April 6, 1984.
DigitalNC is happy to announce the addition of nine scrapbooks about U.S. Congressman Itimous “Tim” Thaddeus Valentine to our online scrapbook collection. These items were made available to digitize by our partners at Nash Community College and we are grateful to them for their contribution.
From the scrapbook January 8, 1983 to April 27, 1983.
Tim Valentine represented the 2nd district of North Carolina, an east central district that formerly included Durham and Raleigh, in the U.S. Senate from 1983-1994. These scrupulously maintained scrapbooks span the first two years of his position, beginning from January 8, 1983 until September 20, 1984. His congressional appointment was marked by a highly publicized electoral race with civil rights activist and attorney Henry McKinley “Mickey” Michaux. Michaux would have become North Carolina’s first black congressman of the twentieth century if Valentine hadn’t narrowly defeated him in a contested runoff, causing much of Valentine’s freshman year to be devoted toward gaining ground with black voters.
Labeled a Democratic conservative during the 80’s, Valentine’s voting favored moderation, as when voting against the nuclear freeze (which he later supported) but voting for a $5 billion jobs package. Most of the images in these nine scrapbooks are newspaper clippings relating to Valentine, his political rivals, or his politics. These scrapbooks also feature ephemera, such as a certificate awarded to Valentine to highlight his support of Adult Continuing Education Week and a holiday card from President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan.
A note to readers: these scrapbooks contain many clippings stacked on top of another- therefore if it looks like there are duplicates of pages, there are! The duplicated pages should have the covered clippings exposed (you may notice a bone folder in some of the images) for full ability to read the contents.
For a look at all the scrapbooks mentioned, click here. To view all material from Nash Community College, click here. To get more information on Nash Community College, please visit their homepage here.
