Truman stands on Union Square to honor three presidents North Carolina gave the nation
North Carolina had spent five years working toward a monument to its three native-born presidents. On October 19, 1948, President Harry Truman stood before the State Capitol in Raleigh to deliver the main address as the monument was unveiled by distant relatives of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk. Governor R. Gregg Cherry accepted it on the state's behalf, and the 82nd Airborne Division Band closed the ceremony with "The Stars and Stripes Forever." It was the first memorial to any of the three men ever erected in their home state.
Three presidents born in the same state, none honored there until 1948, reflects how slowly the South built monuments to its own leaders after the Civil War. Truman's appearance, weeks before a presidential election he was expected to lose, turned a state monument dedication into a moment of national politics.
QWho actually unveiled the monument when the ceremony reached its climax?
Three people with a direct bloodline to the men being honored pulled the cords: distant relatives of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk, one for each president. Willis Smith, chairman of the monument committee, presided over the ceremony and handed the moment to them rather than to Truman or Governor Cherry. The symbolism was deliberate: family, rather than the state or federal government, unveiled the monument to three men who had left North Carolina to make their names elsewhere. Afterward Cherry formally accepted the monument on behalf of the state. The relatives themselves are not named in the record, only identified by their descent from the three presidents.
QWhat else sat on the Capitol grounds near the new presidential monument?
Two old mortars once mounted at Fort Macon, the coastal fortification on North Carolina's Outer Banks, were placed near the monument. They had no connection to Jackson, Johnson, or Polk, but their presence sat alongside the new bronze tribute as a second, older piece of state military history. Fort Macon itself dated back to the antebellum coastal defense system and saw use during the Civil War. The mortars gave visitors a second, older artifact to look at while touring the grounds, a quiet counterpoint to the freshly cast bronze figures dedicated that October day.
QWho delivered the invocation that opened the dedication ceremony?
Broadus E. Jones, pastor of Raleigh's First Baptist Church, gave the invocation before the main addresses began. His prayer set a religious tone ahead of the political speeches from Truman, Willis Smith, and the other officials on the program. Tennessee Governor Jim Nance McCord, there as a guest of honor because of Andrew Johnson's Tennessee ties, was also invited to give a brief speech during the proceedings. A local Baptist minister, not a national figure, was chosen to open the ceremony before a sitting president took the podium.
