Under the Dome podcast: An interview with NC Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue
North Carolina Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, a Raleigh Democrat, is a longtime lawmaker who also made history as the state’s first African American speaker of the House.
On this episode of The News & Observer’s politics podcast, Under the Dome, host Dawn Vaughan talks with Blue about that historic first and much more as Black History Month comes to a close this week.
Blue won his role as House speaker in January 1991, but campaigned for it in the fall 1990 campaign season.
“Very seldomly did we talk really about the the significance of electing a minority, electing a Black person to lead the House,” Blue said. “And at that time, the governor did not have veto power. And so the speaker was heading, basically an independent branch of government,” Blue said.
Blue was the first Black speaker, and he remains the only one. There are framed photographs of General Assembly leadership on the walls in the Legislative Building, and Blue is the only African American lawmaker among them. He talked about that as well as the current debate over regulating teaching about race in schools, as with the recently filed anti-Critical Race Theory bill.
“When I think about saying that you can’t teach uncomfortable things about history, it means to some degree that I can’t teach my grand-kids Sunday school, and the whole struggle with Pharaoh and Moses and all of those kinds of things, because it makes people feel uncomfortable,” Blue told Vaughan.
“But that’s what history does, it makes you sort of figure out where you are in time. And what lesson do you take away from what this particular incident or episode might represent,” he said.
African Americans monument at the Capitol
Some conversations from 30 years ago are similar to those happening today, Blue said, over issues including affirmative action and HBCU funding.
Blue also shared his thoughts about the importance of the long-stalled monument to African Americans that is to be built on the state Capitol grounds. He said the project needs to move forward “more urgently now than before.”
He referenced all the springtime field trips students make to the Capitol complex.
“When those kids mentioned to me what they saw on the portraits, the pictures around the Legislative Building, it really etched it in my mind that their experience is important, and they need the whole experience. There is no experience on the Capitol grounds of Black existence in North Carolina,” he said.
Listen to the podcast for more of what Blue said about the monument, including what he thinks should happen with the statue of George Washington.
Headliner of the Week
Blue, who has known Gov. Roy Cooper since they were in the state House together, talked about Cooper being competitive — not just in politics but on the House basketball team.
Stayed tuned for Blue and Vaughan’s picks for Headliner of the Week, as well as Blue’s favorite Legislative Cafeteria food choice.
Listen to our latest episode below and catch up on previous episodes. You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Audible, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon Music and Stitcher.
