Unlikely portraitist for Helms

WASHINGTON -- In René Dickerson's usual artwork, his abstract, brilliantly colored paintings depict joyful scenes of African-American culture. He paints jazz, Motown, beautiful women and scenes of love.

Last spring, a friend in Washington invited him for lunch at the Capitol Hill Club, a social enclave for Republican lawmakers. The friend asked, Would you like to paint a portrait of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms?

"I had heard of Jesse Helms but didn't know much about him," Dickerson recalled.

So he did some research.

"It was really interesting," Dickerson said.

He learned that Helms, a North Carolina Republican, had opposed every major piece of civil rights legislation to come before the Senate, that he had blocked the establishment of a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., that he won a tough campaign in 1990 - against a black opponent - with a last-minute ad showing a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter for a job the announcer said was given to a less-qualified minority applicant.

Called a racist

In 2001, Washington Post columnist David Broder called Helms "the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country."

"He was just from that era," Dickerson, 58, said in an interview Tuesday. "One of the things I came to appreciate about Jesse Helms was that he was a man of integrity based on what he believed. He didn't hide behind it. 'This is what I am, take it or leave it.'"

Tonight, Dickerson will unveil his portrait of Helms, who served 30 years in the Senate and died July 4, 2008. It will hang in the Eisenhower Room of the Capitol Hill Club. Among those attending tonight's unveiling will be GOP lawmakers, Helms' colleagues, the senator's wife and other family members.

Honor and irony

"It's an honor and an irony," Dickerson said. "He pulled no punches about blacks in this country and where their position should be."

Dickerson has been so nervous about tonight's unveiling that he can't sleep. He awoke at 2 a.m. Tuesday to add a few final touches to the painting. A little more light, a little glint in Helms' eyes.

The friend whom Dickerson had lunch with is Brian Summers, 39, who worked several years in Helms' office in the early 1990s as a staff associate. There, he gave tours and worked on constituent matters.

"For me, I'm an African American," Summers said. "I never let other people's judgments of the senator impact the man I knew and respected and grew to love."

Aide wanted portrait

Summers, now a political consultant in Washington, decided on the drive up Interstate 95 from Helms' funeral that he wanted to commission a portrait of the senator.

Working with the Jesse Helms Center in the Union County town of Wingate, Summers settled on the Capitol Hill Club as a location. The center, in conjunction with friends and family, is paying for the art supplies and framing of the portrait, according to a spokeswoman.

Time was donated

Dickerson donated his talent and time, about 100 hours in all.

Dickerson grew up in Oakland, Calif., in the era of the Black Panther party, but paid little attention to the civil rights issues tearing apart the South.

He served in Vietnam as an illustrator and left theArmy dreaming of becoming an artist. He now lives inVirginia.

Dickerson said he can't believe he will stand among the powerful tonight. "It's been such a journey," Dickerson said. "I grew as an artist, especially when painting Caucasians."

Dickerson had painted white subjects before, but this was a senator. Serious business, he said.

"I really worked at getting the flesh tones right."

Only a few people, among them Helms' granddaughter, have seen the painting. Dickerson said it depicts Helms standing by a leather chair, his hands folded, a flag behind him.

When Helms' close associates first saw it a few weeks ago, they said the senator's hands looked too young, Dickerson said. They requested he add liver spots. They asked him to add a lapel pin.

Carter Wrenn, a longtime associate of Helms, said Tuesday he had just learned about the portrait and didn't know what the senator might make of Dickerson.

"I guess the question is, 'Is he a good artist?'" Wrenn said. "If it's a good picture, he'd like it."

Dickerson said he painted what he saw, what he felt. He saw in Helms a man of confidence, but one of vulnerability too, like all men.

He thought of his past abstract paintings celebrating diversity. One series, called "Colored People," depicts a row of crayons with human heads, all in different colors.

"I felt a lot of emotions," Dickerson said. "I don't believe what he believed. We're on two different poles. But we're equal, just like that lineup of crayons."