The 40th annversary of the Watergate scandal brings a special exhibit to the North Carolina Museum of History with a panel discussion featuring many North Carolinians who were involved in its epochal hearing.
On Thursday, February 27, at 7 p.m., WRAL-TV anchor David Crabtree will moderate Watergate: Politics, Scandal and the Media in the Museum Auditorium at 5 East Edenton Street in Raleigh. Admission is free, but guests must call 919-807-7873 to register to attend.
Participants are Katherine Scott, Senate historian and author of Reining in the State: Civil Society and Congress in the Vietnam and Watergate Eras; Rufus Edmisten, former deputy chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee; Gene Boyce, former assistant chief counsel of the Committee, and Ned Cline, former reporter who covered the Watergate scandal for the Greensboro Daily News.
The exhibit, which will run through August 10, tells the story through artifacts, photographs, video clips and a 1970 living room setting which follows the Nixon administration’s unraveling saga. The scandal began on June 17, 1972, with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
As evidence emerged, the Senate formed the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to uncover irregularities in the 1972 campaign. N.C. Senator Sam Ervin served as chair of the committee that spent almost three months grilling Nixon administration officials during the first phase of its hearings.