All,
AS I SAID BEFORE: JEFF SESSIONS IS NOTHING BUT A KLANSMAN IN A SUIT AND
A CONTEMPTIBLE PATHOLOGICAL LIAR TO BOOT. DON'T BELIEVE ME? CHECK OUT
WHAT THE LATE CORETTA SCOTT KING SAID ABOUT SESSIONS WHEN HE WAS REFUSED
A FEDERAL JUDGESHIP IN 1986 BECAUSE OF HIS RAGING WHITE SUPREMACIST
VIEWS AND BEHAVIOR...
Kofi
Coretta Scott King Wrote 1986 Letter Blasting Jeff Sessions On Race
The damning letter, which helped deny Sessions a federal judgeship in
1986, was never entered into the congressional record. It was finally
published Tuesday evening.
January 10, 2017
by John Stanton and Nathaniel Meyersohn
BuzzFeed
Sen. Jeff Sessions speaking at a rally for Donald Trump in October 2016. Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images
In 1986, as the Senate was considering the nomination of Jefferson
Beauregard Sessions for federal judge, Coretta Scott King wrote an
impassioned plea to the members of the Judiciary Committee.
Sessions, whose nomination had initially seemed routine, was suddenly on
the ropes after witnesses accused him of using racial slurs and using
his position as a US attorney to target civil rights activists in
Alabama.
The letter would become a key part of the case against
Sessions, who would ultimately be defeated when his home state senator,
the late Howell Heflin, shocked the Senate and voted against the
confirmation.
The Washington Post published the full, 10 page letter from King to the committee Tuesday evening. It can be read here.
At the time of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond
never put the letter into the congressional record, and its contents
remained largely unknown. In the only line that was made public at the
time — published in June 1986 by Knight Ridder reporter Aaron Epstein —
King made clear her opposition to Sessions’ nomination.
“For a
century, the racial practices that characterized our region were
established and enforced by men who, like Mr. Sessions, protested that
they, too, were not personally hostile to blacks,” King’s letter said,
according to Epstein’s dispatch.
Now Sessions, who would go on to
become Alabama’s attorney general before replacing Heflin in the Senate
in 1997, is once again before the Senate for confirmation, this time as
President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.
It’s unclear
why Thurmond didn’t include the letter in the record. Chairman Chuck
Grassley’s office did not respond to requests for the letter, and
sources told BuzzFeed News that Democratic members’ hands are tied by
committee rules that give Grassley the sole authority to release it.
Coretta Scott King speaking at the 36th annual Martin Luther King Jr.
commemorative service in Atlanta in 2004. Tami Chappell / Reuters
Additionally, the King Center, the Atlanta-based memorial and nonprofit
that manages Coretta Scott King’s papers as well as those of her late
husband, said it has not finished processing her papers and could not
provide a copy of the letter. Epstein, the reporter who obtained a copy
in 1986, told BuzzFeed News he no longer has a copy and could not recall
details of its contents beyond what was printed at the time.
It’s unlikely King’s testimonial alone will derail Sessions’ nomination:
The Senate rarely rejects nominations for one of its own, and with
Republicans controlling the chamber, it appears likely he will be
installed at the Department of Justice.
Now that it has been released, the letter may prove embarrassing for Sessions.
Sessions’ 1986 defeat deeply wounded the Alabama conservative, and as a
senator he made a point of backing a number of civil rights measures,
particularly those connected to King. For instance, he sponsored
legislation to give King and Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medals,
backed a bill to place a statue of Parks in the US Capitol, and voted
for a 2006 reauthorization of the Civil Rights Act named after King.
Following King’s death in 2006, Sessions lauded her, saying in a
statement that it “marks yet another sad passing of an historic leader
in the movement for equal rights in America.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
John Stanton is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for BuzzFeed News. In
2014, Stanton was a recipient of the National Press Foundation’s 2014
Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress.
