[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 25 (Monday, February 13, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1101-H1103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             CORETTA SCOTT KING LETTER TO SENATE JUDICIARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Sherman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter and 
statement by Coretta Scott King from March 19, 1986.

         The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social 
           Change, Inc.,
                                      Atlanta, GA, March 19, 1986.
     Re Nomination of Jefferson B. Sessions, U.S. Judge, Southern 
         District of Alabama Hearing, March 13, 1986.

     Hon. Strom Thurmond,
     Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Thurmond: I write to express my sincere 
     opposition to the confirmation of Jefferson B. Sessions as a 
     federal district court judge for the Southern District of 
     Alabama. My professional and personal roots in Alabama are 
     deep and lasting. Anyone who has used the power of his office 
     as

[[Page H1102]]

     United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free 
     exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to 
     our courts. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his 
     office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly 
     black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not 
     be rewarded with a federal judgeship.
       I regret that a long-standing commitment prevents me from 
     appearing in person to testify against this nominee. However, 
     I have attached a copy of my statement opposing Mr. Sessions' 
     confirmation and I request that my statement as well as this 
     letter be made a part of the hearing record.
       I do sincerely urge you to oppose the confirmation of Mr. 
     Sessions.
           Sincerely,
     Coretta Scott King.
                                  ____


    Statement of Coretta Scott King on the Nomination of Jefferson 
  Beauregard Sessions for the United States District Court, Southern 
 District of Alabama--Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday, March 13, 
                                  1986

       Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: Thank you for 
     allowing me this opportunity to express my strong opposition 
     to the nomination of Jefferson Sessions for a federal 
     district judgeship for the Southern District of Alabama. My 
     longstanding commitment which I shared with my husband, 
     Martin, to protect and enhance the rights of Black Americans, 
     rights which include equal access to the democratic process, 
     compels me to testify today.
       Civil rights leaders, including my husband and Albert 
     Turner, have fought long and hard to achieve free and 
     unfettered access to the ballot box. Mr. Sessions has used 
     the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of 
     the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to 
     serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to 
     happen. Mr. Sessions' conduct as U.S. Attorney, from his 
     politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his 
     indifference toward criminal violations of civil rights laws, 
     indicates that he lacks the temperament, fairness and 
     judgment to be a federal judge.
       The Voting Rights Act was, and still is, vitally important 
     to the future of democracy in the United States. I was 
     privileged to join Martin and many others during the Selma to 
     Montgomery march for voting rights in 1965. Martin was 
     particularly impressed by the determination to get the 
     franchise of blacks in Selma and neighboring Perry County. As 
     he wrote, ``Certainly no community in the history of the 
     Negro struggle has responded with the enthusiasm of Selma and 
     her neighboring town of Marion. Where Birmingham depended 
     largely upon students and unemployed adults [to participate 
     in non-violent protest of the denial of the franchise], Selma 
     has involved fully 10 per cent of the Negro population in 
     active demonstrations, and at least half the Negro population 
     of Marion was arrested on one day.'' Martin was referring of 
     course to a group that included the defendants recently 
     prosecuted for assisting elderly and illiterate blacks to 
     exercise that franchise. In fact, Martin anticipated from the 
     depth of their commitment twenty years ago, that a united 
     political organization would remain in Perry County long 
     after the other marchers had left. This organization, the 
     Perry County Civic League, started by Mr. Turner, Mr. Hogue, 
     and others, as Martin predicted, continued ``to direct the 
     drive for votes and other rights.'' In the years since the 
     Voting Rights Act was passed, Black Americans in Marion, 
     Selma and elsewhere have made important strides in their 
     struggle to participate actively in the electoral process. 
     The number of Blacks registered to vote in key Southern 
     states has doubled since 1965. This would not have been 
     possible without the Voting Rights Act.
       However, Blacks still fall far short of having equal 
     participation in the electoral process. Particularly in the 
     South, efforts continue to be made to deny Blacks access to 
     the polls, even where Blacks constitute the majority of the 
     voters. It has been a long up-hill struggle to keep alive the 
     vital legislation that protects the most fundamental right to 
     vote. A person who has exhibited so much hostility to the 
     enforcement of those laws, and thus, to the exercise of those 
     rights by Black people should not be elevated to the federal 
     bench.
       The irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if 
     confirmed, he will be given life tenure for doing with a 
     federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished 
     twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods. Twenty years 
     ago, when we marched from Selma to Montgomery, the fear of 
     voting was real, as the broken bones and bloody heads in 
     Selma and Marion bore witness. As my husband wrote at the 
     time, ``it was not just a sick imagination that conjured up 
     the vision of a public official, sworn to uphold the law, who 
     forced an inhuman march upon hundreds of Negro children; who 
     ordered the Rev. James Bevel to be chained to his sickbed; 
     who clubbed a Negro woman registrant, and who callously 
     inflicted repeated brutalities and indignities upon 
     nonviolent Negroes peacefully petitioning for their 
     constitutional right to vote.''
       Free exercise of voting rights is so fundamental to 
     American democracy that we can not tolerate any form of 
     infringement of those rights. Of all the groups who have been 
     disenfranchised in our nation's history, none has struggled 
     longer or suffered more in the attempt to win the vote than 
     Black citizens. No group has had access to the ballot box 
     denied so persistently and intently. Over the past century, a 
     broad array of schemes have been used in attempts to block 
     the Black vote. The range of techniques developed with the 
     purpose of repressing black voting rights run the gamut from 
     the straightforward application of brutality against black 
     citizens who tried to vote to such legalized frauds as 
     ``grandfather clause'' exclusions and rigged literacy tests.
       The actions taken by Mr. Sessions in regard to the 1984 
     voting fraud prosecutions represent just one more technique 
     used to intimidate Black voters and thus deny them this most 
     precious franchise. The investigations into the absentee 
     voting process were conducted only in the Black Belt counties 
     where blacks had finally achieved political power in the 
     local government. Whites had been using the absentee process 
     to their advantage for years, without incident. Then, when 
     Blacks, realizing its strength, began to use it with success, 
     criminal investigations were begun.
       In these investigations, Mr. Sessions, as U.S. Attorney, 
     exhibited an eagerness to bring to trial and convict three 
     leaders of the Perry County Civic League including Albert 
     Turner despite evidence clearly demonstrating their innocence 
     of any wrongdoing. Furthermore, in initiating the case, Mr. 
     Sessions ignored allegations of similar behavior by whites, 
     choosing instead to chill the exercise of the franchise by 
     blacks by his misguided investigation. In fact, Mr. Sessions 
     sought to punish older black civil rights activists, advisors 
     and colleagues of my husband, who had been key figures in the 
     civil rights movement in the 1960's. These were persons who, 
     realizing the potential of the absentee vote among Blacks, 
     had learned to use the process within the bounds of legality 
     and had taught others to do the same. The only sin they 
     committed was being too successful in gaining votes.
       The scope and character of the investigations conducted by 
     Mr. Sessions also warrant grave concern. Witnesses were 
     selectively chosen in accordance with the favorability of 
     their testimony to the government's case. Also, the 
     prosecution illegally withheld from the defense critical 
     statements made by witnesses. Witnesses who did testify were 
     pressured and intimidated into submitting the ``correct'' 
     testimony. Many elderly blacks were visited multiple times by 
     the FBI who then hauled them over 180 miles by bus to a grand 
     jury in Mobile when they could more easily have testified at 
     a grand jury twenty miles away in Selma. These voters, and 
     others, have announced they are now never going to vote 
     again.
       I urge you to consider carefully Mr. Sessions' conduct in 
     these matters. Such a review, I believe, raises serious 
     questions about his commitment to the protection of the 
     voting rights of all American citizens and consequently his 
     fair and unbiased judgment regarding this fundamental right. 
     When the circumstances and facts surrounding the indictments 
     of Al Turner, his wife, Evelyn, and Spencer Hogue are 
     analyzed, it becomes clear that the motivation was political, 
     and the result frightening--the wide-scale chill of the 
     exercise of the ballot for blacks, who suffered so much to 
     receive that right in the first place. Therefore, it is my 
     strongly-held view that the appointment of Jefferson Sessions 
     to the federal bench would irreparably damage the work of my 
     husband, Al Turner, and countless others who risked their 
     lives and freedom over the past twenty years to ensure equal 
     participation in our democratic system.
       The exercise of the franchise is an essential means by 
     which our citizens ensure that those who are governing will 
     be responsible. My husband called it the number one civil 
     right. The denial of access to the ballot box ultimately 
     results in the denial of other fundamental rights. For, it is 
     only when the poor and disadvantaged are empowered that they 
     are able to participate actively in the solutions to their 
     own problems.
       We still have a long way to go before we can say that 
     minorities no longer need be concerned about discrimination 
     at the polls. Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian 
     Americans are grossly underrepresented at every level of 
     government in America. If we are going to make our timeless 
     dream of justice through democracy a reality, we must take 
     every possible step to ensure that the spirit and intent of 
     the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fifteenth Amendment of 
     the Constitution is honored.
       The federal courts hold a unique position in our 
     constitutional system, ensuring that minorities and other 
     citizens without political power have a forum in which to 
     vindicate their rights. Because of this unique role, it is 
     essential that the people selected to be federal judges 
     respect the basic tenets of our legal system: respect for 
     individual rights and a commitment to equal justice for all. 
     The integrity of the Courts, and thus the rights they 
     protect, can only be maintained if citizens feel confident 
     that those selected as federal judges will be able to judge 
     with fairness others holding differing views.
       I do not believe Jefferson Sessions possesses the requisite 
     judgment, competence, and sensitivity to the rights 
     guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws to qualify for 
     appointment to the federal district court. Based on his 
     record, I believe his confirmation would have a devastating 
     effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also 
     on the progress we have made everywhere toward fulfilling my 
     husband's dream that he envisioned over twenty years ago. I 
     therefore urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to deny his 
     confirmation.

[[Page H1103]]

       I thank you for allowing me to share my views.

  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren 
sought to bring to the attention of the Senate some material about an 
Attorney General nominee, Senator Jeff Sessions. She was silenced. She 
persisted. Ultimately, the Record of the Senate does not reflect the 
remarks she was trying to give.
  In particular, Senator Warren was trying to bring to the attention of 
the Senate a statement and letter of Coretta Scott King from 1986. In 
1986, then Jefferson B. Sessions was a U.S. Attorney, a Federal 
prosecutor who had been appointed for a position as a U.S. district 
judge.
  At that time, Coretta Scott King wrote to the then-chair of the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Strom Thurmond. While the Senate 
may not entertain these remarks and while the Senate may stifle a 
United States Senator, this is the people's House and it is appropriate 
that the Record of this House, at least, reflect the comments of 
Coretta Scott King.
  So I would like to use the time remaining to read her cover letter 
from March 13, 1986, and to read excerpts from the statement she 
attached to it.
  ``Dear Senator Thurmond:
  ``I write to express my sincere opposition to the confirmation of 
Jefferson B. Sessions as a federal district court judge for the 
Southern District of Alabama. My professional and personal roots in 
Alabama are deep and lasting. Anyone who has used the power of his 
office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free 
exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our 
courts. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a 
shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For 
this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal 
judgeship.
  ``I regret that a long-standing commitment prevents me from appearing 
in person to testify against this nominee. However, I have attached a 
copy of my statement opposing Mr. Sessions' confirmation and I request 
that my statement as well as this letter be made part of the hearing 
record.
  ``I do sincerely urge you to oppose the confirmation of Mr. 
Sessions.''
  The statement attached to that letter is fairly long and very 
convincing, and I will read parts of it here:
  ``Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the 
free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now 
seeks to serve as a federal judge. This simply cannot be allowed to 
happen. Mr. Sessions' conduct as U.S. Attorney, from his politically-
motivated voting fraud prosecutions to his indifference toward criminal 
violations of civil rights laws, indicates that he lacks the 
temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.''
  ``A person who has exhibited so much hostility to the enforcement of 
those laws, and thus, to the exercise of those rights by Black people 
should not be elevated to the federal bench.
  ``The irony of Mr. Sessions' nomination is that, if confirmed, he 
will be given life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the 
local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle 
prods.''
  ``The actions taken by Mr. Sessions in regard to the 1984 voting 
fraud prosecutions represent just one more technique used to intimidate 
Black voters and thus deny them this most precious franchise.''
  ``In these investigations, Mr. Sessions, as U.S. Attorney, exhibited 
an eagerness to bring to trial and convict three leaders of the Perry 
County Civic League including Albert Turner despite evidence clearly 
demonstrating their innocence of any wrongdoing.''
  ``In fact, Mr. Sessions sought to punish older black civil rights 
activists, advisors and colleagues of my husband, who had been key 
figures in the civil rights movement in the 1960's.''
  ``Therefore, it is my strongly-held view that the appointment of 
Jefferson Sessions to the federal bench would irreparably damage the 
work of my husband, Al Turner, and countless others who risked their 
lives and freedom over the past 20 years to ensure equal participation 
in our democratic system.''
  Clearly, if these criticisms set forth in this statement--the 
entirety of which will be made part of the House Record--indicate, as 
they did to the United States Senate in 1986, that Mr. Sessions should 
not be a district court judge, they also argue that he should not have 
been confirmed as Attorney General of the United States.

                          ____________________