[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.
____________________