In 1986, federal prosecutor Jefferson Sessions stood before the Senate, a nominee for the federal bench. Coretta Scott King, the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, couldn’t make it to the hearing because of “a long-standing commitment,” she wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, but wanted to be sure her voice was heard.
In a scathing nine-page statement, King recounted Sessions’ “doing with federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods.” Namely, suppressing the black vote.
She recounted specific cases of Sessions using his position as a prosecutor to intimidate and suppress African American voters, including instances of prosecuting the legal use of absentee voting.
“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,” she wrote.
Inexplicably, the letter and statement never became a part of the Congressional record. Sessions’ appointment was not approved, in large part due to other testimony that he routinely used racially insensitive language and practiced discrimination in his office. He went on to serve as Attorney General of Alabama and a United States Senator.
He was before the Senate again yesterday, this time as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for United States Attorney General. King’s letter seems as relevant as ever, considering all the recently-enacted state laws making it harder for some people to vote. Some must certainly wonder whether Sessions, 30 years later, has the “requisite judgment, competence and sensitivity to the rights guaranteed by the federal civil rights laws” to ensure equal access to the polls.
Long thought to be lost, a copy of the letter was obtained late Tuesday by the Washington Post. Sessions is up for another day of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will also hear testimony opposing the nomination from Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) — the first time in Senate history that a sitting senator will testify against another sitting senator for a Cabinet post during a confirmation — and NAACP President Cornell Brooks, who was arrested last week for leading a sit-in at Sessions’ Alabama office.
