James Eastland

James Oliver Eastland ( born November 28, 1904 in Doddsville, Sunflower County, Mississippi, † February 19, 1986 ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party. From June 30 1941 to September 28, 1941 and January 3, 1943 until his retirement from politics on December 27, 1978, he was one of the two U.S. Senators of the state of Mississippi.

Early years

James Eastland in 1904 in Doddsville as the son of a lawyer and cotton plantation owner, Woods C. Eastland († 1944) was born and his wife Alma. He was named after his father's brother, James Eastland, who was murdered in 1904, named. A year after his birth his family moved to Forest in Scott County. Here visited James Eastland, the Forest High School. After his graduation he studied law: first from 1922 to 1924 at the University of Mississippi in Oxford then from 1925 to 1926 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (Tennessee ), and finally from 1926 to 1927 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In 1927 he was admitted to the bar and then began practicing in Forest.

Political career

MP in the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi

1928, just 24 years old, Eastland House of Representatives from Mississippi ( State House of Representatives ) was chosen as the candidate of the Democratic Party. Along with Courtney C. Pace and Kelly J. Hammond belonged Eastland to the relevant supporters of the former governor of Mississippi, Theodore G. Bilbo. Bilbo, staunch advocate of White Supremacy ( " white supremacy " ) and notorious for his racist rhetoric championed in later years, after he was elected U.S. Senator, constantly the idea of ​​the entire black population of the U.S. back to Africa (Liberia) to deport:

"It is essential to the perpetuation of our Anglo-Saxon civilization did white supremacy be maintained, and to maintain our civilization there is only one solution, and did is Either by segregation within the United States, or by deportation of the Entire Negro race to its native heath, Africa. "

( "It's to keep the continuity of our Anglo-Saxon civilization decisive superiority of the white race upright, and to keep our civilization upright, there is only one solution, and that is either the racial segregation in the United States, or the deportation of the entire black race in their original area of ​​origin to Africa. " ) ( Cong. Rec, 75th Cong. , 3rd Sess. , 881 )

When in 1932 Bilbo's gubernatorial term of office expired, also Eastland initially withdrew from politics and not stepped in for re-election to the state legislature. He married, 1932, the doctor's daughter Elizabeth Coleman (see " Private " ), opened a law firm in Ruleville, a few miles from his birthplace Doddsville. At the same time he began to farm (on his father's request ) parental cotton plantation. In the following years, he modernized the farm and enlarged it from originally 2300 acres to approximately 6,000 acres ( 24 km ²). Even after he again returned later in the policy, he considered himself always first and foremost as plantation owners, which was reflected in his political views.

Senator

When Pat Harrison, one of the two senators Mississippi, died on 22 June 1941, before the end of his term, instructed the governor of Mississippi, Paul B. Johnson, perceiving the young James Eastland, the vacant post until ( early ) elections. (Johnson had initially James Eastlands father asked to fill the vacancy, but had refused. ) So Eastland was from June 30 to September 28, 1941 - for all 88 days - Senator from Mississippi. Eastland took advantage of the few weeks, however, to prevent a planned by the U.S. government price ceiling for cotton seed oil, which earned him great sympathy for the cotton producers in the South. Eastland even boasted that have swept through the prevention of price restrictions $ 50 million into the pockets of the cotton producers. In the preferred senatorial election Eastman did not happen - not to do so, he had to promise in the takeover of the Senate seat - and it was up to the regular elections in 1942 initially Wall Doxey elected Senator. However, Eastland won the following regular election in 1942 against the incumbent nunmehrigen Doxey, although this was strongly supported by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore G. Bilbo. In the next Senate elections in 1948 Eastland was confirmed again unopposed. 1954, 1960, 1966 and 1972, he was elected again and again and was one of the two senators of the state of Mississippi over the entire period from 3 January 1943 until his retirement from politics on 27 December 1978.

Eastland and the desegregation

In 1954 the next Senate elections were at, but Eastland initially did not intend to compete again. He introduced already publicly considerations tended to withdraw completely from politics, but decided ultimately help but the campaign against Lieutenant Governor Carroll Gartin contest. Just before Eastland began to campaign for his re-election, the Supreme Court of Justice issued a landmark decision regarding the racial segregation in the public schools of the United States. With the verdict in the case of Brown vs.. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, on 17 May 1954, the hitherto prevailing racial segregation in public schools was abolished. After a class action of affected parents in the state of Kansas against the then prescribed racial segregation in state ( public ) elementary schools, raised the Supreme Court in its judgment this racial segregation throughout the United States, as they are a violation of the principle of equality, as in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was given, representing. This landmark policy decision marked the end of legally sanctioned racial segregation in public schools in the United States. A year later, on 31 May 1955 was also decided by the Supreme Court that the desegregation of public schools "with all deliberate speed" ( " reasonable haste " ) must be performed. Another year later, on May 5, 1956, the Supreme Court extended the ban on racial segregation also to such schools and universities that were subsidized with public funds.

Eastland took this decision for the votes. By again and again sharply attacked the verdict and called for its cancellation, he could be sure of Mississippi, cement his name as a defender of segregation and the "white supremacy" of the votes of white voters. He defamed the court decisions as illegal, saw in her tyranny and regarded it as a Christian duty against that judgment to resist: " Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God " ( "Resistance to tyranny is the order of God"). Eastland was a member of the Methodists. In a speech he gave shortly after the court decision, Brown vs.. Board of Education held before the Senate, he made his views on racial segregation clear:

"The Southern institution of racial segregation or racial separation which the correct, self-evident truth Which Arose from the chaos and confusion of the Reconstruction period. Separation Promotes racial harmony. It permits each race to follow its own pursuits, and its own civilization. Segregation is not discrimination ... Mr. President, it is the law of nature, it is the law of God, did every race Has Both the right and the duty to perpetuate Itself. All free men have the right to associate with members of Their Own Exclusively race, free from governmental interference, If They so desire. "

( " The outmoded institution of the Southern States in terms of racial segregation was completely correct, self-evident truth that arose out of the chaos and turmoil of the period of Reconstruction. Segregation is the basis of racial harmony. Separation allows each [ individual ] race to pursue their [ own ] interests to develop their own culture. segregation is not discrimination ... Mr. President, it is a law of nature, it is given by God, that each race has the right and the duty to propagate further. All free men can for the right to avail to gather exclusively with members of their own race, if they so wish - and unmolested by government action .... " )

In a speech on August 12, 1955 held in Senatobia, Mississippi, he commented:

" On May 17, 1954, the Constitution of the United States which destroyed Because of the Supreme Court 's decision. You are not Obliged to obey the Decisions of any court Which are plainly fraudulent [ based on] sociological considerations. "

( " On May 17, 1954, the Constitution of the United States has been destroyed by the decision of the Supreme Court. Nobody is [ however ] obliged to accept any court decisions which sneaky based solely on sociological considerations. " )

During this time he became one of the most popular speakers at the meetings of the White Citizens ' Council ( WCC). On July 11, 1954 - barely a month after the above. Landmark decision of the Supreme Court - had the first group of white Americans under the leadership of Robert Patterson in Indianola, Sunflower County - just a few kilometers south of Eastlands hometown Doddsville located - come together. In other municipalities, Mississippi was quickly followed by another Council - ups and within a few months, this movement spread in all the southern states - the so-called Deep South - from. It has since become an overarching merger: the Citizens ' Council of America (CCA ). The members of this council were mostly respected, especially influential white citizens of the respective communities - plantation owners, bankers, merchants, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, members of churches and teachers - who had set itself the goal of the enforcement of the decision of the Supreme Court to prevent by all means. Unlike the members of the Ku Klux Klan, which take precedence consistently violently rejected the WCC members - at least in its official statements - the application of brute force from. The ideology and strategic objectives of the WCC, however, were largely identical to those of the Klan. The difference was "only" in the tactical approach: It took " subtle " measures against the supposed enemies: blacks, civil rights activists and other advocates of racial equality were strangled with "economic measures" They pushed out of their jobs, or prevented them were able to resume work, etc. Due to the membership structure and the " finer " approach, the WCC were therefore also called "the uptown Ku Klux Klan " ( " Ku Klux Klan of the upper town ", or translated more freely, " a Ku Klux Klan designated for the better circles " ).

Eastland denied life to ever having been a member of the White Citizens ' Council. However, through his numerous appearances and speeches at the meetings was just he, the the WCC gave a voice and his audience hammered again and again:

" There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution or the amend ment there too, did gives to Congress, the President or the Supreme Court the right or power to declare did white and colored children must attend the same schools. "

( " The Constitution of the United States and its additives nothing is written, what the Congress, the President or the Supreme Court are the right or the power to declare that white and colored children should go to the same school. " )

Signatories of the "Southern Manifesto"

1956 Eastland was one of the 96 signatories of the so-called "Southern Manifesto" ( "Manifesto of the Southern States " of 12 March 1956). With this " manifesto " attempted a total of 96 politicians (19 senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives ) from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, the above -mentioned decisions of the U.S. Supreme Courts overturn again. Eastland and the other signatories of the "Southern Manifesto" were not able to accept this development.

Trailer McCarthy

1953 Eastland was appointed Chairman of the Judiciary Committee 's Internal Security Subcommittee ( Sub - Committee on Homeland Security of the Senate Judiciary Committee ) ( SISS ). Eastlands predecessor in this office had been Senator Pat McCarran. McCarran was one of the main initiators of the Internal Security Act (Act on Internal Security ) (also known as the McCarran Act ) of 1950 and (also known as the McCarran -Walter Act) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. As a result of these laws began several sub - committees of the Congress past and private lives of government officials and people from other walks of life on their loyalty or suspected / assumed spying out to check. The Internal Security Subcommittee formed equal in 1950 was one of them. McCarran was the very first Chairman ( and so this sub - committee was also known as the McCarran Committee). Due to the changes of the foreign policy landscape in the early phase of the so-called Cold War and the resulting analog concomitant domestic political changes in the U.S., mainly due to the increasing influence of Joseph McCarthy, learned of this sub - committee of the Senate in a steady expansion in which it operates.

McCarthy had been the (sub - committee of the Senate Permanent Investigations ) instrumentalized as Chairman of Senate Committee on Government Operations (GOC ), the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for his baiting. As a result, he made - in unison with Eastland - its influence on the sub - committee of the Senate Judiciary Committee asserted, and so also developed this developed into a kind of Senate's version of the Committee on Un-American Activities ( House Committee on Un-American Activities) of the house of Representatives. In the series were, inter alia, the finances of the Foreign Affairs and Defense, allegedly communist inked decisions of the Supreme Court, the U.S. foreign policy in Asia, Radio, Television, large parts of the entertainment industry, newspapers ( like the New York Times), youth groups, trade unions, educational organizations, the defense industry, civil rights groups, student organizations - ultimately all somewhere suspected Soviet actions within the United States - examined. In almost all cases it was caused drawn by the hair, baseless insinuations. Hardly a convinced communist was discovered, but many Investigated lost work and income. Because even a completely innocent man was stigmatized by the dishonorable circumstances of the investigation.

In 1956, Eastland was able to enlarge its influence again decisively when he became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This committee controlled about 60 percent of all adopted by the Senate; above all it was him so possible - as " ex officio member" - to affect all sub-committees.

In his capacity as Chairman of the SISS Eastland was inter alia some journalists from the New York Times summon before his committee. The NYT had demanded in numerous titles stories that (also) the decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court in the case Brown vs.. Board of Education have to accept and must take measures to racial equality. In an article published on January 5, 1956 article, the NYT wrote:

"Our faith is strong did long after Senator Eastland and his present subcommittee are gone, long after segregation Has lost its final battle in the South, long after all that what known as McCarthyism is a dim, unwelcome memory, long after the load Congressional committee Has learned did it can not tamper successfully with a free press, The New York Times will be speaking for ( Those ) who make it, and only for ( Those ) who make it, and speaking, without fear or favor, the truth as it sees it. "

"We are convinced that a long time after Senator Eastland and his current sub - committee already belong to the past, a long time after the racial segregation in the southern states lost their last battle, long after all the things under the name McCarthy era is known, only a weak, unwanted memories, long after even the last congressional committee understands that it is perfectly hopeless, herumzufrisieren free Press, who will speak for those NYT ( still ) which make up this newspaper and exclusively for those who make this newspaper. And it is - fearlessly and objectively - ( continue to) speak the truth. "

Private

James Eastland married in 1932, the doctor's daughter Elizabeth Coleman. The marriage produced four children: the son E. Woods ( Eastland, born January 7, 1945), and the three daughters Nell (married Amos ), Anne (married Howdeshell ) and Sue (married Terney ).