James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 –
February 19, 1986) was an American politician from Mississippi who served in the
United States Senate as a Democrat briefly in 1941 and again from 1943 until his resignation December 27, 1978. From 1947 to 1978, he served alongside John Stennis, also a Democrat. Eastland and Stennis were the second longest-serving Senate duo in
American history, behind only Strom Thurmond and Fritz
Hollings of South Carolina (who served together for 38 years).
Early life
Eastland was born in Doddsville, the son of a cotton planter. In 1905 he
moved with his parents to Forest where he attended public schools. A lawyer in rural
Mississippi, he served one term in the state House of Representatives from 1928 to 1932. In the 1930s, he took over the family's
Sunflower County plantation, which eventually grew to nearly 6,000 acres
(24 km²). Even after entering politics, he considered himself first and foremost a cotton planter.
Political career
Eastland was first appointed to the Senate in 1941 following the death of Senator Pat
Harrison, but did not run in the special election for the seat later in the year; it was won by 2nd District
Representative Wall Doxey. In 1942, Eastland was one of three candidates who challenged Doxey
for a full term. Even though Doxey had the support of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mississippi's senior U.S. Senator Theodore Bilbo, Eastland defeated him in the Democratic primary, which at that time was tantamount to
election in Mississippi.
Eastland established a working relationship with FDR, as he did with presidents of both parties during his tenure in the
Senate. As a result he was able to provide federal largess for Mississippi (including the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and
federal relief after Hurricane Camille) throughout his career. In 1960, Eastland supported Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy
and, in 1964, he appeared at events in support of Lyndon B. Johnson. He was reelected five times, facing substantive
Republican opposition only twice.
In 1966, 4th District Representative Prentiss Walker who was elected as a
Goldwaterite and served only two years as the only Republican to represent Mississippi in Congress since Reconstruction, ran
against him. As is often the case when a one-term, one-issue representative runs against a popular incumbent senator, Walker was
handidly defeated.
In 1972, Eastland was reelected with 58% of the vote in his "closest" contest ever. His Republican opponent, Gil Carmichael,
might have been aided by President Richard Nixon's landslide reelection in 49 states,
including 78% of Mississippi's popular vote. However, Nixon worked "under the table" to support Eastland who was a long-time
personal friend and supporter. Nixon and other Republicans provided little support for Carmichael to avoid alienating
conservative Southern Democrats. Eastland recognized that Nixon would handily carry Mississippi, and did not endorse the national
Democratic candidate, George McGovern. Four years later, Eastland supported the candidacy of fellow Southern Democrat Jimmy
Carter.
Views on civil rights, race
Like most southern politicians of his era, Eastland's position reflected that of his voting constituents. He was known for his
opposition to the American Civil Rights Movement and
support for states' rights and segregationism.
When the Supreme Court issued its decision in the landmark case
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas 347 US 483 (1954), Eastland, like most southern politicians, denounced it. In a speech given in
Senatobia, Mississippi on August 12,
1955, he said: "On May 17, 1954, the
Constitution of the United States was destroyed because of the Supreme
Court's decision. You are not obliged to obey the decisions of any court which are plainly fraudulent [and based on] sociological
considerations."
Moreover, Eastland called Brown illegal and proclaimed that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God," a position held at
the time by most white southerners.
Eastland did not mince words when it came to his feelings about the races mingling. He testified to the Senate 10 days after
the Brown decision came down: “The Southern institution of racial segregation or racial separation was 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, that every race has both the right and the duty to perpetuate itself. All free men have the right
to associate exclusively with members of their own race, free from governmental interference, if they so desire.”
When three civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman went missing in Mississippi on
June 21, 1964, he reportedly told President Lyndon Johnson that the incident was a hoax and there was no Ku Klux
Klan in the state, surmising that the three had gone to Chicago
[1]:
President Johnson: Jim, we’ve got three kids missing down there. What can I do about it?
- Eastland: Well, I don’t know. I don’t believe there’s . . . I don’t believe there’s three missing.
President Johnson: We’ve got their parents down here.
- Eastland: I believe it’s a publicity stunt. . . .
(Johnson once said that, "Jim Eastland could be standing right in the middle of the worst Mississippi flood ever known, and
he'd say 'The niggers caused it, helped out some by the Communists.")
Despite this position, Eastland was a behind-the-scenes player in efforts to defuse potential violence during the desegration
of the University of Mississippi in 1962 and in protecting the safety of Freedom Riders who traveled through Mississippi.
Typifying Eastland's approach to racial issues, the Freedom Riders were arrested on arrival in Mississippi.
Eastland also served as a director of the Pioneer Fund, a foundation dedicated to
"improving the race." (Eastland would some years later stare coldly down a committee table at Senator Jacob Javits of New York, who was Jewish
and say, "I don't like you — or your kind.") Eastland, along with Senators Robert Byrd,
John McClellan, Olin D. Johnston,
Sam Ervin and Strom Thurmond, made unsuccessful
attempts to block Thurgood Marshall's confirmation to the Federal Court of Appeals and
the Supreme Court.
Given Eastland's reputation as a segregationist, observers sometimes attribute racist anecdotes or statements to him without
substantiation. Contrary to oft-published accounts, for example, Eastland and Judge Harold Cox, a notoriously racist judge, were
not college roommates; they were friends, but Cox was in law school at the University of Mississippi while Eastland was an
undergraduate (Eastland never graduated from college and did not attend law school).
Other widely-repeated but inaccurate rumors attributed offensive statements to Eastland during this period. Often, racist
statements were attributed to Eastland, even though they may have been made by other speakers. Although Eastland was a staunch
segregationist he refrained from the most extreme rhetoric that characterized other civil rights opponents.
Eastland was appointed as chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee in 1956. Under the Senate's seniority rules, he was next in line for the chairmanship and there was no
significant effort to deny him the post. He was chairman until his retirement. Ironically, his committee considered the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Eastland bitterly opposed. Its passage caused
many Mississippi Democrats to openly support Barry Goldwater's presidential bid that
year, but Eastland did not publicly oppose the election of Lyndon Johnson. Although Goldwater was heavily defeated by incumbent
Lyndon Johnson, he carried Mississippi with 87% of the popular vote (his best showing in any state [2]) due to his opposition to federal civil rights legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Eastland was often at odds with Johnson's policy on civil rights, but their friendship remained close and LBJ often sought
Eastland's support and guidance on other issues. In the 1950s, Johnson was one of three senators from the South who didn't sign
the Southern Manifesto, as did Eastland and most southern senators.
Contrary to many rumors, Eastland did not use the appointment of Harold Cox to a federal judgeship as leverage against
John F. Kennedy's appointment of Thurgood Marshall to a federal judgeship. Cox was nominated by
Kennedy more than a year before Marshall even came up for consideration, and his nomination resulted from a personal conversation
between Cox and Kennedy. The president, not wanting to upset the powerful chairman of the Judiciary Committee, generally acceded
to Eastland's requests on judicial confirmations in Mississippi — Eastland's power, not his racism, was the determining
factor.
During his last Senate term, he served as president pro
tempore of the Senate since he was the longest-serving Democrat in the Senate.
Anti-communist efforts
James Eastland
During the 1950s, Eastland was among many legislators who recognized the dangers of Communism. Some of his positions were
similar to those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Eastland served on a subcommittee
investigating the Communist Party. As chairman of the Internal Security
Subcommittee, he subpoenaed a some employees of The New York Times, which was
at the time taking a strong position on its editorial page that Mississippi should adhere to the Brown decision. The Times
countered in its January 5, 1956 editorial:
- "Our faith is strong that 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 was known as McCarthyism is a dim, unwelcome memory, long after the last Congressional committee has learned that it
cannot 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."
Later years
In his last years in the Senate, Eastland was recognized by most senators as one who knew how to wield the legislative powers
he had accumulated. Many senators, including liberals who opposed many of his conservative positions acknowledged the fairness
with which he chaired the Judiciary Committee, sharing staff and authority that other chairmen had held for themselves. He
maintained personal ties with stalwart liberal Democrats such as Edward Kennedy, Joe Biden and Phil Hart, even though they
disagreed on many issues.
During his later years, he avoided associating himself with racist stands in the face of increasing black political power in
Mississippi. In fact, during this period Eastland hired black Mississippians to serve on the staff of the Judiciary Committee.
Eastland noted to aides that his earlier position on race was due primarily to the political realities of the times, ie, as a
major political figure in a southern state in the 1950s and 1960s. He considered running for reelection in 1978, and sought to
win black support. He won the support of civil rights leader and NAACP president Aaron Henry, but he ultimately decided not to
seek reelection in 1978. Due in part to an independent black candidate siphoning off votes from the Democratic candidate,
Republican 4th District Representative Thad Cochran won the race to succeed him. Eastland
resigned two days after Christmas, giving Cochran a leg up in seniority. After his retirement, he remained friends with Aaron
Henry and sent contributions to the NAACP, but he publicly stated that he "didn't regret a thing" in his public career. He died
on February 19, 1986.
The law library at Ole Miss is named after Eastland. This has caused a some controversy in Mississippi given Eastland's
earlier racist positions, but the University benefited financially from Eastland's many friends and supporters, as it has done
from other political figures of Eastland's era.
Twice as Senate President
James Eastland was, as of 2007, the last President pro tempore who served as the permanent Senate President during a vacancy
of the Vice Presidency. He actually did so twice during the tumultuous 1970's, first in 1973 between Spiro Agnew's resignation and the swearing in of Gerald Ford as Vice
President, and then one year later when Ford became President and Nelson Rockefeller
was sworn in as Vice President.
Further reading
- Chris Myers Asch, “Reconstruction Revisited: James O. Eastland, the Fair Employment Practices Committee, and the
Reconstruction of Germany, 1945–1946,” Journal of Mississippi History (Spring 2005)
- Chris Myers Asch, "No Compromise: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer," (Ph.D. dissertation,
University of North Carolina, 2005)
- Transcript, James O. Eastland Oral History Interview I, 2/19/71, by Joe B. Frantz, Internet Copy, LBJ Library.
Accessed April 3, 2005.
- Finding-Aid for the James O. Eastland Collection (MUM00117) from the University of Mississippi
Library. Accessed August 17, 2006.
- A rhetorical analysis of Senator James O. Eastland's speeches, 1954–1959 by Patricia Webb Robinson.
- Menace of subversive activity by James Oliver Eastland. Publisher: Congressional Record (1966).
- Congressional
biography
Preceded by
Pat Harrison |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Mississippi
June 30, 1941 – September
28, 1941
Served alongside: Theodore G. Bilbo |
Succeeded by
Wall Doxey |
Preceded by
Wall Doxey |
United States Senator (Class 2) from Mississippi
January 3, 1943 – December
27, 1978
Served alongside: Theodore G. Bilbo, John
C. Stennis |
Succeeded by
Thad Cochran |
Preceded by
Allen J. Ellender
Louisiana |
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
1972–1978 |
Succeeded by
Warren G. Magnuson
Washington |
Preceded by
Spiro Agnew
Vice President of the United States |
President of the United
States Senate
October 10, 1973 – December
6, 1973 |
Succeeded by
Gerald Ford
Vice President of the United States |
Preceded by
Gerald Ford
Vice President of the United States |
President of the United
States Senate
August 9, 1974 – December
19, 1974 |
Succeeded by
Nelson Rockefeller
Vice President of the United States |
Preceded by
Harley M. Kilgore
West Virginia |
Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee
1956–1978 |
Succeeded by
Edward Kennedy
Massachusetts |
Preceded by
George Aiken
Vermont |
Dean of the United
States Senate
January 3, 1975 – November
28, 1977
with John L. McClellan
Arkansas |
Succeeded by
Himself |
Preceded by
Himself and
John L. McClellan
Arkansas |
Dean of the United
States Senate
November 28, 1977 – January
3, 1979 |
Succeeded by
Warren G. Magnuson
Washington |
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