Editing James Eastland (section)

== Political positions ==

===Opposition to civil rights===
Eastland opposed integration and the [[civil rights movement]]. During [[World War II]], Eastland vocally opposed and denigrated the service of African American soldiers in the war. He incited protests and comparisons to [[Nazism|Hitlerism]] following a vitriolic speech on the floor of the Senate in July 1945, in which he complained that the Negro soldier was physically, morally, and mentally incapable of serving in combat.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Young III |first=John H. |date=7 July 1945 |title=Eastland Insults 13,000,000 Citizens |work=[[Pittsburgh Courier]]}} Retrieved 18 March 2019.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smadbeck |first=Warren |date=14 July 1945 |title=Hitlerism and Eastland |work=[[New York Amsterdam News]]}} Retrieved 18 March 2019.</ref>{{sfn|Asch|pages=116–117}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Klinkner |first1=Philip A. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226443416 |title=The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America |last2=Smith |first2=Rogers M. |date=April 2002 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226443416 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226443416/page/168 168] |quote=Eastland. |url-access=registration}}</ref> Eastland claimed that the "boys from the South were fighting to maintain white supremacy".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blount |first=George W. |date=1 April 1944 |title=Blount - Speaks Softly |work=[[New Journal and Guide]] |publisher=Norfolk Journal and Guide}} Retrieved 18 March 2019.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Congress |first=United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpkCbSHnMmQC&q=eastland+%22Who+has+won+this+war |title=Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress |date=1945 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref> In 1944 Eastland said:<blockquote>I have no prejudice in my heart, but the white race is the [[superior race]] and the [[Negro]] race an [[inferior race]] and the races must be kept separate by law.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Curt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZLlPAAAAYAAJ&q=%22I+have+no+prejudice+in+my+heart,+but+the+white+race+is+the+superior+race+and+the+Negro+race+an+inferior+race+and+the+races+must+be+kept+separate.%22 |title=500 Years of Obscene — and Counting |publisher=December Press |year=1997 |isbn=9780913204344 |pages=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=John Harold |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sr4KAAAAIAAJ&q=I+have+no+prejudice+in+my+heart,+but+the+white+race+is+the+superior+race+and+the+Negro+race+an+inferior+race+and+the+races+must+be+kept+separate+by+law |title=Negro Digest |date=1944 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |pages=72}}</ref></blockquote>The same year, he protested against ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'', which banned [[white primaries]]:{{blockquote|This decision reveals an alarming tendency to destroy the sovereignty of the states. Our supreme court is usurping the legislative function, and Congress may yet prove the last citadel of constitutional government.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOAKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Our+Supreme+Court+is+usurping+the+legislative+function,+and+Congress+may+yet+prove+the+last+citadel+of+constitutional+government.+%22 |title=Race Relations: A Monthly Summary of Events and Trends |date=1943 |publisher=Negro University Press |pages=141}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 4, 1944 |title=Dixie Members Of Congress Bitterly Hit Court Ruling |page=4 |work=The Greenville News |agency=United Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12135575/the_greenville_news/ |access-date=June 22, 2019}}</ref>}}As a member of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]], Eastland would alongside fellow southerners [[Olin D. Johnston]] of [[list of United States senators from South Carolina|South Carolina]] and [[Harley M. Kilgore]] of [[list of United States senators from West Virginia|West Virginia]] be one of three senators to report negatively on [[Earl Warren]] when [[list of federal judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Eisenhower]] nominated him to [[Supreme Court of the United States|the Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Vote Is 12 to 3: Senate Unit Backs Warren Nomination|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|location=[[Washington, D.C.|Washington, District of Columbia]]|date=February 25, 1954|page=1}}</ref> He later was one of eleven senators to vote against [[John Marshall Harlan II]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0840019|title= NOMINATION OF JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN AS ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT. CONFIRMED|publisher=voteview.com}}</ref> and one of seventeen to vote against [[Potter Stewart]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0860058|title= NOMINATION OF POTTER STEWART AS ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT.|publisher=voteview.com}}</ref> When the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] issued its decision in the landmark case ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, Eastland, like the majority of Southern Democrats, denounced it. In a speech given in [[Senatobia, Mississippi]] on August 12, 1955, he announced:{{blockquote|On May 17, 1954, the [[United States Constitution|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 sociological considerations.<ref>''Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965'', by Juan Williams, Viking Penguin, January 1, 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-670-81412-1}}, p. 38.</ref>}}

Eastland would become actively involved with the [[White Citizens' Council]], an organization which boasted 60,000 members across the South and was called "the new Klan that enforces thought control by economic pressures."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Desmond |first=James |date=7 January 1956 |title=New Klan Fosters Anti-Negro Laws! |work=Pittsburgh Courier}} Retrieved 18 March 2019.</ref> Eastland testified to the Senate ten days after the ''Brown'' decision:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simkin |first=John |date=September 1997 |title=James Eastland |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/USAeastland.htm |access-date=18 August 2017 |publisher=[[Spartacus Educational]]}}</ref>{{blockquote|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.}}

On July 24, 1957, interviewed by [[Mike Wallace]] on the occasion of the passing of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]], Eastland said segregation was wanted by both races:<blockquote>As I said, we have more Nigra professional men, more businessmen, we have substantial Nigra cotton planters. In fact, they have made more progress in the South than in the North. The master-servant relationship today is largely a Northern product.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CONTENTdm |url=https://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15878coll90/id/22/rec/61 |access-date=2019-06-22 |website=hrc.contentdm.oclc.org}}</ref></blockquote>In the 1960s, Eastland belonged to the Genetics Committee of the [[Pioneer Fund]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lichtenstein |first=Grace |date=1977-12-11 |title=Fund Backs Controversial Study of 'Racial Betterment' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/11/archives/fund-backs-controversial-study-of-racial-betterment-some-others-who.html |access-date=2019-07-16 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Information on Wycliffe Draper's anti-Negro committees, March 13, 1960 |url=http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b150-i362 |access-date=2019-07-16 |website=credo.library.umass.edu}}</ref> Civil rights workers [[Mickey Schwerner]], [[James Chaney]], and [[Andrew Goodman (activist)|Andrew Goodman]] [[Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner|went missing]] in Mississippi on June 21, 1964, during the [[Freedom Summer]] efforts to register African American voters. Eastland tried to convince President [[Lyndon Johnson]] that the incident was a hoax and there was no [[Ku Klux Klan]] in the state. He suggested that the three had gone to [[Chicago]]:<ref>{{Cite web |title=WhiteHouseTapes.org :: The secret White House tapes and recordings of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower<!-- Bot generated title --> |url=http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/miss_burning/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513101119/http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/miss_burning/ |archive-date=2009-05-13 |access-date=2007-02-23}}</ref>

{{blockquote|
'''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&nbsp;... I don't believe there's three missing.

'''Johnson''': We've got their parents down here.

'''Eastland''': I believe it's a publicity stunt ...}}

Johnson once said:

{{blockquote|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 by the Communists.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schlesinger |first=Arthur M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xqrU5lnD7AC&q=%22right+in+the+middle+of+the+worst+Mississippi+flood+ever+known%22&pg=PA234 |title=Robert Kennedy and His Times |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books |year=2002 |isbn=0-618-21928-5 |page=234}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}

[[File:LBJ with Eastland.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Senator Eastland with President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1968.]]

Eastland, like most of his Southern colleagues, opposed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], which prohibited segregation of public places and facilities. Its passage caused many Mississippi Democrats to support [[Barry Goldwater]]'s presidential bid [[1964 United States presidential election|that year]], but Eastland did not publicly oppose the election of Johnson. Four years earlier he had quietly supported [[John F. Kennedy]]'s presidential campaign, but [[United States presidential election in Mississippi, 1960|Mississippi]] voted that year for unpledged electors. Although Republican Senator Goldwater was strongly defeated by incumbent Johnson, he carried [[United States presidential election in Mississippi, 1964|Mississippi]] with 87.14 percent of the popular vote, which constitutes the best-ever Republican showing in any state since the founding of that party.<ref>Thomas, G. Scott; ''The Pursuit of the White House: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics and History'', p. 403 {{ISBN|0313257957}}</ref> In 1964, almost all blacks in Mississippi remained excluded from voting, thus Goldwater's mammoth win essentially constituted the vote of the white population.

Eastland was often at odds with Johnson's policy on civil rights, but they retained a close friendship based on long years together in the Senate. Johnson often sought Eastland's support and guidance on other issues, such as the nomination of [[Abe Fortas]] in 1968 as [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. The [[Solid South]] opposed him.<ref name="abe fortas">{{Cite book |last=Laura Kalman |url=https://archive.org/details/abefortasbiograp00kalm |title=Abe Fortas |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=1990 |isbn=9780300046694 |access-date=2008-10-20 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the 1950s, Johnson was one of three senators from the South who did not sign the [[Southern Manifesto]] of resistance to ''Brown v. Board of Education'', but Eastland and most [[Southern senators]] did, vowing resistance to school integration.

Eastland lobbied for the appointment of his friend [[William Harold Cox|Harold Cox]] to a federal judgeship, promising John F. Kennedy, who planned to appoint [[Thurgood Marshall]] to the United States Court of Appeals, that he would permit Marshall's confirmation to go forward if Cox was also appointed to the bench.<ref name="Minor2016">{{cite news |last=Minor |first=Bill |date=September 22, 2016 |title=Minor: Eastland held sway over Miss. politics for decades |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2016/09/22/minor-eastland-held-sway-over-miss-politics-decades/90843502/ |work=[[The Clarion-Ledger]] |location=Jackson, MS}}</ref> This was in keeping with Kennedy's approach to handling Eastland; not wanting to upset the powerful chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Judiciary Committee]], Kennedy generally acceded to Eastland's requests on judicial appointments in Mississippi, which resulted in white segregationists dominating the state's federal courts.<ref name="Minor2016"/> Though Eastland agreed to allow Marshall's nomination to proceed, he and senators [[Robert Byrd]], [[John Little McClellan|John McClellan]], [[Olin D. Johnston]], [[Sam Ervin]], and [[Strom Thurmond]], made unsuccessful attempts to block Marshall's confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Sherman |first=Mark |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=March 19, 2022 |title=Thurgood Marshall, 1st Black justice, faced down Senate critics |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2022/03/19/thurgood-marshall-1st-black-justice-faced-down-senate-critics/ |work=[[Portland Press Herald]] |location=Portland, ME}}</ref>

In early 1969, Eastland went to [[Rhodesia]] and came back praising the White minority regime for the "racial harmony" supposedly lacking from America.{{sfn|Asch|pages=265–266}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borstelmann |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWqjxBEPPlEC&q=eastland+rhodesia&pg=PA198 |title=The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena |date=2009-06-30 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674028548 |pages=198–199}}</ref> According to [[Ken Flower]], head of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Operation, Eastland once complained about the fact a hostel of [[Salisbury (Rhodesia)|Salisbury]] was integrated, stating "You've inserted the thin end of the wedge by allowing stinking niggers into such a fine hotel".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horne |first=Gerald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyXTDAAAQBAJ&q=%22You've+inserted+the+thin+end+of+the+wedge+by+allowing+stinking+niggers+into+such+a+fine+hotel%22&pg=PT148 |title=From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980 |date=2015-12-01 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=9781469625591}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Michel |first=Eddie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDVlDwAAQBAJ&q=%22You've+inserted+the+thin+end+of+the+wedge+by+allowing+stinking+niggers+into+such+a+fine+hotel%22&pg=PA204 |title=The White House and White Africa: Presidential Policy Toward Rhodesia During the UDI Era, 1965-1979 |date=2018-07-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780429843297 |pages=204}}</ref> When he considered running for reelection in 1978, Eastland sought black support from [[Aaron Henry (politician)|Aaron Henry]], civil rights leader and president of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]. Henry told Eastland that it would be difficult for him to earn the support of black voters given his "master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks."<ref name="The New York Times" /> Eastland decided not to seek re-election. Partly because of the independent candidacy of [[Charles Evers]] siphoning off votes from the Democratic nominee, [[Maurice Dantin]], Republican [[Mississippi's 4th congressional district|4th District]] Representative [[Thad Cochran]] won the race to succeed Eastland. Eastland resigned the day after [[Christmas]], enabling the governor to appoint Cochran to complete the last few days of Eastland's term, which gave Cochran a seniority advantage over other senators elected in 1978. After his retirement, Eastland remained friends with Aaron Henry and sent contributions to the NAACP,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Joe Atkins |date=6 November 2016 |title=Book review: 'Big Jim Eastland' |work=[[Hattiesburg American]] |url=https://eu.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/life/books/2016/11/06/book-review-big-jim-eastland/93100844/ |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190620070108/https://eu.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/life/books/2016/11/06/book-review-big-jim-eastland/93100844/ |archive-date=20 June 2019 |quote=Eastland did soften somewhat in his later years, even becoming friends with civil rights leader Aaron Henry}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ashton Pittman |date=1 May 2019 |title=Joe Biden and the Dixiecrats Who Helped His Career |work=[[Jackson Free Press]] |url=http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/may/01/joe-biden-and-dixiecrats-who-helped-his-career/ |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501173045/http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/may/01/joe-biden-and-dixiecrats-who-helped-his-career/ |archive-date=1 May 2019 |quote=Eastland sent a $500 check to the Mississippi NAACP, an organization he had once railed against, and a letter to its chairman, Aaron Henry, with whom he had struck a friendship.}}</ref> but he said that he "didn't regret a thing" in his public career.

=== Anti-Semitism ===
In 1968, after opposing the nomination of [[Abe Fortas]] to Chief Justice, Eastland, as chair of the Judiciary committee, said "After [Thurgood] Marshall, I could not go back to Mississippi if a Jewish chief justice swore in the next president."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kalman |first1=Laura |title=The Long Reach of the Sixties |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199958221 |pages=145 |edition=1st}}</ref> In 1977, Eastland "sneer(ed) openly at Senator [[Jacob Javits]], saying, 'I don't like you or your kind,' because Javits was Jewish."<ref>Caro, Robert A. ''[[The Years of Lyndon Johnson]]: [[Master of the Senate]].''  (New York: Random House, 2002) p. 103, as cited in Soffer, Jonathan. ''Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City''. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012). ISBN 978-0-231-15032-3, pp. 81-82.</ref>

===Anticommunism===
Eastland served on a subcommittee in the 1950s investigating the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] in the United States. As chairman of the [[United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security|Internal Security Subcommittee]], he [[subpoena]]ed some employees of ''[[The New York Times]]'' to testify about their activities. The paper was taking a strong position on its editorial page that Mississippi should adhere to the ''Brown'' decision, and claimed that Eastland was persecuting them on that account.  The ''Times'' said in its January 5, 1956 editorial:
{{blockquote|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 the men who make it, and only for the men who make it, and speaking, without fear or favor, the truth as it sees it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Times) |first=News Documents (The New York |title=The Voice of a Free Press |url=https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1391914-the-voice-of-a-free-press.html |access-date=2019-06-22 |website=www.documentcloud.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |date=2015-01-08 |title=1956 {{!}} 'The Voice of a Free Press' |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/01/08/1956-the-voice-of-a-free-press/ |access-date=2019-06-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>}}

Eastland subsequently allowed the subcommittee to become dormant as communist fears receded.

===Marijuana===
In 1974, Eastland led congressional subcommittee hearings into [[marijuana]], the report on which concluded:

{{blockquote|... five years of research has provided strong evidence  that, if corroborated, would suggest that marijuana in various forms is far more hazardous than originally suspected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate |url=https://archive.org/stream/marihuanahashish00unit#page/n11/ |title=Marihuana-Hashish Epidemic and its Impact on United States Security |date=1974 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |location=Washington, DC |page=ix}}</ref>}}