| James Oliver Eastland | |
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In office January 3, 1943 – December 27, 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Wall Doxey |
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| Succeeded by | Thad Cochran |
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In office June 30, 1941 – September 28, 1941 |
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| Preceded by | Pat Harrison |
| Succeeded by | Wall Doxey |
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In office July 28, 1972 – December 27, 1978 |
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| Deputy | Hubert Humphrey (1977-1978) |
| Preceded by | Allen J. Ellender |
| Succeeded by | Warren G. Magnuson |
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In office 1956 – 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Harley M. Kilgore |
| Succeeded by | Ted Kennedy |
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| Born | November 28, 1904 Doddsville, Mississippi |
| Died | February 19, 1986 (aged 81) Doddsville, Mississippi |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Coleman |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | University of
Mississippi Vanderbilt University University of Alabama |
| Profession | Cotton planter |
| Religion | Methodist |
James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 – February 19, 1986) was an American politician from Mississippi who briefly served in the United States Senate as a Democrat 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 36 years). Eastland was also the most senior member of the Senate at the time of his resignation in 1978.
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Eastland was born in Doddsville, the son of Woods Caperton Eastland, a cotton planter, and Alma Teresa (Austin) Eastland. 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.
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 Congressman 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. In those days, winning the Democratic nomination was tantamount to election in Mississippi, and Eastland returned to the Senate on January 3, 1943.
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.
He was re-elected five times, facing substantive Republican opposition only twice. In 1966, 4th District Congressman Prentiss Walker, the first Republican to represent Mississippi at the federal level since Reconstruction, ran against him. Walker ran well to Eastland's right, accusing him of not doing enough to keep integration-friendly judges from being confirmed by the Senate. As is often the case when a one-term congressman runs against a popular incumbent senator, Walker was soundly 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.
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, which he held until his retirement.
During his last Senate term, he served as President pro tempore of the Senate since he was the longest-serving Democrat in the Senate.
Eastland is best known for his strong support of White Supremacy and for his bitter opposition of the American Civil Rights Movement.
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 Democrats, 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 slogan held by white southerners engaged in the Massive Resistance movement (e.g., White Citizens' Council, John Birch Society).
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]
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 by the Communists."[2]
Typifying Eastland's approach to racial issues, 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 liberal Republican Senator Jacob Javits of New York, a Jew, 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 bitterly opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 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 (LBJ). Although Goldwater was heavily defeated by incumbent Lyndon Johnson, he carried Mississippi with 87% of the popular vote (his best showing in any state[3]) due to his opposition to federal civil rights legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act.
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, such as the failed Chief Justice nomination of Abe Fortas in 1969.[4] 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 popular opinion, 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 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, i.e., 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 re-election in 1978. Due in part to the independent candidacy of Charles Evers 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.
During the 1950s, Eastland was among many legislators who used an exaggerated threat of Communism for his own political agenda. Eastland served on a subcommittee investigating the Communist Party. As chairman of the Internal Security Subcommittee, he subpoenaed 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:
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 Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and Phil Hart, even though they disagreed on many issues. Following LBJ's retirement from the White House, Eastland frequently visited Johnson at his Texas ranch.
Eastland died on February 19, 1986. The law library at Ole Miss is named after Eastland. This has caused 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.
James Eastland was, as of 2009, 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 1970s, 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.
During these periods Eastland was also second in the presidential line of succession, being preceded just by Speaker of the House Carl Albert.
| United States Senate | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Allen J. Ellender |
President
pro tempore of the United States Senate 1972–1978 |
Succeeded by Warren G. Magnuson |
| Preceded by Harley M. Kilgore |
Chairman of Senate
Judiciary Committee 1956–1978 |
Succeeded by Edward Kennedy |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by George Aiken |
Dean of the United States
Senate January 3, 1975 – November 28, 1977 with John L. McClellan |
Succeeded by Himself |
| Preceded by Himself and John L. McClellan |
Dean of the United States
Senate November 28, 1977 – January 3, 1979 |
Succeeded by Warren G. Magnuson |
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James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 – February 19, 1986) was the United States Senator from Mississippi in 1941 and from 1943 to 1978. A Democrat, he served as President pro tempore of the Senate (1972-1978) and Chairman on the Judiciary (1956-1978). He is best know as a member of southern conservative wing of the party, favored racial segregation.
   | Transcript, James O. Eastland Oral History Interview I - James O. Eastland Oral History: LBJ Library |
| | Finding-Aid for the James O. Eastland Collection (MUM00117) - Finding aid for the James O. Eastland Collection. |
| | THE AUTHENTIC VOICE. Time Magazine article of James Oliver Eastland, 1956-03-26 - The Authentic Voice - TIME |
| | Biography of William Harold Cox - Biography of Judge William Harold Cox |
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