I wonder why Jeff Sessions was mad at the NAACP in 1986
The Washington Post has a piece out where they published some of the transcripts from the 1986 Senate confirmation hearing of one Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. When it came to a vote, Sessions was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate for being too racist to be a federal judge.
This is all news again, of course, because Trump picked Sessions, now a U.S. Senator from Alabama, to be his attorney general.
One transcript in particular stuck out, where Sessions explains his response to being accused of saying that the “National Council of Churches, the NAACP, SCLC, and PUSH are un-American organizations with antitraditional American values.”
From the piece:
Sessions later said that he believed the NAACP and ACLU lose support when they “involved themselves in promoting un-American positions … particularly foreign policy issues.” Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), one of the most vocal critics of Sessions throughout the hearing, asked Sessions: “Wait a minute. What foreign policy matters are you talking about?”
Sessions answered: “Oh, the sanctuary movement and Sandinistas, you know.”
After this, the piece moves on to testimony from former U.S. Attorney Thomas Figures where Figures, probably rightly, said that Sessions’ distaste for the NAACP and other civil rights organizations wasn’t just due to their foreign policy stances. But it’s worth mentioning that all of these groups had something in common in the 1980s: they were opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa.
From an August 13, 1985 Los Angeles Times story:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Paul Newman, Coretta Scott King and many of the most prominent figures in the U.S. civil rights movement proclaimed Monday to be a national day of mourning for blacks in South Africa and led 5,500 marchers in a mock funeral for those killed in anti-apartheid violence in that country.
Just as funerals have become the rallying point for black protest in South Africa, so too was the symbolic funeral procession down Constitution Avenue a showcase for some of the most forceful voices of U.S. protest against apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation.
[…]
Others who played a visible role in the march included Georgia state Sen. Julian Bond, Father Robert Drinan of Georgetown University, Judy Goldsmith, president of the National Organization for Women, NAACP Director Benjamin Hooks and congressional delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.).
The organizers of the march also have kept up long-running protests at the South African Embassy, where daily arrests are made, including eight Monday, police said.
I admittedly don’t know if the NAACP or other civil rights organizations ever supported the Sandinistas/opposed Reagan’s policy, and it’s possible that if they did, this — as well as their anti-xenophobic immigration position — angered Sessions. But when it comes to Reagan-era foreign policy, these organizations were far more well-known for their opposition to apartheid. From a 1988 Washington Post story:
They arrived at the embassy on Massachusetts Avenue NW a sweaty but enthusiastic mass chanting, in unison, “Free South Africa!” Their chants reached a fever pitch as NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks and Board Chairman William F. Gibson helped raise the coffin for all to see.
“For our black brothers and sisters in South Africa, we are here today to send a message to {President} P.W. Botha.” Gibson yelled through a bullhorn. “We are here to send a message to {Foreign Minister Roelof} ‘Pik’ Botha. We are here to send a message to Ronald ‘Botha’ Reagan. We’re here to send a message to tell them to let our people go!”
So, if Senate Democrats are looking for one more question to hit Sessions with during his confirmation hearing, they could do a lot worse than asking him if: 1. he supported apartheid, and 2. if he thought an organization like the NAACP opposing apartheid constitutes an “antitraditional American value.”
