Barbour cites Waller, Pickering as early signs of racial changes in Mississippi

From an opinion piece in today's USA Today, former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour writes about how the South and Mississippi has changed regarding race relations, and notes the changes have been coming for a long time.

Mississippi today has more African-American elected officials than any other state, 1,075. The percentage of African Americans in our state registered to vote compared with the black voting-age population is 90.2%, compared with 62.1% in New York, and turnout among African Americans has exceeded that of whites in recent elections.

While these achievements occurred at a somewhat evolutionary pace, it is unrecognized that many white Southerners accepted them rather quickly.

After Medgar Evers was murdered 50 years ago, his killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was prosecuted by a young district attorney from Jackson, Bill Waller. When the first jury failed to reach a verdict, Waller tried Beckwith again. The second jury hung as well, and Beckwith was not convicted until the early 1990s.

Conventional wisdom held that Waller would be politically ostracized. Instead, Bill Waller was elected governor in 1971. His son, Bill Waller Jr., is currently chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

During the same period, Laurel, Miss., prosecutor Charles Pickering testified in the 1966 criminal trial against Sam Bowers, the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in the state. Pickering was soon elected to the state Senate, became Mississippi Republican Party chairman and served as a federal judge.

If Mississippi had not already begun to change those 40 years ago, these elections would not have resulted as they did. While evolutionary overall, political changes began in my state much sooner than is often recognized, and positive changes in other areas of race relations have continued apace.

Pickering speaks at law enforcement memorial & Boy's State

Retired Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Charles Pickering spoke recently at a ceremony honoring fallen Forrest County, Mississipp law enforcement officers.

"We have men and women who are willing to dedicate themselves as law enforcement officers. So, to pay tribute to those who have given their lives so that we might enjoy the American dream is entirely appropriate."

And today, he addressed delegates to Mississippi's American Legion Boy's State about racial reconciliation and social-cultural issues.

50th Anniversary of the Freedom Riders

On this the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides into Mississippi, Governor Haley Barbour apologized to those civil rights champions for their treatment and thanked them for helping to make a difference for Mississippi.



He also thanked those who asked him to be a part of this: Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, Retired U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Charles Pickering, former Ambassador John Palmer, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Jackson businessman Leroy Walker and Atlanta businessman and Freedom Rider Hank Thomas.

Sowell: Race Card Fraud against Tea Party

Thomas Sowell writes about the attacks on the Tea Party movement and illustrates it with the attacks on Judge Charles Pickering's confirmation.

Credit card fraud is a serious problem. But race card fraud is an even bigger problem.

Playing the race card takes many forms. Judge Charles Pickering, a federal judge in Mississippi who defended the civil rights of blacks for years and defied the Ku Klux Klan back when that was dangerous, was depicted as a racist when he was nominated for a federal appellate judgeship.

No one even mistakenly thought he was a racist. The point was simply to discredit him for political reasons-- and it worked.

This year's target is the tea party movement.

You can read Sowell's full column here: Race Card Fraud

Jacoby on Race in Judicial Confirmations

In today's Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby points out the dangers in accusing someone of racial insensitivity pertaining to the Sotomayor nomination, and uses Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Charles Pickering as examples.

The same malice would be visited subsequently on other conservative judges nominated by Republican presidents. In 1991, Clarence Thomas was slimed as a traitor to his race for having married a white woman, and as a mouthpiece for white supremacists. "If you gave Clarence Thomas a little flour on his face," declared Carl Rowan, "you'd think you had David Duke talking." Judge Charles Pickering, a longtime advocate of racial reconciliation, was defamed by Senator John Kerry in 2002 as a "forceful advocate for a cross-burner" and by Senator Charles Schumer for his "glaring racial insensitivity."

Charen on Sotomayor and Pickering

Mona Charen looks at the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor and reminds us of the nomination of Charles Pickering: "It's Not Fair Casually to Call People Racist".

The nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has already achieved a boon for our political culture: It has helped leading liberals and Democrats to discover that being tarred as a racist on flimsy grounds is unfair and deeply unpleasant. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Calif.) for example, when asked on Face the Nation to respond to Rush Limbaugh’s and Newt Gingrich’s comments about Sotomayor, said, “That’s an absolutely terrible thing to throw around. Based on that statement — that one word ‘better than’ [sic] — to call someone a racist is just terrible and I would hope that Republicans would not do this.”

Senator Feinstein was right as far she went. She avoided one undeniable fact, though. If a white-male nominee had been discovered to have said something similar — that he was better situated to judge due to his background and life experiences than a Latina woman was — he would be cashiered so fast as to induce whiplash. Those are the unwritten rules that Limbaugh and Gingrich are attempting, one suspects, to expose for their one-sidedness. Nevertheless, the instant labeling of the woman, based on one unwise remark, is hardly fair. If Democrats are learning this now, that’s excellent news. One hopes they will remember this discovery when the wheel turns and a Republican nominee is before the Senate. Certainly they didn’t seem to get it as recently as 2002, when President Bush nominated Judge Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Then-majority leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) said Judge Pickering had displayed an “insensitivity to civil rights, to equal rights, especially to minorities. . . . This [nomination] lays bare the administration’s real position on civil rights.” Leading liberal newspapers tolled the bell with headlines like “Extremist Judge Unfit to Sit on Appeals Court” in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and “Say No to This Throwback” in the Los Angeles Times.

The Democrats succeeded in torpedoing Pickering’s nomination — not to mention assassinating his character. More than “insensitive,” he was called a crypto-racist with a “segregationist past” (Paul Krugman). When President Bush offered Judge Pickering a recess appointment to avoid a Senate filibuster, Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) breathed fire: “Here we are, on the weekend before a national holiday when we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday, and George W. Bush celebrates it by appointing Charles Pickering, a known forceful advocate for a cross-burner in America, to the federal court of the United States.”

In point of fact, Judge Pickering had been a friend to civil rights throughout his career. To its credit, the New York Times actually quoted longtime associates of the judge and members of the black community in Pickering’s hometown who “overwhelmingly support his nomination . . . and admire his efforts at racial reconciliation.” The black chairman of the city council told the Times, “I can’t believe the man they’re describing in Washington is the same one I’ve known for years.” They recalled that as a young prosecutor in 1967, Pickering had endangered his career (and perhaps more) by testifying in court against the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He was known for hiring black staffers at a time when few white Mississippians did. Pickering encouraged the chancellor of University of Mississippi to form the Institute for Racial Reconciliation and served on its board for many years. Pickering, unlike some white southerners (and many Democrats currently serving in Congress) chose to send his children to integrated public schools.

Pickering did preside over the trial of three young men who burned a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple. Byron York’s excellent account in National Review reveals that Pickering was dismayed by the Justice Department’s decision to negotiate plea bargains with two of the defendants (including the one Pickering regarded as the ringleader) and recommend no jail time for them, while asking for seven and a half years for the remaining defendant. One of those permitted to plea to a misdemeanor by Justice was clearly a racist who had earlier shot a gun into a black man’s home, gotten into fights with black students at school, and convinced his drunk comrades to burn the cross. Pickering did not think it was just to let him off and sentence the other defendant, for whom this was a first offense, to more than seven years. He sentenced him to 27 months, admonishing the defendant that “the type of conduct you exhibited cannot and will not be tolerated. . . . I would suggest to you that during the time you’re in prison that you do some reading on race relations and maintaining good race relations and how that can be done.”

Yet, without blushing, John Kerry transmogrified Judge Pickering into “a forceful advocate for a cross burner.”

Judge Sonia Sotomayor deserves careful vetting by the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She may or may not deserve their vote. But those Republicans should seize this teachable moment to remember all of the fine candidates — Pickering, Miguel Estrada, Robert Bork — and many more who were so shamefully treated by the Democrats who have suddenly discovered the evil of baseless accusations.

LTE spreads false charges

In a letter-to-the-editor in Sunday's Clarion Ledger, Briley Richmond of Ocean Springs, Mississippi defends Mike Wallace but spreads the already refuted charges against Charles Pickering.

Richmond says, "Pickering was law partner to the head of the Sovereignty Commission in 1964."

Bill Minor refuted this charge years ago in a column saying:

Those who cite federal District Judge Charles Pickering's havein practiced law in Laurel during the 1960s with then-Lt. Gov. Carroll Gartin as indiciative of pickering's segregationist past are barking up the wrong tree.

This writer knew almost all of the players on the scene back in those days of racial extremism and Gartin, who died suddenly in 1966, was far from being one of the racists.

Gartin, in fact, was defeated for governor in 1959 after being branded as a "moderate" (a term implying being soft on segregation back then) by the segregationist white Citizens Councils.

Evidently some opponents of Pickering's elevation to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals belive it damaging evidence that Gartin, Pickering's one-time law partner, had servedon the infamous state Soveregnty Commission.

For the record, Gartin as lieutenant governor (from 1956 to 1960 and again from 1964 until his suddden death in 1966) was by law designated as ex-officio vice chairman of the Sovereignty Commission, but he had little to do with the commission's operations.

When Gartin ran for governor in 1959 with the backing of progressive Gov. J.P. Coleman, he was a strong favorite to win until the then-powerful white Citizens Councils began flexing their political muscle and elected their chosen candidate, Ross Barnett....

Certainly, if Pickering's association with the late Carroll Gartin is the best "evidence" foes have against his judgeship appointment, they don't have much of a case.

Richmond next charges, "Then, in the early '70s, he used his position in the state Senate to seal the records of the Sovereignty Commission."

Richmond is just reading from anti-Pickering talking points. The vote on the Sovereginty Commission was either to seal the records and preserve them, or to destroy them. The progressive vote was to seal them; the segregationist vote was to destroy them as to hide them from history. Furthermore, Pickering had no involvement with the Commission's actions and he voted to abolish the Commission as a state Senator.

Richmond is right to defend Mike Wallace against his attackers. But he missed the point that these are the exact same people who attacked Pickering with the exact same type of allegations. And just as the lied about Wallace, they lied about Pickering.

A suggestion to Richmond, read the books.

The Race Card

WDAM (NBC: Laurel/Hattiesburg) interviews Charles Pickering prior to a couple of book signings. They ask him about critics who played the race card and this clip has his response.

Two Items

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the exoneration of decorated Korean War veteran Clyde Kennard who tried to integrate the University of Southern Mississippi. Charles Pickering had presented the petition of exoneration.

Author and activist Richard Viguerie has suggested ten names to replace Alberto Gonzales as U.S. Attorney General, including Ed Meese, William Pryor, Edith Jones and Charles Pickering.