The complicated racial past of Jeff Sessions
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Patrik Jonsson Staff writer
| Atlanta
Update: This story has been updated Jan. 10.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, a Southern country lawyer turned senator who, according to congressional transcripts, repeatedly referred to a black assistant United States attorney as 鈥渂oy,鈥� has been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to replace America鈥檚 first female black US attorney general, Loretta Lynch.
The shift in tone and optics couldn鈥檛 be starker: To critics, it鈥檚 the return of a cultural hard line on legal issues from abortion to immigration, from legal marijuana to police reform. Senator Sessions, if confirmed by the US Senate, will head a Justice Department that some expect to not just parse federal policy, but to more aggressively enforce it.
The selection of a man who was once denied a federal judgeship 鈥� by Republicans 鈥� over concerns about racism has raised alarm. Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D) of Georgia and Sen. Cory Booker (D) of New Jersey are testifying against Sessions. In Senator Booker's case, it is the first time in US history a sitting senator has done so against a colleague.
But some caution against jumping to conclusions about Sessions, suggesting that he could be a balancing voice on Trump鈥檚 new team. While the concerns about racism are a clear part of Sessions鈥檚 record, so is his push to desegregate Alabama schools during his time as a US attorney, as well as his demand for the death penalty for the son of a Klan leader, who had randomly killed a black teen.
鈥淚 found him to be a familiar kind of Southern political leader who, while he takes a conservative stand, has a broader vision,鈥� says Bill Ferris, an academic who was awarded the by President Clinton and worked with Sessions as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He calls Sessions鈥檚 selection a 鈥渟ilver lining.鈥�
鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 have the kind of hard-line George Wallace-type attitude toward issues of race, though he鈥檚 certainly not a progressive, either,鈥� says Mr. Ferris, now a professor at the University of North Carolina.聽鈥淚 think he is an educated voice that clearly comes out of the South in ways that neither of the Obama or Trump inner circles do.鈥�
Shadows of the past
Sessions grew up in the small, mid-Alabama town of Hybart, where his dad owned a country store. Ambitious and smart, he became a country lawyer, then US attorney, Alabama attorney general, then a US senator, finally moving to Mobile. His rise was interrupted, if briefly, in 1986, when President Reagan nominated him to become a federal judge. Sessions was rejected, 10 to 8, by the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee.
After having called the NAACP 鈥渃ommunist-inspired鈥� and working to put voting-rights activists behind bars for life for a fraudulent get-out-the-vote program, it was 鈥渋nconceivable 鈥� that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a US attorney, let alone a United States federal judge,鈥� Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts said at the time. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D) of Ohio called Sessions 鈥渉ostile to civil rights organizations and their causes.鈥�
Sessions鈥檚 failure set the stage for the rejection of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a year later 鈥� the event that widely seen as beginning the polarization and politicization of the Supreme Court.
Sessions has denied that he harbors any racial animus, saying he sent his children to integrated schools. Policy-wise, though, civil rights laws have in the past troubled him. He has never denied he once called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a 鈥減iece of intrusive legislation.鈥� Sessions also had to apologize for joking that members of the Ku Klux Klan 鈥渨ere OK until I found out they smoked pot.鈥澛�
鈥楴ot a mean view鈥�
Today, however, Sessions has bounced back from the 1986 ignominy. Though he often bucks the GOP establishment, especially in taking a hard line on immigration, he is a well-respected senator who now serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee that once turned him down. He has said his 鈥渓oose tongue鈥� gets him in trouble.
Even critics say he deserves a chance to live down his comments, especially given the rapidity of cultural change in the South and around the country.
Sessions is the embodiment of country aristocracy in rural Alabama, suggests聽Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
He is 鈥渁 Southern hard-liner as those exist in 2016. He鈥檚 not a 1940s or 鈥�50s pitchfork . He鈥檚 always been a go-slow, you鈥檙e-going-too-fast, pushing-too-hard, let-the-change-be-natural messenger to the Southern people.鈥�
鈥淏ut he鈥檚 not evidently a mean-spirited guy,鈥� Professor Jillson adds. 鈥淗e has a narrow view, but not necessarily a mean view. And that鈥檚 what he needs to communicate. His demeanor suggests mean, and he needs to take that edge off as he enters this very important responsibility.鈥�
Contentious confirmation ahead
Concerns abound already, especially after the presidential campaign exposed wrenching cultural tensions in the electorate. To many, the Sessions pick suggests that Trump is 鈥渢elling the country that he鈥檚 serious about what he said during the campaign,鈥� says Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University and author of 鈥淎merican Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.鈥�
Sessions was the first senator to embrace Trump鈥檚 message, saying about Trump鈥檚 push to fix US immigration: 鈥淗e can do it!鈥�
But there are other sides to Sessions, as well. He has in his lifetime witnessed a tight arc of racial reconciliation that has recast many white Southerners and empowered black Southerners. During the 1986 hearing, Larry Thompson, a black US attorney for the northern district of Georgia, testified that Sessions is 鈥渁 good man and an honest man, untainted by prejudice.鈥�
What's more, Sessions fought in the late 1990s to boost funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, then led by Ferris. He has been praised by moderate South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Democrats will likely make the confirmation hearing contentious. But it would be unusual for a senator in good standing to be denied a cabinet role.
鈥淛ust because someone鈥檚 past positions are what they are doesn鈥檛 mean that immediately everything is going to change,鈥� says Mr. Kazin at Georgetown.
How he could shape the job
The appointment comes amid several big issues: abortion rights, gay rights, voting rights, immigration enforcement, drug legalization, and also a cultural upheaval over violence between police and unarmed black men.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder and current Attorney General Lynch have made criminal justice reform a major priority in the wake of a wave of violence between police and especially African-American men. Many Department of Justice lawyers are likely to balk at any attempts by Sessions to change that tack, Kazin says. As such, Sessions will likely test how far an agency can swing philosophically in a short period of time.
The Sessions pick is 鈥渁 classic law-and-order message that goes beyond just immigration,鈥� says Jillson. 鈥淚t has to do with many of the changes taking place in American society that make conservatives uncomfortable. He鈥檒l be pushing back on those across the board. Immigration will be early and very visible. But if I were out in Colorado and California and owned a pot dispensary, I鈥檇 be checking my license.鈥�
For those concerned by Sessions鈥檚 pick, 鈥淲e have to watch charitably but skeptically,鈥� adds Jillson. 鈥淵ou want to see something other than disclaimers like, 鈥業鈥檝e grown and I鈥檝e changed.鈥� You want to see actions that suggest an openness and a comfort with a broader range of people than you normally find outside [Hybart].鈥�
