James Eastland Quotes

James Oliver Eastland was an American politician from Mississippi who served in the United States Senate as a Democrat in 1941; and again from 1943 until his resignation on December 27, 1978. From 1947 to 1978, he served alongside John C. Stennis, also a Democrat. At the time, Eastland and Stennis were the longest-serving Senate duo in American history, though their record was subsequently surpassed by Strom Thurmond and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, who served together for thirty-six years. Eastland was also the most senior member of the Senate at the time of his retirement in 1978. He was a supporter of the Conservative coalition, and was best known nationally as a fierce proponent of and a symbol of Southern support for racial segregation.The son of a prominent attorney, politician and cotton planter, Eastland attended the local schools of Scott County, Mississippi, and took courses at several universities, including the University of Mississippi, Vanderbilt University and the University of Alabama. He completed his legal education by studying in his father's office, and attained admission to the bar in 1927. Eastland practiced law in Sunflower County and took over management of his family's cotton plantation. He became active in politics as a Democrat, and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1928 to 1932.

in 1941, Senator Pat Harrison died in office, and the governor appointed Eastland to fill the vacancy on the condition that he not run later in the year in the special election to complete the term. Eastland kept his word, and served from June to September. The special election was won by Congressman Wall Doxey. In 1942, Eastland defeated Doxey in the primary for the Democratic nomination in the election for a full term. The Democratic primary was then tantamount to election, and Eastland returned to the Senate in January 1943. He was reelected five times, and served until resigning in December 1978, shortly before the end of his final term. Eastland advanced to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee and President pro tempore of the Senate, and became known primarily as an advocate of racial segregation. Eastland later moderated his views on race, and sought the support of black voters for his possible 1978 reelection before deciding not to become a candidate.

Eastland died in 1986 and was buried at Forest Cemetery in Forest, Mississippi.

✵ 28. November 1904 – 19. February 1986
James Eastland photo
James Eastland: 30   quotes 6   likes

Famous James Eastland Quotes

“Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

Other Eastland quote against Brown
Unsourced

“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 sociological considerations.”

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965, by Juan Williams, Viking Penguin, January 1, 1987, <nowiki>ISBN 978-0-670-81412-1</nowiki>, p. 38.
On August 12, 1955 in Senatobia, Mississippi, about the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education, which found racial segregation in the public schools unconstitutional
Unsourced

“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”

"Dixie Members Of Congress Bitterly Hit Court Ruling" https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12135575/the_greenville_news/. The Greenville News. United Press. April 4, 1944. p. 4 ; ‘Congressmen From South Hit Negro Vote Rule’; Los Angeles Times; April 4, 1944, p. 2
Speech following Smith v. Allright, which outlawed white primaries as used in Mississippi
1940s

“I would not be surprised if Martin Luther King and these agitators next desecrate the graves of Confederate soldiers and drag their remains through the streets in an effort to garner headlines. And what kind of person is participating in this march? Beatniks, frauds, and persons wanted to answer for crimes in other States.”

To the Senate about the Grenada, Mississippi civil rights movement, after activists put American flags on the place where a Confederate memorial stood. June 16, 1966
Congressional Records https://books.google.fr/books?id=TqUs5UlIPaUC&q=%22And+what+kind+of+person+is+participating+in+this%22&dq=%22And+what+kind+of+person+is+participating+in+this%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw8NC1sb3kAhUgDmMBHbF7BogQ6AEIKzAA%7C
1960s

“I don’t like you — or your kind.”

During a debate on the Voting Rights Acr, to fellow Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), who attempted to have the bill come for a vote and was at this time the only Jewish-American Senator
Javits's Rise Slow but on His Terms https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/05/archives/javitss-riseslow-but-on-his-terms-industry-and-intelligence.html
Unsourced

James Eastland Quotes about people

“Today, however, a trend away from traditional standards of propriety begins to be in evidence. Our Court has been indoctrinated and brainwashed by left-wing pressure groups. The Court is out of step with the American people. We see Justices of the Supreme Court banqueted and honored by left-wing Communist-front organizations militantly interested in legislation on which the Supreme Court must pass.”

Congressional Record https://books.google.fr/books?id=WhPOxPiWV2YC&q=%22indoctrinated+and+brainwashed+by+left-wing+pressure+groups.%22&dq=%22indoctrinated+and+brainwashed+by+left-wing+pressure+groups.%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiodS__tjkAhWLnhQKHSqcBdoQ6AEIcjAJ, 1956
1950s

“The white people of the South do not have race prejudice. They have race consciousness, and they are proud to possess this awareness of the significance of race. Had they not possessed it, the South would have been mongrelized and southern civilization destroyed long ago.”

Simkin, John (September 1997). "James Eastland" http://spartacus-educational.com/USAeastland.htm
Speech in the United States Senate after the Brown v. Board of Education landmark court decision (27th May, 1954)
1950s

James Eastland Quotes

“I believe it’s a publicity stunt.”

About case of these missing civil rights workers (also according to Johnson)
Unsourced

“Your chances of getting support in the black community are poor at best. You have a master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks.”

Aaron Henry to Eastland relative to his chances of reelection. 1978
James O. Eastland https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/james-oliver-eastland/
About him

“Rhodesia has an ingredient which is sadly lacking in America. This is racial harmony.”

After travelling in Rhodesia, on 1969. Quoted in the Clarion-Ledger.
The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer https://books.google.fr/books?id=B_2E5pIyB3kC&pg=PA266&dq=%22Rhodesia+has+an+ingredient%22+james+eastland+%22racial+harmony%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFzcrD-4_kAhVJx4UKHc-VCfwQ6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Rhodesia%20has%20an%20ingredient%22%20james%20eastland%20%22racial%20harmony%22&f=false, page 266
1960s

“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.”

James Eastland interviewed http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/eastland_james.html by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview (July 24, 1957)
1950s

“Organized mongrel minorities control the government. I am going to fight it to the last ditch. They are not going to Harlemize the country.”

Extracts from his speech to the Senate against the FEPC. February 9,1948
Congressional Record https://books.google.fr/books?id=4Q8QgQ4LAAQC&q=%22If+the+President%E2%80%99s+civil-rights+program+is+right,+then+reconstruction+was+right%22&dq=%22If+the+President%E2%80%99s+civil-rights+program+is+right,+then+reconstruction+was+right%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0, 1948
1940s

“Let me say frankly that in my judgment the CIO and the PAC are Communist organizations. I know that there are millions of good loyal Americans who belong to the CIO; but in my judgment the leadership of that organization is definitely Communistic.”

Congressional Record https://books.google.fr/books?id=mHjzYq7zoocC&q=%22+I+know+that+there+are+millions+of+good+loyal+Americans+who+belong+to+the+CIO%22&dq=%22+I+know+that+there+are+millions+of+good+loyal+Americans+who+belong+to+the+CIO%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGo4ar-NPkAhXMxIUKHWB6DMYQ6AEIKzAA (1946)
1940s

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