55 Facts About James Eastland

James Oliver Eastland was an American attorney, plantation owner, and politician from Mississippi.

The son of prominent attorney, politician, and cotton planter Woods James Eastland, he attended the local schools of Scott County, Mississippi, and took courses at the University of Mississippi, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Alabama.

James Eastland completed his legal education by studying in his father's office, attaining admission to the bar in 1927.

James Eastland practiced law in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and took over management of his family's cotton plantation.

When Senator Pat Harrison died in office in 1941, the governor appointed James Eastland to fill the vacancy on the condition that James Eastland not run in that year's special election to complete the term.

James Eastland went on to defeat Doxey in the 1942 primary for the Democratic nomination for a full term.

James Eastland was reelected five times, serving until resigning in December 1978, days before the end of his final term.

James Eastland was named James after his late uncle, who was allegedly murdered earlier in 1904 by Luther Holbert, who was lynched.

James Eastland's father was active in Mississippi politics and served as a district attorney.

James Eastland attended the University of Mississippi, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Alabama.

James Eastland studied law in his father's office, attained admission to the bar in 1927, and practiced in Sunflower County.

James Eastland was a sought-after campaign speaker, including speeches on behalf of the gubernatorial candidacies of Paul B Johnson Sr.

In 1942, James Eastland was one of three candidates who challenged Doxey for a full term.

Doxey had the support of President Franklin D Roosevelt and Mississippi's senior US Senator, Theodore G Bilbo, but Eastland defeated him in the Democratic primary.

Roosevelt and James Eastland developed a working relationship that enabled James Eastland to oppose New Deal programs that were unpopular in Mississippi, while he supported the President's agenda on other issues.

James Eastland was effective in developing that type of arrangement with presidents of both parties during his long tenure in the Senate.

In 1956, James Eastland was appointed chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he served in this position until his retirement from the Senate.

James Eastland did not face substantive Republican opposition until 1966, as party politics were realigning after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Former Republican Party state chairman Wirt Yerger had considered running against James Eastland but bowed out after Walker announced his candidacy.

Walker ran well to James Eastland's right, accusing him of not having done enough to keep integration-friendly judges from being confirmed by the Senate.

Years later, Yerger said that Walker's decision to relinquish his House seat after one term for the vagaries of a Senate race against James Eastland was "very devastating" to the growth of the Mississippi Republicans.

James Eastland disputed Keating's claim, stated that he had recognized Keating in an appropriate manner, and advised Keating not to repeat his claim to the full Senate.

James Eastland announced his support for United States Deputy Attorney General Byron White to replace the retiring Charles Evans Whittaker as Associate Justice on March 30,1962, James Eastland stating that White would be an able justice.

James Eastland introduced an amendment that he stated would nullify the Supreme Court prayer decision on June 29,1962.

In 1972, James Eastland was reelected with 58 percent of the vote in his closest contest ever.

Four years later, Eastland supported the candidacy of fellow Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia, rather than Nixon's successor, President Gerald R Ford.

In October 1971, after President Richard Nixon nominated Lewis F Powell and William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court, Eastland announced his intent to hasten the hearings of Rehnquist and Powell while admitting his doubts that hearings would begin the following week given the Senate being in recess.

In October 1974, James Eastland was one of five senators to sponsor legislation authored by Jesse Helms permitting prayer in public schools and taking the issue away from the Supreme Court which had previously ruled in 1963 that school prayer violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution through the establishment of a religion.

In June 1976, James Eastland joined a coalition of Democratic politicians who endorsed Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter for the presidency.

On May 18,1977, James Eastland made a joint appearance with President Jimmy Carter in the Rose Garden in support of proposed foreign intelligence surveillance legislation.

James Eastland said the legislation was "vitally needed in this country" and that he was satisfied with its bipartisan support.

In October 1977, James Eastland was one of several influential Senators invited to meet with President Carter as the latter tried gaining support in the Senate for the Panama Canal treaties.

The contents of the letter to James Eastland were disclosed to the public by Jaworski the following month.

James Eastland is the most recent President pro tempore to have served during a vacancy in the Vice Presidency.

James Eastland did so twice during the tumultuous 1970s, first from October to December 1973, following Spiro Agnew's resignation until the swearing-in of Gerald Ford as Vice President, and then from August to December 1974, from the time that Ford became President until Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as Vice President.

James Eastland incited protests and comparisons to Hitlerism following a vitriolic speech on the floor of the Senate in July 1945, in which he complained that the Negro soldier was physically, morally, and mentally incapable of serving in combat.

James Eastland claimed that the "boys from the South were fighting to maintain white supremacy".

James Eastland later was one of eleven senators to vote against John Marshall Harlan II and one of seventeen to vote against Potter Stewart.

James Eastland testified to the Senate ten days after the Brown decision:.

On July 24,1957, interviewed by Mike Wallace on the occasion of the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, James Eastland said segregation was wanted by both races:.

James Eastland tried to convince President Lyndon Johnson that the incident was a hoax and there was no Ku Klux Klan in the state.

James Eastland suggested that the three had gone to Chicago:.

Jim James 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.

James Eastland was often at odds with Johnson's policy on civil rights, but they retained a close friendship based on long years together in the Senate.

In early 1969, James Eastland went to Rhodesia and came back praising the White minority regime for the "racial harmony" supposedly lacking from America.

When he considered running for reelection in 1978, James Eastland sought black support from Aaron Henry, civil rights leader and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

James Eastland resigned the day after Christmas, enabling the governor to appoint Cochran to complete the last few days of James Eastland's term, which gave Cochran a seniority advantage over other senators elected in 1978.

James Eastland served on a subcommittee in the 1950s investigating the Communist Party in the United States.

The paper was taking a strong position on its editorial page that Mississippi should adhere to the Brown decision, and claimed that James Eastland was persecuting them on that account.

James Eastland subsequently allowed the subcommittee to become dormant as communist fears receded.

In 1974, James Eastland led congressional subcommittee hearings into marijuana, the report on which concluded:.

Hoover received intelligence that James Eastland was among members of Congress who had received money and favors from Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic.

James Eastland maintained friendly personal ties with liberal Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Joe Biden and Philip Hart, even though they disagreed on many issues.

James Eastland never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son.

James Eastland was portrayed by actor Jeff Doucette in the 2016 HBO film All the Way and by Nicholas Bell in the 2022 film Elvis.