Publications	Issue List	Vote Analysis	Main Page

The following is a statement made by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in a February 7, 2002 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Today we examine the life and reputation of Charles Pickering. I hope that we can do this in a fair and impartial manner. From my review of Charles Pickering's record, I have been struck by one resounding virtue - moral courage.

As the tide of racial equality swept America in the 1950s and 1960s, it unfortunately met with fierce resistance in certain areas. Laurel, Mississippi was one. Unlike New England, integration was not popular in Jones County. Unlike New York, the press was not friendly to integration in Jones County. Unlike large Southern cities such as Atlanta and Birmingham, there was no substantial segment of the community that had an enlightened view on race relations. Indeed, the town of Laurel, in Jones County Mississippi, with a small population was the home territory of the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Sam Bowers.

In the 1960s, Klan-incited violence escalated in Jones County, Mississippi. The Klan would drive by homes in the middle of the night and shoot into them. The Klan would firebomb the homes of African Americans and those who helped them. The Klan would murder its enemies who stood for civil rights.

Because these shootings, bombings, and murders violated the criminal law, the victims looked for justice. They found it in Jones County Attorney Charles Pickering.

On the one hand, Charles Pickering had his duty to enforce the law. On the other hand, he had public opinion, the press, and most state law enforcement personnel against vigorously prosecuting Klan violence. A 27-year-old Charles Pickering stared in the face his political future, many in his community, and the press and chose to do his duty of enforcing the law against the men who committed such violence. In the 1960s in Mississippi, this took courage.

Soon County Attorney Charles Pickering found that he had to choose again between those in law enforcement who would only go through the motions of investigating the Klan and those who sought to vigorously prosecute and imprison Klansmen. He chose to work with the FBI to vigorously investigate, prosecute, and imprison Klansmen. In the mid-1960s in Mississippi, this took courage.

Then came the threats. The Klan threatened to have County Attorney Pickering whipped. With the Klan already firebombing and murdering other whites whom it viewed as helping black citizens, the Pickering family could have easily been next.

At night, County Attorney Charles Pickering would come back to his small home and look into the eyes of his young wife Margaret. He would look into the eyes of his four small children who believed Daddy could do anything and who did not understand hate and murder. One can only imagine how his wife Margaret would lie awake in fear, hoping that she would hear husband's footsteps coming home.

Charles Pickering had no money to protect his family. He had no press to stand up for him and his family. He had no covering of popular opinion to hide behind. And in this time of hate, bombings and murder, Charles Pickering reached down deep in his soul, embraced the only thing he did have, his religious faith.

He then testified against Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in the firebombing trial of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer in 1967. And Charles Pickering signed the affidavit supporting the murder indictment of Klansman Dubie Lee for a murder committed at the Masonite Corporation's pulpwood plant in Jones County. This took courage.

While it is easy in Washington, D.C., in 2002, to make a speech or sign a bill in favor of civil rights after decades have changed racial attitudes in schools, in society, and in the press, who among us would have had the courage of Charles Pickering in Laurel, Mississippi in 1967? Who among us would have had the courage of his wife Margaret to stand with him?

There are those who would say "We are pleased that Pickering was one of the few prosecutors who actually prosecuted crimes committed by the KKK in the 1960s, but he should have also gone further by calling for immediate integration of schools and the workplace."

That argument is tantamount to saying, "We are pleased that Harry Truman integrated the federal armed forces in 1948, but he should have gone further and called for the integration of the state national guards as well." Or to say, "We are pleased the Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, after opposing civil rights, but he should have gone further and demanded that all businesses adopt an affirmative action hiring plan."

To judge the words and actions of these Civil Rights Champions in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, by a 2002 standard, would leave them wanting. We must remember that in Mississippi and other Southern States in the 1960s, most elected prosecutors sat on their hands when the Klan committed acts of violence. Young Charles Pickering had to deal with white citizens and politicians who resisted integration and civil rights. He had to deal with these people in language that would not incite further violence and with requests for action that he had a chance of getting people to take. He did so with moral courage.

And because he acted with courage at such a young age, Charles Pickering was able to continue with more progressive actions decade after decade. In 1976, he hired the first African American field representative for the Mississippi Republican Party. In 1981, he defended a young black man who had been falsely accused of the armed robbery of a teenage white girl. In 1999, he joined the University of Mississippi's Racial Reconciliation Commission. And in 2000 he helped establish a program to deal with at-risk kids, most of whom were African Americans, in Laurel, Mississippi - where 35 years earlier he had backed his principles with his and his family's lives. This is a record of courage. It is a record to be commended.

In the years since the 1960s, attitudes in Mississippi and elsewhere have dramatically improved. Schools are integrated. The Klan is no longer a powerful force capable of intimidating whole communities. And the support from Mississippians - black and white, men and women - who have known Charles Pickering for decades has been overwhelming. This support no doubt results from the moral courage of Charles Pickering.

In 1990, this Committee unanimously and favorably reported the nomination of Charles Pickering and the Senate unanimously confirmed Charles Pickering to the District Court bench. In his 11 years on the bench, he has handled approximately 4,500 cases. In approximately 99.5% of these cases, his rulings have stood and have not been reversed. The American Bar Association rated Judge Pickering "well qualified" for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

I look forward to today's hearing to review Judge Pickering's record and his fitness for the Circuit Court of Appeals. I am sure that Senator Feinstein will conduct this hearing in the fair and even-handed manner with which she approaches all of her duties in the Senate.

I will listen to the testimony and review the record. And I will measure the allegations and who makes them against the whole record and the courage of Judge Charles Pickering. I hope this hearing will be free from the half-truths, mischaracterizations of the record, or allegations of guilt by association that have been proffered against this nominee by some political special interest groups.

Top

Publications

Issue List

Vote Analysis

Main Page