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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/James Eastland.md
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@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ born: 1904-11-28
died: 1986-02-19
location: "Doddsville, Mississippi"
created: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-10-12
---
James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 to February 19, 1986) was born at [[Doddsville, Mississippi]], "only months after his father had orchestrated the gruesome lynching of a Black woman and her lover, who was accused of murdering Woods's twenty-one-year-old brother, James, in whose memory the newborn was named." His grandfather had bought more than 2,000 acres of [[Sunflower County, Mississippi|Sunflower County]] "for speculative purposes," and his father, Woods Eastland, a personal injury lawyer, made it a plantation. He studied at the [[University of Mississippi]], [[Vanderbilt University|Vanderbilt]], and the [[University of Alabama]], was admitted to the bar in 1927, and sat in the state legislature as a supporter of Governor [[Theodore G. Bilbo]]. When Senator [[Pat Harrison]] died in 1941, Woods Eastland declined the appointment and suggested his son. "The boy'll do it," said Governor [[Paul B. Johnson Sr.|Paul Johnson]].[^1][^2]
@ -28,17 +28,17 @@ On the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry he "zealously guarded the interests
### The Committees
He left the Democratic ticket for the [[Dixiecrats]] in 1948. In 1953 he became chairman of the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], "a forum from which to hound suspected domestic subversives, especially those involved in civil rights activities and the labor movement," and in 1956 chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Judiciary Committee]], which he made the "graveyard of civil rights legislation," blocking "more than one hundred civil rights measures." He told white audiences "that he once had special pockets sewn into his trousers so he could carry civil rights bills around with him to make sure no one called them up for consideration in his absence." Senator [[Herbert Lehman]] called him "a symbol of racism in America." The Episcopal Diocese of New York charged him with "subversion just as real and, because it comes from a U.S. Senator, far more dangerous than any perpetrated by the Communist Party." Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] praised the "scrupulously fair and even-handed manner in which he presided." [[Aaron Henry]] told him: "You have a master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks."[^1][^2]
He left the Democratic ticket for the [[Dixiecrats]] in 1948. He joined the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]] in 1951, became its chairman in 1955 and served as chairman until the Senate abolished the subcommittee in 1977.[^3] The subcommittee has been described as "a forum from which to hound suspected domestic subversives, especially those involved in civil rights activities and the labor movement," and he was chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|Judiciary Committee]] from the Eighty-fourth Congress through the Ninety-fifth Congress,[^4] which he made the "graveyard of civil rights legislation," blocking "more than one hundred civil rights measures." He told white audiences "that he once had special pockets sewn into his trousers so he could carry civil rights bills around with him to make sure no one called them up for consideration in his absence." Senator [[Herbert Lehman]] called him "a symbol of racism in America." The Episcopal Diocese of New York charged him with "subversion just as real and, because it comes from a U.S. Senator, far more dangerous than any perpetrated by the Communist Party." Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] praised the "scrupulously fair and even-handed manner in which he presided." [[Aaron Henry]] told him: "You have a master-servant philosophy with regard to blacks."[^1][^2]
### Welch
On March 31, 1961, [[Robert Welch]] of the [[John Birch Society]] telegraphed Eastland asking the subcommittee to investigate the society. "None of our members will plead the Fifth Amendment." On July 3, 1962, Welch wrote that the society had spent "several thousand dollars" to send its members Eastland's speech "Is the Supreme Court Pro-Communist?" and closed "with admiration for both your patriotism and your courage."[^3]
On March 31, 1961, [[Robert Welch]] of the [[John Birch Society]] telegraphed Eastland asking the subcommittee to investigate the society. "None of our members will plead the Fifth Amendment." On July 3, 1962, Welch wrote that the society had spent "several thousand dollars" to send its members Eastland's speech "Is the Supreme Court Pro-Communist?" and closed "with admiration for both your patriotism and your courage."[^5]
[[Wickliffe Draper]]'s money for the campaign against the Civil Rights Act went through the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] of Eastland's state.[^4]
[[Wickliffe Draper]]'s money for the campaign against the Civil Rights Act went through the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] of Eastland's state.[^6]
### The Hunts
"[[Nelson Bunker Hunt|Nelson Bunker]] and his father met President Nixon at the celebrated barbecue at [[John Connally]]'s Floresville ranch in the autumn of 1972. Soon after, Nelson Bunker huddled with [[Richard Kleindienst]], then the new boss of the Justice Department, at the plantation of Mississippi Senator James Eastland." The account came from Hunt sources. The wiretapping indictments of the [[Hunt brothers]] followed regardless.[^5]
"[[Nelson Bunker Hunt|Nelson Bunker]] and his father met President Nixon at the celebrated barbecue at [[John Connally]]'s Floresville ranch in the autumn of 1972. Soon after, Nelson Bunker huddled with [[Richard Kleindienst]], then the new boss of the Justice Department, at the plantation of Mississippi Senator James Eastland." The account came from Hunt sources. The wiretapping indictments of the [[Hunt brothers]] followed regardless.[^7]
### The Succession
@ -48,6 +48,8 @@ Eastland became president pro tempore of the Senate in 1972 and "twice came with
[^1]: "James Oliver Eastland," *Mississippi Encyclopedia*. Center for Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi.
[^2]: Morgan, Chester M. "James O. Eastland," *Mississippi History Now,* Mississippi Department of Archives and History, April 2011.
[^3]: Welch, Robert. Telegram to James O. Eastland, March 31, 1961, and letter, July 3, 1962, in Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the John Birch Society, compiled by Ernie Lazar from Freedom of Information Act releases.
[^4]: Blackmon, Douglas A. "Silent Partner: How the South's Fight to Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North," *The Wall Street Journal,* June 11, 1999, p. A1.
[^5]: Porterfield, Bill. "H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye," *Texas Monthly,* March 1975.
[^3]: Senator James O. Eastland Collection, University of Mississippi, Modern Political Archives, File Series 4, Legislative, Subseries 10: Internal Security Subcommittee (finding aid). https://olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/finding_docs/eastland/Eastland_File4_SS10.pdf
[^4]: "EASTLAND, James Oliver," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, entry E000018. https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/E000018
[^5]: Welch, Robert. Telegram to James O. Eastland, March 31, 1961, and letter, July 3, 1962, in Federal Bureau of Investigation files on the John Birch Society, compiled by Ernie Lazar from Freedom of Information Act releases.
[^6]: Blackmon, Douglas A. "Silent Partner: How the South's Fight to Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North," *The Wall Street Journal,* June 11, 1999, p. A1.
[^7]: Porterfield, Bill. "H.L. Hunt's Long Goodbye," *Texas Monthly,* March 1975.