Senator James Eastland by Maarten Zwiers

Author:Maarten Zwiers [Zwiers, Maarten]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Memoir, Literary, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science
ISBN: 9780807160039
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2015-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 6

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THE ERA OF POWER POLITICS

Kennedy and Eastland

IN SEPTEMBER 1956, an editorial titled “Whither Goest Thou, Senator?” appeared in the Simpson County News. This newspaper from the Mississippi Hill Country clearly was no ally of Senator Eastland. The editors wrote it as a response to a letter by C. C. Jones, who objected to Eastland’s endorsement of the national Democratic ticket. “To deny that the Democratic Party has been drifting toward socialism, which endangers democracy and individual freedom would be stupid, and contrary to all known facts. Such drifting lays the foundation for Communism, or a ruthless dictatorship,” declared Jones, a retired Baptist pastor and president of the Citizens’ Council in Simpson County. He then stated that he could not vote for the Democratic ticket. Eastland expressed his approval of the pastor’s views and congratulated him on the soundness of his position. The editors of the Simpson County News were astonished. They printed both letters in their newspaper and asked whether Eastland was still going to vote for Stevenson and Kefauver, despite the words he wrote to Jones. Was the senator a Democrat, or a Republican in disguise (something he had been accused of before)? “Evidently Senator Eastland has dropped his cigar and is talking out of both sides of his mouth,” the newspaper wryly noted. The editors warned Eastland not to play both sides of the fence but to stick to one statement. They thought the Democratic Party was actually better off without the Delta planter in its ranks. “Bro. Jones plans to go fishing on Presidential Election Day, and the Editors of your Simpson County News will vote the Democratic ticket,” the editorial concluded. “Wonder what ‘Squire’ Jim will do? Buy a saddle for fence straddling?”1

As the civil rights struggle intensified during the 1960s, the issue of Democratic “fence straddling” moved to the foreground. James Eastland was not the only Democrat who faced such allegations; in a party that housed southern segregationists as well as northern liberals, Democratic politicians often had to find an agreement that was acceptable to both wings of the party. Particularly Democrats with national ambitions could not escape this reality. The politics that surrounded the Civil Rights Act of 1957 demonstrated how difficult it was to formulate meaningful legislation that did not offend any of the major sections in the Democratic Party. The compromise forged by Lyndon Johnson required the support of Democrats from all regions of the nation. The final result boosted LBJ’s chances for the presidency, but it also benefitted another Democrat who had his eyes on the White House: John F. Kennedy. During the 1957 debate, Kennedy supported both Section III (which pleased African Americans) and the jury trial amendment (which pleased white southerners). His cautious and moderate approach to the civil rights question “reflected the racial dilemma of a would-be Democratic presidential nominee who needed southern support for that aspiration to be realized and a Massachusetts senator facing reelection who needed support in a liberally inclined home state,” one historian noted.

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