Sunday, November 20, 2016
Confirming Jeff Sessions - By Donald V. Watkins - President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as his Attorney General. The Senate should confirm Sessions. He is qualified for the job. --- This (My) track record in civil rights has enhanced my ability to distinguish legitimate forms of political conservatism from prohibited acts of racism. Conservatism is protected political activity; racism is not.
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Confirming Jeff Sessions
Donald V Watkins
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on November 20, 2016
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on November 20, 2016
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as his Attorney General. The Senate should confirm Sessions. He is qualified for the job.
As a political independent, I agree with some of Sessions' conservative political views and disagree with others. Beyond that, I respect Sessions' right to hold philosophical and political views that are different from mine.
I know from my 46-year personal relationship with Jeff Sessions and my 43-year career as an accomplished civil rights attorney in Alabama that Sessions is NOT a racist.
My Background in Civil Rights
Very few attorneys in America can match my record of landmark civil rights cases. This record was accomplished in the "Cradle of the Confederacy" and "Heart of Dixie" under the most difficult of circumstances and in the face of constant danger to my family and me.
My legal cases: (a) secured a full and unconditional pardon in 1976 from the state of Alabama for Clarence Norris, the last known surviving "Scottsboro Boy"; (b) exposed a police scandal, which the April 3, 1977, edition of the Washington Post labeled "Alabama's Watergate", that resulted in (i) the resignations of the city of Montgomery's mayor and police commissioner, (ii) the indictment of three MPD police officers, and (iii) the firing or resignation of eight others for their role covering up the 1975 fatal shooting of Bernard Whitehurst, an innocent unarmed black who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; (c) halted the MPD's use of racially biased promotional exams, thereby clearing the way for black officers to rise through the ranks of the department all the way up to the rank of police chief; (d) banned the Alabama State Board of Education from administering a psychometrically defective and racially-discriminatory teacher testing program; (e) desegregated housing communities throughout Alabama; (f) changed the method for selecting members to the Alabama State Board of Education from at-large to district elections; (g) desegregated the faculty and staffs of Alabama's junior colleges and technical schools; (h) desegregated the faculty and staffs within 67 of Alabama's 128 public school systems; (i) fully desegregated Alabama's higher education system of 32 four-year public colleges and universities, and resulted in court-ordered doctoral programs, new undergraduate academic programs, and nearly $600 million in new funding (beyond the regular state appropriations) for historically black Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University; (j) changed the method for selecting Birmingham City Council members from at-large to district elections; and (k) preserved the City of Birmingham's affirmative action goals in municipal employment, as well as procurement contracts with municipal agencies.
This track record in civil rights has enhanced my ability to distinguish legitimate forms of political conservatism from prohibited acts of racism. Conservatism is protected political activity; racism is not.
My Interaction with Jeff Sessions
Last week, I watched the usual cast of critics regurgitate and recycle the record from Jeff Sessions' 1986 Senate confirmation hearing. That record was distorted and does not accurately define Jeff Sessions' true character.
My relationship with Sessions started in 1970 when I entered the University of Alabama Law School on a desegregation scholarship awarded by the NAACP in New York. Of the 150 entering freshman students that year, Jeff was one of three white students who openly acknowledged my humanity and embraced me in the spirit of friendship. The other two white students were Margaret Smith Marston, a kind-hearted graduate of Millsaps College, and John David Whetstone, my Moot Court partner.
After we graduated from law school in 1973, Jeff Sessions took the time and energy to nurture our relationship and maintain a close friendship with me for the next 43 years. Whether he is talking with his ultra-conservative Republican constituents in the state or attending the huge Magic City Classic football game in Birmingham between Alabama's two major HBCUs, Jeff's respect for our friendship is always the same.
In his capacity as a U.S. Senator, I have seen Jeff Sessions open the doors for minority vendors to participate in the Military's $16.4 billion R2-G3 procurement program. He has personally arranged top-level introductions and meetings for minority vendors seeking to partner with R2-3G prime contractors. Sessions also monitored the progress of those meetings.
I have also seen Jeff Sessions interact with the U.S. State Department to support minority-owned businesses that are working to advance and protect American interests abroad. These efforts have been helpful in growing Alabama-based minority owned businesses into international companies. One of these companies was a recipient of the 2015 Governor's Trade Excellence Award.
I have seen Sessions investigate Veteran Administration procurement practices that excluded minority owned-vendors from nationwide contracting opportunities. Sessions' assistance in this regard prompted the VA Office of Inspector General and FBI to investigate questionable procurement practices that favored large white-owned companies while robbing minority-owned vendors of a fair opportunity to compete for lucrative VA contracts.
I have seen Jeff Sessions interact with the State Department to increase American aid projects to emerging African countries. He has also used the power of his office to increase federal funding and contracting opportunities for HBCUs in Alabama.
Finally, in 1997, I watched Jeff Sessions and Senator Richard Shelby personally rescue President Bill Clinton's nomination of Alexis Herman for Secretary of Labor from the jaws of certain defeat in the Senate. Herman, the first black woman to serve in this position, was part of the coalition of civil rights activists who defeated Sessions' 1986 nomination for a federal judgeship.
The Presidential Election is Over
It is time for those Americans who opposed Donald Trump's candidacy for president to accept the outcome of the November 8th election. The election is over. Trump won.
I did not vote for Donald Trump or support his candidacy in any way. In fact, I was highly critical of Trump and his public policy positions.
Trump will become the 45th President of the United States. I agree with President Barack Obama's recent statement that we should give President-elect Trump a chance to govern.
Under our system of participatory democracy, Donald Trump has earned the opportunity to lead America for the next four years. Jeff Sessions is part of Trump's leadership team. If Sessions does not live up to his duty to enforce our federal laws on an even-handed basis, we can deal with that circumstance in the political arena during the next presidential election. Until then, we should respect Trump's choice of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.
Donald V Watkins
Saturday, November 19, 2016
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