Voting Station

James O. Eastland

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U.S. Senator

The Resume

    (November 28, 1904-February 19, 1986)
    Democratic Senator from Mississippi (1941, 1943-1978)
    Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee (1956-1978)
    President Pro Tempore of the Senate (1973-1978)

Why he might be annoying:

    He used his influence as the Chairman of the Internal Security Subcommittee to subpoena people from the New York Times for their stances in favor of the Brown v. Board decision.
    He was a vicious, outspoken racist.
    He said in regards to blacks in front of the White Citizens Council: 'When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be use. Among these are guns, bows, and arrows, slingshots and knives...All whites are created equal with certain rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of dead niggers' (1956).
    He was also anti-Semitic, telling Jewish Senator Jacob Javits: 'I don't like you or your kind.'
    Although he was a Democrat, he opposed all of LBJ's Great Society programs.
    After three civil rights workers went missing (Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, who were murdered by the KKK), he told Lyndon B. Johnson that it was a hoax, there was no KKK, and the three had gone to Chicago, Illinois.
    He was a powerful enemy of civil rights legislation as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, thus pro-civil rights Senators had to work around Eastland.
    Unlike many southern legislators, there seems to be no evidence that he ever really changed his views on race.
    He voted in favor of maintaining Richard Nixon's price controls, now considered to be poor economic practice (1974).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was very anti-Communist.
    He was for a strong defense.
    He kept his big mouth shut on race issues after the civil rights era (due to increasing numbers of voting blacks, which contributed to his retirement).

Credit: Wuffle


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 88 Votes: 47.73% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 36 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 34 Votes: 55.88% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 33 Votes: 57.58% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 24 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 70 Votes: 48.57% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 146 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 75 Votes: 45.33% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 48 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 109 Votes: 75.23% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 155 Votes: 70.97% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 336 Votes: 69.94% Annoying