Thread by @JemarTisby

A few more thoughts on James O. Eastland, the Senator from Mississippi of whom Joe Biden (in an effort to highlight political "civility") said, “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’”...
Photo: @nytimes

Eastland was literally born on a plantation in Sunflower County. His family employed sharecroppers, the economically exploitative system that took over after the abolition of slavery (Happy be-lated #Juneteenth).
Photo: James O. Eastland Collection, Univ. of Mississippi

He entered the Senate in 1942 and, yes, he was a Democrat. But a southern one--a Dixiecrat. There were intra-party differences, mainly along regional lines and Eastland represented the segregationist section.

His father, Woods Eastland, led a lynch mob that murdered Luther and Mary Holbert in 1904. Luther had reportedly killed Woods' brother James (after whom the senator was named) and a black sharecropper on the Eastland plantation.

They scheduled the lynching on a Sunday for the biggest crowds--on the grounds of a black church for maximum terrorism. They cut off the Holberts' fingers & ears and gave them as souvenirs, fractured Luther's skull & used other "fiendish" tortures until finally burning them alive

The sins of the father are not necessarily the sins of the son but as one historian put it...

Eastland supposedly later "moderated" his views on race, but never expressed regret for his political actions (including opposing civil rights legislation). I go to grad school in Mississippi. Those policies still very much influence the present.

Joe Biden is free to tout his ability to work "across the aisle" and with people he disagrees with, but Eastland was a stunningly troublesome/racist individual to highlight--especially when you consider black people and their advocates in #Mississippi.