The NAACP and Alabama NAACP are staging a sit-in at Senator Jeff Sessions' Alabama office to protest his nomination as Attorney General.
"As a matter of conscience, the NAACP has chosen not to remain silent on this critical matter," Birmingham NAACP head Hezekiah Johnson said outside Sessions' Senate office in Birmingham. "Our main concern is centered around the reality of voter suppression. We have found no evidence of his ability, past or present, to be impartial and unbiased as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America, especially in the areas of civil rights, voting rights and equal protection under the law."
Johnson was referring to the voting fraud case against blacks in Perry County that resulted in acquittal. Black critics of Sessions accused the then-U.S. attorney of fiercely pursuing voter fraud cases against blacks while ignoring similar cases against whites.
The Birmingham NAACP head added there was "no evidence that [Sessions] has been a supporter, let alone a champion" of civil rights.
This action comes on the same day former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee protesting Sessions' nomination.
Patrick's concerns stem from his personal experience with Sessions working on voting rights cases in 1985, when he was part of the defense team in a federal voting fraud prosecution of African-Americans who were being prosecuted by Sessions in his role as U.S. Attorney.
In his letter, Patrick writes, "For 30 years I have viewed the prosecution of the Perry County Three as a cautionary tale. I believe it demonstrates what can happen when prosecutorial discretion is unchecked when regard for facts is secondary to political objectives. What can happen is that the rule of law is imperiled. In a republic based on law, this is not the kind of risk any of us should accept in our attorney general."
Sessions' history with regard to race, voting, and immigration should be enough to disqualify him. He colluded with Ginni Thomas and many right-wing organizations to kill immigration reform in 2013. If he is confirmed, he will gut voting rights and civil rights even more than he already has as Senator.
Please lift up the members of the NAACP who are doing everything they can to block this nomination.
