A few months ago, we highlighted that President-elect Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, has been cause for alarm, particularly with civil rights groups because of his track record on issues concerning them. As an opponent of and lethal threat to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he called the Act “an intrusive piece of legislation.”
If anyone could confirm this information it would be Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. who was a Civil Rights Leader in her own right. Throughout her career, she worked to protect the legislation that the Civil Rights movement put into place.
According to a letter obtained by The Washington Post, King wrote to Congress urging the political group to block the 1986 nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge, stating that allowing him to join the federal bench would “irreparably damage the work of my husband.”
During the 1986 hearing, the letter and King’s opposition became a crucial part of the argument against Sessions’ confirmation.
BuzzFeed News first reported the existence of the letter earlier Tuesday, noting that it was never entered into the congressional record by then-Judiciary Committee Chair Strom Thurmond.
The letter, previously publicly unavailable, can be read in full here.
