Douglas Alexander: “I will not dwell on the lifelong record of Mr. Pickering. But his testimony against Sam Bowers was not an isolated…”

“I will not dwell on the lifelong record of Mr. Pickering. But his testimony against Sam Bowers was not an isolated instance. I will not dwell on the charge some have made about a 1994 case. Senator Hatch dealt with that, although I ask unanimous consent to include two articles, one from the National Review Online and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explaining what really happened. In short, the Justice Department botched the case and the ringleader in the cross burning was turned loose. Pickering then properly reduced a juvenile accomplice's sentence from seven and one half years to 27 months, severely criticizing him. In terms of the struggle for equality and freedom, I have seen the South and our Nation change for the better during my lifetime. I have tried to help bring about that change. When I look back now, it seems embarrassingly slow and amazing that it was so hard. I remember as a student at Vanderbilt in 1962, when we raised the issue of integrating the student body, the student body voted no. I remember in 1980 I appointed the first Black Tennessee supreme court justice, and he was defeated in the next election. I remember it was 1985 before we had the Martin Luther King Holiday, and the legislature nearly voted it down. I appointed the first two African American vice presidents of the University of Tennessee, but that did not happen until 1989. Our country, from its beginning, has truly been a work in progress.”