Douglas Alexander: “I come at this differently than the Senator from Mississippi. I don't know Charles Pickering. I have met him briefly…”

“I come at this differently than the Senator from Mississippi. I don't know Charles Pickering. I have met him briefly only twice. But I care about the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bridget Lipscomb and I have studied his record diligently. Nearly 40 years ago, I was a law clerk on the Fifth Circuit for the great Judge John Minor Wisdom. I have been trying to think of something to say to the Members on the other side to help them change their minds on this nomination. Judge Wisdom was a member of the Federal court that ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith to Ole Miss. The Fifth Circuit played a crucial role in desegregating the South. Judges Tuttle, Rives, Brown, and Wisdom were real heroes at that time. Crosses were burned in front of their homes. I will have more to say about this, but Judge Pickering is a worthy successor to the court of Judges Wisdom, Tuttle, Rives, and Brown. While those judges were ordering the desegregation of Deep South schools, while crosses were being burned in front of their homes, Judge Pickering was enrolling his children in those same newly desegregated schools, and Judge Pickering in his hometown was testifying in court against Sam Bowers, the man the Baton Rouge Advocate called the 'most violent living racist,' at a time when people were killing people based on race. Many of my generation have changed their minds about race in the South over the last 40 years.”