Opponents Ready Testimony

Many civil rights and civil liberties groups have opposed the nomination, and more than a dozen representatives of the groups were prepared to testify against it. Also prepared to testify was a defendant in the Perry County case, Albert Turner, who helped lead the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and Thomas Figures, a black attorney who once worked for Mr. Sessions in Alabama.

The testimony referred to most often by Senators critical of Mr. Sessions was a sworn statement by Gerald Hebert, who had worked in the Alabama Attorney General's office and is now an attorney in the Justice Department's civil rights division.

In his statement, referred to by Senators Biden and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, Mr. Hebert said that Mr. Sessions once referred to a white lawyer from Alabama who has litigated many civil rights cases, James Blacksher, as ''a disgrace to his race.'' Mr. Hebert also said that Mr. Sessions had made the negative references to the N.A.A.C.P. and the A.C.L.U.

Mr. Figures also presented the committee with an affidavit. Both Mr. Figures and Mr. Hebert quoted Mr. Sessions as saying that he used to think the Klu Klux Klan ''was O.K. until I found out they smoked pot.'' Question of Sensitivity

Referring to that allegation, Mr. Biden asked, ''Don't you think it was insensitive to say such a thing in the presence of a black man, after a black man had just been hanged by Klan members?''