NAACP seeks answers in police-custody death

Birmingham NAACP President Bernard Simelton says he has no confidence that Jeff Sessions can be an impartial attorney general. (Albert Cesare /The Montgomery Advertiser via AP)

(AP File Photo)

The president of the NAACP and the head of the group's Mobile branch are occupying the Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions' Mobile office until he withdraws from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general or the group gets arrested.

The @NAACP & @AlabamaNAACP are occupying the Mobile office of @jeffsessions--untill he withdraws as a AG nominee or we're arrested.@tvonetv pic.twitter.com/7uceDDpz1Y — Cornell William Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) January 3, 2017

The protest at Sessions' Mobile Senate office was among several demonstrations held statewide against Sessions' nomination.

Sessions was the U.S. attorney in Mobile in the mid-1980s when then-President Ronald Reagan nominated him for a federal judgeship. But the nomination failed amid allegations that Sessions made racist remarks toward a colleague, said the Ku Klux Klan was "O.K." until he learned that members smoked marijuana and that he called the NAACP and liberal organizations "un-American" and "communist-inspired."

"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.

But Sessions' supporters said he was the victim of a smear campaign in the 1980s to derail his nomination. They pointed to Sessions successfully seeking the death penalty against a KKK member Henry Francis Hays in the murder of a black Alabama man.

A spokeswoman for Sessions' confirmation said the characterizations of the senator are "false portrayals," pointing out that the attorney general nominee has the support of black elected officials.

"Jeff Sessions has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption. Many African-American leaders who've known him for decades attest to this and have welcomed his nomination to be the next Attorney General," Sarah Isgur Flores said in an emailed statement.

Black supporters of Sessions include Alabama Senate Democratic Leader Quinton Ross and Alabama civil rights attorney and Sessions' law school classmate, Donald Watkins.

"These false portrayals of Senator Sessions will fail as tired, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited," Flores continued. "From the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Sheriffs Association to civil rights leaders and African-American elected officials, to victims' rights organizations, Senator Sessions has inspired confidence from people across the country that he will return the Department of Justice to an agency the American people can be proud of once again."

Jackson denied that he was dismissing such facts in his assessment of Sessions, but said he thought the case was "just a pebble in the ocean" of evidence against the Alabama senator.

Similar news conferences were staged in Montgomery, Dothan, Huntsville and Mobile, where national NAACP President Cornell William Brooks joined Alabama NAACP President Bernard Simelton to rebuke Sessions.

"As a matter of conscience and conviction, we can neither be mute nor mumble our opposition to Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions becoming attorney general of the United States," Brooks said in a statement. "Sen. Sessions has callously ignored the reality of voter suppression but zealously prosecuted innocent civil rights leaders on trumped up charges of voter fraud. As an opponent of the vote, he can't be trusted to be the chief law enforcement officer for voting rights."

"Despite 30 years of our nation moving forward on inclusion and against hate, Jeff Sessions has failed to change his ways," added Simelton. "He's been a threat to desegregation and the Voting Rights Act and remains a threat to all of our civil rights, including the right to live without the fear of police brutality."