Melder's Musings

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to apologize for its failure to outlaw lynching. Beside the fact that it's taken this long to pass such a resolution, it's more disturbing that a number of southern senators (who just so happen to be Republicans) did not co-sponsor the resolution.

As you might expect, Mississippi's Trent Lott is among them.

Trent Lott’s refusal to sign onto the anti-lynching resolution that is only the most recent addition to Lott’s long record of racism. Lott failed to join other senators in cosponsoring the resolution apologizing to the victims of lynching, and the descendants of those victims.

Let's review Uncle Trent's record:

• In December 2002, Lott was ousted as Senate Majority Leader after making comments about how the country would be better off had then-segregationist Strom Thurmond been elected President in 1948. Lott said, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." [The Washington Post, 12/10/02]
• Lott Made Almost Identical Comments in 1980. "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." [The Washington Post, 12/12/02]
• Lott Opposed the Voting Rights Act. In 1981, then-Representative Lott was one of 24 House members to oppose extending the Voting Rights Act, which “struck down obstacles between minorities and polling places.” [The Washington Post, 12/13/02]
• Lott Opposed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and declared King undeserving. In 1983, Lott was one of 98 House members to oppose making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday. In an interview after the fact, Lott said: "Look at the cost involved in the Martin Luther King holiday and the fact that we have not done it for a lot of other people that were more deserving." [The Washington Post, 12/13/02]
• In 1989, Lott was one of seven republican senators to vote against $300,000 in funding for the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. Lott was also one of 11 senators to vote for a separate amendment to delete the $300,000 in federal funding for the Commission. [The Washington Post, 12/13/02; Vote #57, 5/2/89; Vote #52, 5/2/89]
• In 1994, Sen. Lott was one of only 28 senators to support an amendment prohibiting federal funding for the King commission. [The Washington Post, 12/13/02; Vote #127, 5/24/94]
• Lott supported Bob Jones University. In 1981, Lott filed a brief, albeit unsuccessfully, with the Supreme Court supporting tax exempt status for Bob Jones University despite the universities policies which discriminate against minorities and prohibiting interracial dating. “In his brief … he argued that ‘racial discrimination does not always violate public policy,’ and that ‘to hold that this religious institution is subject to tax because of its interracial dating policies would clearly raise grave First Amendment questions.’” [The Washington Post, 12/13/02]
• Lott opposed Hate-Crimes Legislation. In 1990, Sen. Lott was one of four senators to vote against a bill to require the Dept. of Justice to compile hate-crime statistics on assaults linked to prejudice and race. [The Washington Post, 12/13/02; Vote #13, 2/8/90]

Allow me to borrow a phrase from Trent's friend Haley: "Mississippi can do better."