I might point out in this regard, when I was appointed to the State supreme court I had many appeals pending in the State supreme court from my circuit court. Of course, I disqualified myself on all those. I have to prosecute some men for the death penalty for murder in the State prison. They were sentenced to death and by that time, by the time the State supreme court affirmed it I was Governor of the State and they applied for executive clemency. I disqualified myself and asked the Lieutenant Governor to pass on it. I don't think a man should sit in judgment on any of his own acts and deeds whether he did them privately or in a public capacity. I heard some talk here yesterday about the United States being Mississippi. Apparently the legislature has repealed everything in United States against Mississippi. If it came up before me I would have to disqualify myself because I was Attorney General when that legislation was passed. I didn't have anything to do than somebody in the next State, but the only fair thing to do was to disqualify myself and have some judge designated who hadn't touched it and that's it.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. You recognize the power of the United States to sue a State?

Mr. COLEMAN. Yes, I think that is well settled. It was in doubt at some point in our history.

Senator ERVIN. It is a quite interesting point. One of the men who is most responsible for the ratification of the Constitution, Hamilton, stated that the Constitution only allows the State to be sued in the Supreme Court of the United States because the drafters of the Constitution thought that it would be unbecoming to have a State answer in a lower court.

Mr. COLEMAN. I believe the question has been settled.

L

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. I am wondering if you would elaborate on the commitment of Clennon King which I think has been talked about briefly. I understand he was a Negro and was committed to a State mental institution. Specificially, in reference to your comments in 1963 that, "The only racial trouble in this State from 1956 to 1960 was when Negro Clennon King decided he wanted to go to Ol' Miss. He went in the front door and out the back door to another institution (a State mental hospital). He decided then he wanted to leave the State, and he hasn't been back since."

Mr. COLEMAN. I think Professor King is now in Ethiopia, but before that he was in California and I had letters from him about this matter which I think it would be very interesting for me to read to the committee, but I want to give the background on it.

Professor Clennon King was a professor at Alcorn A. & M. which is a college for Negro students. That was in 1957. He was preaching segregation of the races and it offended the student body to the extent that they all walked out. They all left the institution. They boycotted it. The only way it was resolved was by stopping him from teaching at Alcorn, although we had to continue paying his salary and he went to classrooms there for a year and no student would meet with him and the students all came back after we discontinued his services. That was my first acquaintance with King.

Next, there were other instances which I think is in a spirit of fairness- -I won't repeat them here today, which did give, did raise doubts in my mind about his mental stability. But in any event, about May

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of 1958 he announced that on a certain day he was going to go to Ol' Miss and enroll in the graduate school, although he had not filed his transcript of his credits at the undergraduate level, that he was going to stay until he got satisfaction and he didn't care whether he was killed or put in jail, although nobody threatened him with being put in jail. Anyway, he went to Ol' Miss and it was an explosive situation from the standpoint of the publicity he gave it and the statements

he made.

I took it upon myself as Governor of the State to prevent—where we had no incidents and where we had no trouble-so I went to the Ol' Miss campus in person. I didn't delegate anybody, and I took the attorney general of the State with me and other officers and he was permitted to go upon the campus and to go to the room where the students were being registered and did in fact sign his registration papers and then he said he was going to conduct a sit-down and he was going to stay there until that was acted upon by the university authorities. That was reported to me and I told the Commissioner of public safety to go back and tell Professor King that he had been protected by the State of Mississippi and to please leave. Instead of leaving he sat down. Then he began to shout-that somebody was trying to kill him and so forth and so on, so I told, by two-way radio-I told the officers to take him off the campus and release him-just turn him loose we had no idea of detaining him at that time. Well, on the way off the campus he began to make a lot of threats about what he was going to do as soon as he was released-he would be back on the campus-even if he had to kill his way in and things of that kind. So I said, well, I think the best thing to do is to find out whether he is mentally sane or not. So he was taken to Jackson, detained overnight, examined by two doctors the next day as the State law requires, one being a county health officer, who certified that in their opinion that there was doubt as to his sanity and he was then given a trial before the judge of the chancery court which is a judge that handles such cases, represented by counsel and was committed to the State hospital.

After he had been out there some time-I don't remember how long-the superintendent called me and said, "Governor, this man has personality problems, but I don't think he has psychosis and I think he ought to be released."

I said, "Well, release him. There is no point in detaining him if he is mentally all right.”

So he was released and later he went to California and about 15 months afterward, October 1959, I had a letter from him which I did look up the other day because I remembered receiving a letter from him. He said:

I am deeply sorry for all the inconveniences caused when I was sufficiently fortunate to be a Mississippian, but did not appreciate the privilege. The chronic campaign to fake Mississippi as the sick State of America has never disgusted me more. And to think I have been a tool of this fraud ***.

Mississippi is a great State, as all genuine Mississippians, black and white, well know. Many of the greatest Negro names are her daughters and sons. The terrible tragedy is that they are not able to speak their gratitude out loud. Again, I am sorry for the fodder which I furnished ill-trained guns. Had I unflinchingly stood my original ground the Negro people who want the whole truth would have ultimately found in me a towering enlightenment. My solace

before God is that my mistake came from the frailty of socially pressured human judgment and not the pure goodness of the heart. With much contrition, I am, Respectfully yours.

CLENNON KING.

Since then he has gone to Ethiopia and is conducting a school over there. It is obvious that he had no ill will toward me about that episode. He went at it in his way and he wrote this letter. That is October 15, 1959.

When this came up in connection with my confirmation I remembered receiving it and my secretary was able to go to my files and find it.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. When did he go to Ethiopia? Mr. COLEMAN. I am sorry, I don't know. I saw a letter which was not mine which he wrote recently from Ethiopia in which he said he hoped I would be confirmed to the court of appeals, if I may be allowed to quote it.

It may seem facetious, but that is what he wrote.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Governor, as a Governor, with the amount of patronage that is available- what was your record as of-as Governor from 1956 to 1960 in hiring Negroes?

Mr. COLEMAN. Well, believe it or not, the Governor in Mississippi-the office of Governor in Mississippi is a very weak setup from the standpoint of patronage and appointments. We have a long ballot in Mississippi. We elect everything from the public service commissioner to the secretary of agriculture, secretary of state and everything else. I did have power to make some appointments-appointments to key positions which had to be confirmed by the senate. In some appointments, in keeping with the policy of the State of Mississippi at that time, other than in the public school system and in the colleges and universities there were not many Negroes employed. I can't tell you how many or how few. I just haven't been thinking about that recently.

The policy of the State at that time was, and I think it remains essentially, qualified electors are employed and up until that time very few of them had qualified as electors.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Can you submit later on for the record a record of the employment?

Mr. COLEMAN. I will check into that. I will be happy to and state just what the facts were about it.

(Subsequent to the hearing, the following information was received:) Senator JAMES O. EASTLAND,

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

Senate Office Building,

Washington, D.C.:

In response to your inquiry with regard to the number of white and colored employees in State and local governmental service in Mississippi, the public employees retirement system of Mississippi, which covers approximately 96 percent of all public employees in the State has not kept its records by race since its inception in 1952, and has never made any differential in payments of benefits because of race, creed, or religion. We, therefore, have no way of estimating the number of white or colored workers in State service.

W. R. HOUGH, Executive Secretary. Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. I want to thank you, Mr. Coleman.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask unanimous consent for two letters that I received, one from Mr. Ralph McGill, of the Atlanta Constitution, which expresses the hope of confirmation for Governor Coleman to the fifth circuit-that it be included in the record, and also a letter from Professor Howe who appeared at an earlier time in opposition to the appointment of Governor Coleman and would like that included in the record.

Senator ERVIN. Without objection so ordered. (The letters referred to follow :)

Senator EDWARD KENNEDY,
Senate Office Building,

Washington, D.C.

THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
Atlanta, Ga., July 1, 1965.

DEAR SENATOR KENNEDY: I hope you will permit me to address this letter to you concerning the controversy of the confirmation of former Gov. J. P. Coleman of Mississippi to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I have not been asked to testify, but I feel impelled to write you as a member of the committee. I think Mr. Coleman, if confirmed, will become a judge who, in every way, will not merely sustain the laws of our country but also the spirit of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

In other words, I believe Mr. Coleman to be a man of competence and integrity of character whose oath of office will be taken without any reservation whatever. Those of us who have been deeply interested in obtaining and implementing civil rights long have been aware of the great gulf, or lack, that exists in opportunity for the Negro citizen. Because of the iniquitous system of segregation, his educational and training opportunities have been inferior if not, in fact, nonexistent. We now face the requirement for accelerated, even crash, programs to somehow close this gap.

In a very real sense this applies also to those men who have been for years active in southern politics. Because of the fact that the Negro was very largely deprived of the ballot and of education, he was therefore not able to function fully as a citizen. Statistics show that the white southerner, because he, too, was captive of a restrictive system and also suffered educational and economic lacks, participated as a voter far less than did white citizens of other States.

This produced a situation in which the southern politician of good will and purpose and integrity often had to make public statements which never jibed with his deeds or his character. This was a matter of political survival. For generations in the South even our best men had to seek office in this manner. A look at the speeches by Governor Coleman and a similar look at his deeds and obvious character will illustrate this point very well.

I very much hope those organizations that are opposing Mr. Coleman will rethink the situation. I believe he will be a good appointment.

Respectfully,

RALPH MCGILL.

LAW SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
Cambridge, Mass., July 5, 1965.

Hon. EDWARD M. KENNEDY,
U.S. Senate,

Washington, D.C.

MY DEAR SENATOR: On Tuesday, June 29, I was in Washington, prepared to make an informal statement to the Senate subcommittee with respect to the nomination of Governor Coleman to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Since it is doubtful whether I shall be able to return when the hearings resume I thought it appropriate to give you, as a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, a brief summary of what I would have said had Tuesday's hearings gone forward. I would have expressed opposition to the nomination. What I would have attempted to do was indicate that in normal circumstances I would be quite willing to rely upon the hope that a lawyer as able as Governor Coleman surely is would not, on the bench, feel a commitment to stand by the constitutional heresies to which he gave such ardent lipservice when he served as attorney general and Governor of Mississippi. I am not so isolated from the realities of

political life in the South as to suppose that one can become the holder of high offices in Mississippi without making concessions to the false constitutional doctrine which has dominated that State for something like 100 years. I do not find it wholly impossible, accordingly, to share the President's hope that if Governor Coleman were vested with the authority of a Federal judge he might abandon, if not repudiate the heresy which heretofore has so often controlled his public speech and affected his public conduct. In view of the conditions which now prevail in the Fifth Circuit, however, I cannot persuade myself that an appointment to a judicial vacancy in that circuit is justified when it is based upon the hope that a political record already made will have no bearing on a judicial responsibility yet to be fulfilled. I feel sure that you are thoroughly familiar with the unhappy and most precarious conditions that now prevail in the U. S. Courts in the Fifth Circuit the circuit which has experienced the full impact of the heresy of interposition so frequently acclaimed by Governor Coleman. The thorough note in 73 Yale Law Journal 90 accurately described the critical condition of Federal law, Federal authority, and civil rights in the Fifth Circuit. It is the painful urgency of that situation which seems to me to require a higher degree of confidence than any that can be derived from the hope that the Governor's old ways will be abandoned when he swears once more, and in a new capacity, to enforce and sustain the laws and Constitution of the United States. I do not assert that the hope is unfounded. I merely say that it is an inadequate justification for this nomination to this office, in this place, at this time.

Political tradition and power seem to make impossible two alternative courses of conduct. One would be to name a Mississippian who has managed to avoid either the fact or the appearances of that commitment to interposition which makes this nomination so questionable. I happen to find it impossible to believe that the bar of Mississippi does not include at least one lawyer of distinguished ability who has not impaired his national reputation by commitments to constitutional heresy like Governor Coleman's. If I am wrong in that assumption— or if the chairman of the Judiciary Committee would not permit a Mississippian who has not surrendered his American reputation into local hands to be considered for this judgeship-then I would remind you that there is nothing to require the selection to be made from the State of Mississippi. I realize, of course, that the chairman is likely to find this means of circumventing his powers of interposition wholly intolerable. The fact that neither of the alternatives that I suggest is politically feasible reflects the fact, I suppose, that the Senate and the President are naturally unwilling to bring this matter of interposition to a test, for they realize that Senator Eastland would probably succeed in blocking any appointment which does not offer at least the possibility that the new member of the court of appeals will be faithful to the lost cause.

Given these circumstances I hope that the Committee on the Judiciary will not overlook the fact that there is no impelling necessity that the Cameron vacancy on the court of appeals be presently filled. In my judgment it would clearly be preferable to provide the necessary personnel for carrying the extremely heavy burdens which must be borne by the court in the fifth circuit by assigning judges from other circuits to temporary service there. It would, of course, be more desirable to find a qualified lawyer from the vast area of the fifth circuit and name him to Judge Cameron's vacancy. If the arrogance of senatorial courtesy makes that course impossible I hope that you and others on the Judiciary Committee will insist that it is better at this time to proceed by the special assignment of sitting judges than by the appointment of a political figure who at a time of constitutional crisis preferred to seek local power than to advance national principle. Most Americans, I feel sure, are quite willing to forgive Governor Coleman for having made that choice. Many of us, however, are unwilling to consider the choice irrelevant to the holding of high judicial office in the Federal court which, above all other courts in the land, needs at this moment the highest fortitude of principle if it is to make the laws and Constitution of the United States living realities throughout the Deep South.

Very sincerely yours,

MARK DEWOLFE HOWE.

Senator JAVITS. May I suggest that we include the letter of June 29, 1965, from the Senators requesting that the nominee be asked certain questions.

Senator ERVIN. Yes. But I think it puts an incorrect construction on the decisions of the Federal court with respect to segregated