Black lawmakers say Sen. Jeff Sessions unfit to be attorney general

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. listens at left as Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, at the second day of a confirmation hearing for Attorney General-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. listens at left as Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, at the second day of a confirmation hearing for Attorney General-designate, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

By Associated Press January 11, 2017 12 min read

WASHINGTON – Black lawmakers said Wednesday that Sen. Jeff Sessions at times has shown hostility toward civil rights, making him unfit to be attorney general, as a 1986 letter from the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., surfaced strongly expressing opposition to the Alabama senator.

In the second day of confirmation hearings, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Sessions’ colleague, and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who was beaten when he marched for civil rights in the 1960s, warned that Sessions could move the country backward if confirmed as Donald Trump’s top law enforcement official.

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Booker said the “arc of the universe does not just naturally curve toward justice, we must bend it,” and the country needs an attorney general who is determined to bend it.

“Senator Sessions’ record does not speak to that desire, intention, or will,” Booker said, noting his opposition to overhauling the criminal justice system and his positions on other issues affecting minority groups.

Lewis told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the country needs “someone who’s going to stand up, speak up and speak out for the people that need help, the people who have been discriminated against.”