James Eastland

James Eastland

James Oliver Eastland (November 28, 1904 – February 19, 1986) was an American politician from Mississippi who served in the United States Senate as a Democrat in 1941; and again from 1943 until his resignation on December 27, 1978. He has been called the "Voice of the White South" and the "Godfather of Mississippi Politics." A Dixiecrat, Eastland was known as the symbol of Southern resistance to racial integration during the civil rights era, often speaking of blacks as "an inferior race."The son of a prominent attorney, politician and cotton planter, Eastland attended the local schools of Scott County, Mississippi, and took courses at several universities, including the University of Mississippi, Vanderbilt University and the University of Alabama.

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