Jeff Sessions, 1st U.S. Senator to endorse Trump, is picked for Attorney General

Another sad day for America.

Donald Trump Selects Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.  (The New York Times, 11/18/2016)

While serving as a United States prosecutor in Alabama, Mr. Sessions was nominated in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan for a federal judgeship. But his nomination was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee because of racially charged comments and actions. At that time, he was one of two judicial nominees whose selections were halted by the panel in nearly 50 years.

Reported at Specter of Race Shadows Jeff Sessions, Potential Trump Nominee for Cabinet.  (The New York Times, 11/16/2016)

Jefferson Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama, on December 24, 1946.  I imagine his views on race were well-formed by the time he made the above commment -- at the age of 34.

Related reading:
Sen. Jeff Sessions: Loyal To Trump, Defined By Race And Immigration.  (NPR, 7/14/2016)

That's when Sessions first gained national attention over the issue of race. He prosecuted three black civil rights workers for voter fraud. And Hank Sanders was one of their defense lawyers. 

"They called them voter fraud cases, and we called them voter persecution cases. Not prosecution, persecution. It was all about stopping black folks from voting, in our opinion," said Sanders, who's also a Democratic state senator in Selma. 

Sessions accused the defendants of crimes like forging signatures on absentee ballots — and in less than three hours of deliberating, the jury delivered zero convictions.