Talk:John C. Stennis

States rights or racism?
In some ways, Stennis' record on civil rights is similar to those of Goldwater, Robert Byrd, Sam Ervin and J. William Fulbright — all of whom opposed many federal civil rights bills not out of racism, but because they felt the bills gave the federal government too much power over the states.

This seems questionable. This may be true of Goldwater, who has a pretty decent record to show that he was not a racist, in spite of his opposition to the 1964 civil rights act. But even for him, and certainly for the others, this really smacks of apologetics. It is certainly true that someone like Stennis or Fulbright was not as virulently racist in his rhetoric as the Jimmy Eastlands and Strom Thurmonds of the day were. They certainly talked about states' rights, and such, as their reason for opposing civil rights. But we really oughtn't to treat their public statements as though they are transparent explanations of their positions. Political expediency seems like the most important motivator of the civil rights opposition of most of these guys. Racism also oughtn't to be dismissed - just because you're not as bad as Jimmy Eastland doesn't mean you're not a racist. john k (talk) 19:48, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Pure opinion
This article appears to be made up of pure opinion and has been tagged for lacking citations since 2007. Therefore, I will go through it and take out what appears to be value judgments (personal viewpoints) and leave what can be verified in the public record. This edit does not suffice for sourcing but it does penalize earlier versions for not citing documentation.Skywriter (talk) 00:40, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Typo
There is an incomplete/incoherent sentence in the text.

It reads: "Gen. Alexander Haig Fmr Nixon Chief of Staff

Stennis lost his left leg to cancer in 1984."

Not knowing the subject well, I have no idea how to fix it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.174.78.15 (talk) 21:06, 28 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Fixed. It was added in March as can be seen here, and that's how it was added. Thanks for bringing it to attention. - ALLST✰R ▼ echo wuz here 21:21, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Observation
Bear in mind that officeholders may heed the feelings of clear majorities of the voters they represent. Fulbright was described by Max Lerner (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=l8sfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qtgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4851,1917369&dq=get-re-elected+and+get-elected&hl=en) as an example of how a politician's first law is to get elected and second law is to get reelected. Rammer (talk) 16:48, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Religion
In the box Stennis is Presbyterian. In the categories he is Methodist. Which is accurate? Rammer (talk) 16:51, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Joseph McCarthy
The statement that Stennis was the first Democrat to criticize McCarthy on the floor of the Senates provides no details or citation. If his criticism postdated Senator William Benton's call for McCarthy's expulsion from the Senate in 1950 the statement is inaccurate. In any case a citation is needed.156.99.40.14 (talk) 21:42, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Hard of Hearing?
The article notes twice that John C. Stennis was "hard of hearing" but I can find no evidence, and it is uncited. 198.86.29.23 (talk) 02:24, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 25 September 2020

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. -- Calidum 02:14, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

John C. Stennis → John Stennis – WP:COMMONNAME and WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. During his career, most media reports prominently omitted the middle initial in headlines or leads (examples: 1973 Associated Press, 1984 Associated Press, 1985 Associated Press, 1995 Washington Post obituary). C-SPAN also used "John Stennis" in on-screen graphics. Arbor to SJ (talk) 02:16, 25 September 2020 (UTC) —Relisting. &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 13:34, 3 October 2020 (UTC)
 * This is a contested technical request (permalink). GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 17:14, 25 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Oppose. Usually known as John C. Stennis. Station1 (talk) 05:03, 25 September 2020 (UTC)
 * When it comes to Google search results strictly about the Senator rather than places or items named after him (like the John C. Stennis Space Center or USS John C. Stennis), "Sen. John Stennis" gets 38.5k results to "Sen. John C. Stennis" (25.9k). "Senator john stennis" has 20.5k, "Senator john c. stennis" 15.3k. Arbor to SJ (talk) 08:11, 26 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Aside from the fact that ghits aren't usually considered a good indicator, why would we discount the things that are named after him? After all, the current controversies about those names are what may be driving people to look him up in the first place. Besides the fact that things named after a person give you a good idea of the person's name. If we google just the name in quotes minus wikipedia it's about 7:1 in favor of the middle initial. Not to mention, that's how 1 of the 4 links you provided refers to him. Another one of those 4 uses his full middle name and the other two are snippets. He's referred to as John C. Stennis by the U.S. Senate, NASA, Getty Images, obituaries, books about him, how he referred to himself as an author, and what is written on his gravestone. - Station1 (talk) 19:57, 26 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Oppose. Perhaps that's what he used to be most commonly known as, but today he is most commonly known as "John C. Stennis", perhaps because of the USS John C. Stennis. Rreagan007 (talk) 19:46, 25 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Many items named after US senators include the middle initial as a formality such as the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Yet those senators' articles are named John McCain and Robert Byrd. When it comes to Google search results strictly about the Senator, "Sen. John Stennis" gets 38.5k results to "Sen. John C. Stennis" (25.9k). "Senator john stennis" has 20.5k, "Senator john c. stennis" 15.3k. Arbor to SJ (talk) 08:11, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

Civil Rights
Later in his political career, Stennis supported one piece of civil rights legislation, the 1982 extension of the Voting Rights Act, which passed in the Senate by an 85–8 vote.[115][116]

Stennis voted against and the vote tally was 86-8

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/97-1982/s669

I don't know the best way to correct this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.231.191.156 (talk) 04:08, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Stennis is the only politician to vote against all of these Acts.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Civil Rights Act of 1960

24th Amendment

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Extend Voting Rights Act 1970

Extend Voting Rights Act 1975

Extend Voting Rights Act 1982

These four were mentioned above.

Goldwater: yes 57, 62; no 64; not voting 60, 70, 75

R. Byrd: yes 57, 60, 62, 68, 75; no 64, 65, 70

Ervin: 57 not voting, 60-70 no

Fulbright, no up to 68, Yes in 70 >— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.231.191.156 (talk) 16:59, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Student Congress
The national student congress is no longer named after Stennis. The National Forensic League was renamed the National Speech and Debate Association over a decade ago. 136.35.126.240 (talk) 00:01, 28 July 2023 (UTC)