And the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote today on the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering from Mississippi. Pickering’s nomination has been strongly condemned by Democrats and civil rights groups who claim he is racist. Opponents cite one case in which Pickering pressured prosecutors to drop charges against a man convicted of burning a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple. 80 historians of the South and the African American Experience who have signed a petition opposing the elevation of Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Among the historians was John Hope Franklin of Duke University.