Ernie Chambers
Ernest William Chambers is an American politician and civil rights activist who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature from 1971 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2021. He could not run in 2020 due to term limits.
Chambers is the longest-serving state senator in Nebraska history, having represented North Omaha for 46 years. For most of his career, Chambers was the only nonwhite senator. He is the only African-American to have run for governor and the first to have run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska history. For years he was the only openly atheist member of any state legislature in the United States.
Early life
Chambers was born in the Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, to Malcolm Chambers, a local minister, and Lillian Chambers. His father's family originally came from Mississippi and his mother's family originally came from Louisiana. He has six siblings, who were all born in Omaha.In 1955, Chambers graduated from Omaha Tech High School. In 1959, he graduated from Creighton University with a B.A. in history, with minors in Spanish and philosophy. He attended Creighton University School of Law in the early 1960s and completed his degree in 1979.
He refused to join the Nebraska State Bar Association, so was unable to practice law; in 2015, he explained his refusal on the grounds that he had earned the right to practice by passing law school, and should not have to pay the Bar Association dues as well.
Career
Omaha Post Office
In 1963, when Chambers was 25, he worked for the Omaha Post Office. He has said he was fired for insubordination because he spoke out against the management at the Post Office calling the black staff "boys". He picketed the Postmaster General's speech in Omaha with a sign that read, "I spoke against discrimination in the Omaha Post Office and was fired."Summer 1966 riots
During a series of heat waves in 1966, there were two disturbances in Omaha. In July, the Nebraska National Guard was summoned to restore order after police and black teenagers clashed three nights in a row. In early August, a series of riots occurred over three nights. Chambers worked as a spokesperson for the community during both conflicts, meeting with Mayor A.V. Sorenson and helping to end the riots.During this period, Chambers emerged as a prominent leader in the North Omaha community, where he successfully negotiated concessions from the city's leaders on behalf of North Omaha's African-American youth. Chambers headed a committee of the Near North Side Police-Community Relations Council, collated information, and presented numerous complaints about the police to city officials. The African-American community had previously been led by more established organizations like Omaha Urban League and the local chapter of the NAACP, not an emerging young anti-establishment leader like Chambers.
Chambers was working as a barber at the time, and appeared in the Oscar-nominated 1966 documentary film A Time for Burning, where he talked about race relations in Omaha.
Nebraska Legislature
In 1968, Chambers ran for a position on the Omaha School Board, but was not elected. He also failed as a write-in candidate for the Omaha City Council in 1969. In 1970 he was elected to represent North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature, replacing George W. Althouse, who had been appointed to replace Senator Edward Danner, who had died in office. During the election, a policeman was killed in a deserted house by a bomb. Two Black Panthers, David Rice and Edward Poindexter, were charged in the death. Chambers protested, as he thought the men had been framed by COINTELPRO.Chambers was reelected to the Legislature in every ensuing election through 2004. On April 25, 2005, Chambers became Nebraska's longest-serving state senator, having served for more than 35 years. He was not allowed to seek reelection in 2008 because of a constitutional amendment Nebraska voters passed in 2000 that limits Nebraska state legislators to two consecutive four-year terms. But the amendment permits senators to seek reelection to their office after sitting out for four years, and Chambers defeated incumbent Brenda Council in 2012 by a "landslide".
Chambers also ran for the United States Senate in 1988 as a New Alliance Party candidate. He petitioned to be included on the 1974 ballot for governor of Nebraska and also ran for governor in 1994, receiving 0.43% of the vote.
South African divestment
Because of a legislative resolution Chambers introduced in 1980, Nebraska became the first state to divest from South Africa in protest of apartheid. Upon discovering that the University of Nebraska held several hundred gold Krugerrands as an investment, Chambers introduced a nonbinding resolution calling for reinvestment of state pension funds that had been invested directly or indirectly in South Africa. The resolution argued that apartheid was contrary to Nebraska's principles of human rights and legal equality.Nebraska's divestment caused little immediate change in business practices; David Packard of Hewlett-Packard said, "I'd rather lose business in Nebraska than with South Africa." But other state governments and eventually the federal government followed Nebraska's example, contributing to the end of apartheid. Chambers spearheaded a stronger 1984 law mandating divestment, resulting in Nebraska's public employee pension funds divesting $14.6 million in stocks issued by companies that did business with South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu later visited Lincoln, where he remarked that Nebraska had helped to end apartheid. The state government conspicuously did not invite Chambers to Tutu's speaking event.
''Marsh v. Chambers''
Chambers filed a lawsuit in 1980 attempting to end the Legislature's practice of beginning its session with a prayer offered by a state-supported chaplain, arguing that it was unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The district court held that the prayer did not violate the Constitution, but that state support for the chaplain did. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that both practices violated the Constitution, but in Marsh v. Chambers, the Supreme Court held by a 6–3 vote that both practices were constitutional because of the United States' "unique history".1986 NCAA student athletes as state employees
Chambers has promoted recognizing NCAA student athletes as state employees since the 1980s, arguing that they are generating revenue for their universities without any legal benefits for doing so, which encourages illegal payments and gifts. A bill on this issue was passed by the Legislature but was unable to overcome the governor's veto. After it was revealed that requiring student athletes to be recognized as state employees would jeopardize any university's NCAA standing, the language of the bill was changed so that a university could allow for players to be paid a stipend, after which the bill passed and was signed by the governor in 2003.1989 Franklin scandal
According to The New York Times, unidentified people present at a closed meeting reported that Chambers claimed he heard credible reports of "boys and girls, some of them from foster homes, who had been transported around the country by airplane to provide sexual favors, for which they were rewarded."Investigating what became known as the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations, a Nebraska grand jury was convened to investigate the allegations and possibly return indictments. Eventually, the grand jury ruled the entire matter was "a carefully crafted hoax," although they failed to identify the perpetrators of the hoax.
1993 LGBT anti-discrimination bill
Nebraska's LGBT community has considered Chambers an ally since the 1970s. In 1993, he co-sponsored a bill to prohibit employment discrimination by sexual orientation. The bill faced fierce opposition. Opponents of the anti-discrimination legislation formed a Nebraska chapter of the Traditional Values Coalition and brought activist Lou Sheldon to Lincoln to organize antigay rallies outside the Capitol building.Despite the opposition, Chambers sponsored another LGBT anti-discrimination bill in 1995. He continued to support similar measures throughout his career in the legislature. None of them have been successful.
2006 Omaha Public Schools controversy
In April 2006, Chambers introduced legislative bill 1024, an amendment to a bill that would divide the Omaha Public Schools district into three different districts. The bill and its amendment were created in response to an effort by the district to "absorb a string of largely white schools that were within the Omaha city limits but were controlled by suburban or independent districts." Omaha Schools claimed that the usurpation was necessary to avoid financial and racial inequity, but supporters of LB 1024 contested the district's expansion, favoring more localized control. The bill received national attention and some critics called it "state-sponsored segregation".LB 641, passed in 2007, repealed and superseded LB 1024, restoring pre-2006 Omaha-area school district boundaries, after which a "learning community" was created to equalize student achievement in Douglas and Sarpy counties.
2007 lawsuit against God
Some members of the Nebraska legislature attempted to ban frivolous lawsuits from Nebraska's court system in 2007. Chambers believed that this attempt was misguided, and that access to the court system should not be restricted. To dramatize his point that the court system must be entirely open, Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County district court in September 2007. It argued that God has caused "widespread death, destruction, and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."Nebraska media inaccurately reported that Chambers's lawsuit against God was intended as an ironic protest against frivolous lawsuits. Chambers clarified that, on the contrary, his lawsuit against God "emphasized that attempts by the Legislature to prohibit the filing of any lawsuit would run afoul of the Nebraska Constitution's guarantee that the doors to the courthouse must be open to everyone."
The Westboro Baptist Church filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit arguing that Chambers did not have standing to sue, and that he was "fully deserving of the outpourings of God's fierce wrath." In response, Chambers voiced disagreement with the church but argued that the church's access to the court system must be protected, just like his.
The lawsuit was dismissed in October 2008 because a summons notifying God of the lawsuit could not be delivered to the defendant, who has no listed address. Chambers countered that, because of God's omniscience, God had been notified, but decided not to pursue the suit further.