We shudder thinking about the buffoonery of the Virginia unit leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The venerable civil rights organization was started by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957.

On Tuesday, the 49th anniversary of Dr. King’s death, the Rev. William Avon Keen of Danville, president of the Virginia SCLC, and Andrew Shannon of Newport News, the Virginia SCLC’s vice president, met with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Washington and presented him with a proclamation lauding his civil rights record.

What???

Mr. Sessions, the former U.S. senator from Alabama, has no civil rights record to speak of. In fact, as a senator, he consistently opposed many of the crucial laws and programs he now is responsible for enforcing as attorney general.

He cheered the gutting of the federal Voting Rights Act provision that put Southern states with a history of racial discrimination and voter disenfranchisement under Justice Department oversight. During his confirmation hearing, he called the law “intrusive” and also said he doesn’t think voter ID laws are racially biased.

Among others, he opposed the Violence Against Women Act, same-sex marriage and equal pay for women.

In the 1980s, he led a failed prosecution of three civil rights workers for voter fraud. And when he was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan for a federal judgeship in 1986, he was successfully defeated after opposition by the national NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and People for the American Way.

Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott King, wrote a letter opposing his nomination for the judgeship.

It came out then that he’d made many racist remarks as a U.S. attorney, including joking that the Ku Klux Klan is “OK,” and calling an African-American attorney on his staff “boy.”

At the time, he called the NAACP “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” and claimed that the organization “forced civil rights down the throats of people.”

He also has accused the NAACP and other like-minded groups of teaching anti-American values, while he said the call to remove the Confederate flag from public buildings was an effort by “leftist groups” to “delegitimize the fabulous accomplishments of our country.”

His confirmation as attorney general was challenged by civil rights groups and individuals across the nation who believe he will do President Trump’s bidding in trying to turn back the clock on civil rights gains of the last 50 to 60 years.

They were right.

On Monday, Mr. Sessions put a hold on the U.S. Justice Department’s pacts with 14 police departments to end abuses and killings of African-American men, women and children.

While Mr. Sessions calls it a temporary halt while his office reviews the pacts, he said it was necessary to ensure they do not work against the Trump administration’s goals of promoting officer safety and morale while fighting violent crime.

A halt alone is anathema to civil rights and equal justice, principles Dr. King gave his life for 49 years ago.

For the Virginia SCLC president and vice president to hijack the mantle of the organization of Dr. King and present a documented racist like Mr. Sessions with a proclamation saying he is a champion of civil rights is a slap in the face to Dr. King, Coretta Scott King and all those who marched with them and who died in the fight for civil rights.

Dr. King must be turning over in his grave.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana offered this statement Tuesday on the anniversary of Dr. King’s death:

“The bullets that tore through the body of Dr. King on this day 49 years ago tore through the heart and soul of the African-American community. And sadly, even after Dr. King and his family sacrificed so much, the country has not realized his dream.

“Although we have made much progress since 1968, African-Americans still find themselves fighting the same battles. We face racial disparities in education, health care, housing, unemployment and many other areas of public life. We also face economic disparities such as wage discrimination, which is what Dr. King was in Memphis protesting.

“African-Americans have fought and died to make this country a more perfect union, and on this day every year, we feel the truth of that statement more deeply. The gunman who shot Dr. King killed the dreamer, but he did not kill the dream, and the Congressional Black Caucus will continue fighting for Dr. King’s dream by pushing and prodding this country to live up to its highest ideals.”

Don’t misunderstand: We have no quarrel with Rev. Keen and Mr. Shannon meeting with Mr. Sessions. Surely, the problems facing the African-American community and communities of color in this nation are vast and need redress. But what promises or payments were made for them to present Mr. Sessions with such a proclamation?

We don’t need our leaders to make Stepin Fetchit moves. We need men and women of substance and backbone who can meet our detractors on our own terms.

Whatever Rev. Keen and Mr. Shannon hoped to gain, they failed miserably.