Council of Conservative Citizens

The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC or CCC) is an American white supremacist organization.<ref name="ADL report">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name = "graham2015">Template:Cite web</ref> Founded in 1985, it advocates white nationalism, and supports some paleoconservative causes.<ref name="A Space for Hate">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the organization's statement of principles, it states that they "oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind".<ref name="Statement of Principles">Template:Cite web</ref>

Headquartered in Potosi, Missouri,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Earl Holt III has been the group's president since 2015; Jared Taylor is the group's spokesman, and Paul Fromm is its international director.<ref name=roof>Template:Cite news</ref>

The CofCC traces its provenance to the segregationist White Citizens' Councils of America, which were founded in 1954, but had slipped into obscurity by 1973. The CofCC's original mailing list came from the Citizen's Council, as did several members of the CofCC Board of Directors.<ref name="adl">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The Council of Conservative Citizens was founded in 1985 in Atlanta, Georgia, and relocated to St. Louis, Missouri. The CofCC was formed by white supremacists, including some former members of the Citizens' Councils of America, sometimes called the White Citizens' Councils, a segregationist organization that was prominent in the 1950s through 1970. Lester Maddox, former governor of Georgia, was a charter member.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gordon Lee Baum, a retired personal injury lawyer, was CEO until he died in March 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Earl P. Holt III of Longview, Texas<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is the president. Leonard Wilson, a former Alabama State Committeeman for both Republican and Democratic parties and state commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, was a founder.<ref name="ma080710">Template:Cite news</ref>

The organization often holds meetings with various other ethno-nationalist organizations in the United States, and sometimes meets with nationalist organizations from Europe. In 1997, several members of the CofCC attended an event hosted by Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front party.

Following several articles detailing some of its members' past involvement with the White Citizens' Councils, several conservative politicians distanced themselves from the organization. Although Representative Bob Barr had spoken at CofCC functions, in 1999 he rejected the group, saying he found the group's racial views to be "repugnant," and that he had not realized the nature of the group when he agreed to speak at the group's meeting.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Barr gave the keynote speech at its 1998 national convention.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In later years, the press reported the involvement of other politicians with the CofCC. For instance, U.S. Senate majority leader Trent Lott had also been a member of the CofCC. Following the press report, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Jim Nicholson, denounced the CofCC for holding "racist and nationalist views" and demanded that Lott formally denounce the organization. Although Lott refused to denounce the organization, he said that he had resigned his membership. Subsequently, Nicholson demanded Lott denounce his former segregationist views following a speech he gave at Senator Strom Thurmond's birthday dinner in 2002, when Lott praised the Senator's 1948 Dixiecrat presidential campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following the controversy sparked by Nicholson's demands, Lott apologized for his past support for segregation, his past associations, and his remarks at Thurmond's birthday. This caused him loss of support from a number of important segregationists, not least Thurmond himself. Consequently, Lott resigned his post as Senate Minority Leader.

Similarly, former House minority leader Dick Gephardt (D) had attended an event of the organization's St. Louis predecessor, the "Metro-South Citizens Council", shortly before the name was changed in the mid-1980s. He has repeatedly said that this was a mistake.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1993, Mike Huckabee, then the lieutenant governor of Arkansas, agreed to speak at the CofCC's national convention in Memphis, Tennessee, in his campaign for the governorship of Arkansas. By the time of the CofCC convention, Huckabee was unable to leave Arkansas. He sent a videotaped speech, which "was viewed and extremely well received by the audience," according to the CofCC newsletter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, following his election as governor, in April 1994, Huckabee withdrew from a speaking engagement before the CofCC. He commented, "I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting racism and anti-Semitism."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Miami Herald tallied 38 federal, state, and local politicians who appeared at CofCC events between 2000 and 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says the following politicians are members or have spoken at meetings: Senator Trent Lott, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, Mississippi state senators Gary Jackson, and Dean Kirby, several Mississippi state representatives. Speakers have included ex-governors Guy Hunt of Alabama, and Kirk Fordice of Mississippi. U.S. senator Roger Wicker<ref name="SPLC CCC Wicker">Template:Cite web</ref> of Mississippi is said to have attended as well.<ref name="adl.org">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2005, the Council of Conservative Citizens held its National Conference in Montgomery, Alabama. George Wallace Jr., an Alabama public service commissioner and former state treasurer who was then running for lieutenant governor, and Sonny Landham, an actor, spoke at the conference.

Mississippi is the only state that has major politicians who are openly CofCC members, including state senators and state representatives. The CofCC once claimed 34 members in the Mississippi legislature.<ref name="SPLC40">Template:Cite web</ref>

Platform

The CofCC considers itself a traditionalist group opposing liberals and what they refer to as mainstream conservatives; it supports national self-determination, immigration restriction, federalism, and home rule, and opposes free trade and global capitalism. Its specific issues include states' rights, race relations (especially interracial marriage, which it opposes), and Christian right values. In 2003, a full 35 years after his assassination, they criticized Martin Luther King Jr. as a "charlatan" and left-wing agitator of Black American communities, with notable ties to communism and holding personal sexual morals unworthy of a person deserving national recognition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They consider the American Civil Rights Movement and the Frankfurt School as elementally subversive to the separation of powers under the United States Constitution. The Council of Conservative Citizens is active in organizing the restriction, reduction, or moratorium of immigration, enforcing laws and regulations against illegal aliens, ending what they see as racial discrimination against whites through affirmative action and racial quotas, overturning Supreme Court rulings and Congressional Acts such as busing for desegregation and gun control, ending free trade economic policy, and supporting a traditionalist sexual morality, which includes promotion of the Defense of Marriage Act and opposition to the inclusion of homosexuality as a civil right.Template:Citation needed

The CofCC's statement of principles condemns the federal government's intervention into state and local affairs in forcing racial integration (item 2), free-trade and globalism, immigration by non-Europeans (item 2), homosexuality, and interracial marriage (item 6).<ref name="Statement of Principles"/> CofCC's materials in 2001 said, "God is the author of racism. God is the One who divided mankind into different types. Mixing the races is rebelliousness against God."<ref name="db160108">Template:Cite web</ref>

In a 2015 statement, president Earl Holt wrote, "The CofCC is one of perhaps three websites in the world that accurately and honestly report black-on-white violent crime, and in particular, the seemingly endless incidents involving black-on-white murder."<ref name="jfp150622">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The CofCC publishes the Citizens Informer newspaper quarterly. Previous editors include Samuel T. Francis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception

Various critics describe the organization as a hate group. According to The Atlantic, most conservatives do not consider it to be conservative, and believe that the organization added the word to their name in order to hide their true ideology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The New York Times called it a white separatist group with a thinly veiled white supremacist agenda.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Anti-Defamation League said: "Although the group claims not to be racist, its leaders traffic with other white supremacist groups."<ref name="adl.org"/> The group is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to be part of the "neo-confederate movement",<ref name="SPLCreport">Template:Cite web</ref> and organizations, such as the NAACP,<ref>Lerner, Kira "CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS SUE MISSISSIPPI PROSECUTOR FOR ILLEGALLY STRIKING BLACK JURORS". theappeal.org/civil-rights-groups-sue-mississippi-prosecutor-for-illegally-striking-black-jurors/ Published November 18, 2019, Retrieved December 31, 2020.</ref><ref>Montopoli, Brian NAACP Issues Report on Links Between Tea Party Factions and "Racist Hate Groups". Published October 10, 2010. www.cbsnews.com/news/naacp-issues-report-on-links-between-tea-party-factions-and-racist-hate-groups/ Retrieved December 31, 2020.</ref> as well as the Anti-Defamation League, consider it to be a threat.<ref>"The Council of Conservative Citizens: Declining Bastion of Hate", The Anti-Defemation League. Posted June 25, 2015 www.adl.org/news/article/the-council-of-conservative-citizens-declining-bastion-of-hate Retrieved December 31, 2020.</ref> In The Nation, Max Blumenthal described it as one of the United States' largest white supremacist groups.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has defended the group against charges of racism, stating on the basis of a viewing of their website that there is "no evidence" that the CofCC supports segregation.<ref name="splc">Template:Cite web</ref>

Mass murderer Dylann Roof, the perpetrator of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, searched the Internet for information on "black on White crime" and wrote in his manifesto The Last Rhodesian that the first website he found was the CofCC's.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He cited its portrayal of "black on White murders" as something that radically changed him ("I have never been the same since that day").<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The CofCC issued a statement on its website "unequivocally condemn[ing]" the attack, but that Roof has some "legitimate grievances" against black people. An additional statement from Earl Holt III, president of the CofCC, disavowed responsibility for the crime and stated that the group's website "accurately and honestly report[s] black-on-white violent crime".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While these statements were condemned across the mainstream, several white supremacist organization supported the CofCC for standing by Roof's motivations, including the League of the South, a neo-confederate hate group.<ref>leagueofthesouth.com/we-support-kyle-rogers/</ref>

In the wake of Roof's arrest and subsequent exposure of his affinity for the CofCC, an investigation revealed that Holt made campaign contributions to several prominent Republican politicians, including 2016 Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker, as well as Republican senators Rand Paul and Tom Cotton. Holt also reportedly donated to the campaign of Black congresswoman Mia Love, whose parents are both immigrants.<ref>"Rising GOP star Mia Love glides into the spotlight at convention". Fox News. August 28, 2012. Archived from the original on November 5, 2014. Retrieved on December 30, 2020.</ref> All subsequently announced that they would return Holt's contributions or donate them to a fund for the families of Roof's victims.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the summer of 2020, an investigation by NPR uncovered records showing Holt had donated $1,000 to the Committee to Defend the President, a pro-Trump SuperPAC, aggressively engaged in the 2020 presidential campaign. Through their general counsel, the Committee to Defend the President said they had been unaware and thanked NPR for bringing the issue to their attention. The group said they would immediately refund Holt's donation.<ref>Keith, Tamara, "Pro-Trump Group Returns Donation From White Nationalist After Media Inquiry", National Public Radio. Published July 25, 2020, Retrieved December 30, 2020. www.npr.org/2020/07/25/895196681/pro-trump-group-returns-donation-from-white-nationalist-after-media-inquiry</ref>

See also

• Alt-right
• Far-right politics
• Radical right (United States)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer
• Summary of newspaper reports of CofCC by Anti-Defamation League Last updated February 4, 1999.
• The White-Supremacist Group That Inspired a Racist Manifesto