Council of Conservative Citizens
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The Council of Conservative Citizens (abbreviated CCC or CofCC) is a American paleoconservative political organization. Chapters are located thirty states, the largest in Mississippi and Missouri, which focus on local political organizing. It is led by Gordon Lee Baum
The CofCC publishes the Citizens Informer newsletter quarterly. Its most recent editor was Samuel Francis (1947-2005), and the editorial board includes Baum, Virginia Abernethy (past editor), Sam G. Dickson, Wayne Lutten, and Jared Taylor.
The CofCC has a sister organization, the Conservative Citizens Foundation, which raises money for a Confederate monument project.
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Issues
The CofCC is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center to be part of the "neo-confederate movement" which seeks to fulfill the goals of the Confederate States of America. Its specific issues include states rights, race relations, white separatism, and conservative Protestant Christianity. They have attacked Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Frankfurt School on their website. Consistent with paleoconservatism, they regard American culture as an offshoot of the European cultural tradition. The Council of Conservative Citizens is currently fighting against immigration, affirmative action and racial quotas, forced busing for school integration, and gun control.
The NAACP, SPLC (which lists it as a "hate group"), ADL, and even other conservative groups have accused the Council of Conservative Citizens of racism. Though the group has an official policy of denial to this charge, its publications clearly highlight racial tensions in their focus on black-on-white violence. A current (April 2005) photo essay on the website shows gruesome pictures of decapitated, burnt and mangled white bodies (supposedly victims of anti-white violence in South Africa) while the caption states that whites may one day become a minority in the United States.
Mississippi
In Mississippi there are several chapters that are working closely with private academies. The "academies" (many of which were originally called "council schools") in Mississippi are inexpensive private schools that provide whites with an alternative to sending their children to majority-black public schools.
Mississippi is the only state that has major politicians who are open CofCC members, including State Senators and State Representatives.
Every four years, Mississippi State Chairman Bill Lord holds the Blackhawk Rally in Blackhawk, Mississippi. The rally raises money for the Carroll County Academy busing association that provides buses for private academies. The rally is co-sponsored by the CofCC and other county organizations.
Haley Barbour, a long-time Republican National Committee chairman and later a candidate for Governor of Mississippi, spoke at a Blackhawk Rally. A photograph of Barbour with CofCC members appeared on the CofCC webpage, and a firestorm of media demanded that Barbour ask for his picture to be removed from the site. Barbour refused. His popularity rose shortly after that and he became Mississippi's current governor.
History
The CofCC was founded in 1988 in Atlanta, Georgia and his now headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri. The CofCC was formed by various leaders of the old White Citizens' Council, which was a network of racist organizations in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Gordon Lee Baum is the current national leader.
The CofCC became involved in national politics when it was discovered by journalists and researchers that many right-wing politicians, including Bob Barr who said later that he found the groups' racial views to be "repugnant" and had not realized the nature of the group when he agreed to attend, had either attended the group's meetings, corresponded with its leaders, and/or spolen favorably of it. Subsequently it was found that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had also spoken at a CofCC meeting. In the ensuing controvsersy the CofCC was denounced by the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Jim Nicholson, for holding "racist views". Other national and state politicians who have given speeches or attended CofCC meetings include former Senator Jesse Helms, and former governors H. Guy Hunt of Alabama and Kirk Fordice of Mississippi. (Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt also attended events of the organization's St. Louis predecessor shortly before the name change in the mid-1980s. [1] (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108068,00.html)) The SPLC and the Miami Herald tallied a further 38 federal, state, and local polticians who appeared at CofCC events between 2000 and 2004.
External links
- Official website (http://www.cofcc.org/)
- Arkansas Chapter (http://arcofcc.freeservers.com/index.html)
- Florida Chapter (http://groups.firstcoastcommunity.com/main.wsi?group_id=471)
- Illinois Chapter (http://indianacofcc.org/)
- Missouri Chapter (http://www.galilei.com/stl/cofcc/)
- South Carolina Chapter (http://www.heritagelost.org/)
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Jared Taylor, a racist in the guise of 'expert' (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05023/446341.stm) January 23, 2005 (Part one of two-part series. Focuses on Taylor but includes information about CofCC).
- Institute for the Study of Academic Racism: Archive of CofCC-related news (http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/CCC/homepage.htm)
- Anti-Defamation League: Extremism in America (http://www.adl.org/learn/Ext_US/CCCitizens.asp?xpicked=3&item=12)
- ADL's "Militia Watchdog" (http://www.militia-watchdog.org/ccc.asp) Long article on CofCC, last updated 1999.
- SPLC's Intelligence Report: Communing with the Council (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=487) Fall 2004
- The Neo-Confederates (http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=460)