U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and white supremacist group

Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Wed Dec 16 06:29:51 PST 1998


Trent Lott Supported White-Supremacist Group-

Senator's Spokesperson Misled Journalists

Emerging evidence shows Trent Lott addressed a white supremacist group

at least twice in the 1990's and is on record praising the group,

contradicting statements the Senator's spokesperson made to reporters

this past weekend.

When charges surfaced that Senator Trent Lott supported a racist

organization, the Senate leader's spokesperson misled the media and the

country, telling reporters Lott's only link to the Council of

Conservative Citizens (CCC) amounted to a single speech to the group ten

years ago. (See attached "News Advisory" for record of CCC racism.)

After interviewing Lott's representative, the Los Angeles Times reported

on December 13th:

According to John S. Cwartacki, Lott's spokesman, the

senator only vaguely remembers that, while serving in the House of

Representatives, he was invited to an event in his Gulf Coast district

by two acquaintances who, it turned out, had ties to the group. "That

was over a decade ago," Cwartacki said. "His recollection isn't that

straightforward."

Lott's office told a similar version of the story to several media

outlets reporting the story on Saturday and Sunday. But the following

facts contradict the story circulated by the Majority Leader's office:

* Trent Lott addressed the CCC's national conference in Greenwood,

Mississippi on April 11, 1992-as a Senator, not while a member of the

House and not ten years ago, as his spokesperson claimed-according to

the CCC's newsletter, Citizens Informer, which published pictures and a

report on the event in its Spring 1992 edition.

After urging those at the gathering to increase their recruiting efforts

for the "conservative" cause, Lott concluded his address praising CCC

members: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the

right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction and our children

will be the beneficiaries!"

* Senator Lott also addressed an event sponsored by the Carrol

County (Miss.) chapter of the CCC and the Black Hawk Bus Association on

July 22, 1995, according to a story (with photos) in the Summer 1995

edition of Citizens Informer.

* Lott's column is regularly featured in Citizens Informer

Trent Lott is one of the country's most powerful elected figures. He is

also one of the leading political figures promoting the Neo-Confederate

cause-a movement rife with racism and other forms of bigotry and which

claims membership in the tens of thousands. In the past Lott led the

fight for tax breaks for Bob Jones University and other whites-only

schools and he was the leading advocate for the successful drive to

reinstate the citizenship of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Journalists owe it to the public to report on the political associations

of elected officials, especially those as powerful as the Senate

Majority Leader.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------

Original Release:

Contact: Steven Rendall

December 11, 1998

(212) 633-6700 x 307

News Advisory: National Media Should Cover Racist Links of Prominent

Elected Officials Like Rep. Bob Barr and Sen. Trent Lott

During the Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings on Dec. 1, Rep.

Bob Barr (R-Ga.) clashed with Prof. Alan Dershowitz after Dershowitz

accused the lawmaker of using rhetoric laced with "bigotry" and

"racism."

Barr had stated: "There really are, I think, two Americas. And there is

a real America out there. And I think our military witnesses understand

that.... And now some on this panel may argue that the president is not

in a position of public trust.... And here again, the American public,

the real America out there understands that there ought to be a very

high standard for our public officials."

Dershowitz said: "Whenever I hear the word 'real Americans' that sounds

to me like a code word for bigotry, a code word for racism, and a code

word for anti-Semitism."

Barr responded by saying: "That's absurd, you ought to be ashamed. That

is the silliest thing I have ever heard."

"A Call to White Americans"

While a few news outlets noted the clash, it's remarkable how little

follow-up has been done on the charges of racism made against Barr. A

little research would have discovered that not only

Rep. Barr, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and other prominent

elected officials have been closely linked with the Council of

Conservative Citizens (CCC), a "Southern traditionalist" organization

which is the successor to the notorious White Citizens'

Councils-referred to during the civil rights era as the "uptown Klan."

One exception among media outlets was the Jay Diamond Show, aired on New

York City's WEVD-AM. Diamond's December 7 radio talk show featured a

discussion including Alan Dershowitz and Mark Potok, an expert on racist

and militia groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center, on which Potok

confirmed Rep. Barr's and Sen. Lott's support for the Council. Potok

pointed to the group's influence with other elected officials-including

Governors Kirk Fordice (R-Miss.) and Guy Hunt (R-Ala.).

Barr was the keynote speaker at the Council's national conference last

June, and was pictured in the group's newsletter, Citizens Informer,

addressing the Council's board and posing with several CCC leaders. The

Washington Times and Village Voice have both reported that Sen. Lott is

a longtime member and supporter of the organization.

What does the Council of Conservative Citizens stand for?

* The Council's website (http://www.cofcc.org) features an essay

titled "A Call to White Americans," which urges "fellow white Americans"

to "look at the faces around you: Find the faces like yours, and see

them as your brothers and sisters. Find the fair-skinned babies, and see

them as your children." The website also features a tract called "Our

War!" with a section titled "The Values of the Traditional White South

That Have Been Targeted for Destruction."

* The edition of Citizen's Informer featuring Rep. Barr's

appearance before the CCC also includes a column written by Robert

Patterson, founder of the Mississippi's White Citizens Council,

describing how interracial marriage degrades white civilization. An

article by Sen. Lott also appears in the issue.

* The CCC's web site boasts of a trip by its leaders to France for

a meeting with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the neo-fascist National

Front . The article expresses hope the groups will work together in the

future. CCC's web site is now linked to Le Pen's.

* According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, David Duke

addressed a CCC fundraiser at Clemson University in South Carolina. The

Greensboro News & Record reports that CCC has ties to the Ku Klux Klan

and that its local leader supported Duke for president in 1988. The

Austin American Statesman claims that William Carter was booted from the

South Carolina Buchanan for President steering committee in 1996 when

the press began inquiring into Carter's role as Duke's 1988 South

Carolina campaign chair. Carter chairs the South Carolina chapter of the

CCC.

* According to the Village Voice, Kirk Lyons, a well-known white

supremacist attorney and member of the White Patriot Party, was a

featured guest at a 1994 Winston-Salem event sponsored by the CCC.

* One prominent spokesperson for the CCC is Jared Taylor, the

founder and director of American Renaissance, a white-separatist group

that organizes conferences featuring "scholars" espousing the doctrine

of black intellectual inferiority. Taylor represented the CCC on a

recent Fox News Channel broadcast.

* A 1997 column in the Greensboro News & Record pointed out that

the CCC named the late governor of Georgia and unreconstructed racist

Lester Maddox its "Patriot of the Century," and that the Council is

critical of the Promise Keepers "because PK kisses up to Catholics and

grovels to blacks."

* Like Rep. Barr's language, the Council's rhetoric deploys terms

like "real Americans." The Citizens Informer, for example, recently

declared: "The Confederate Flag signifies the real American way of

life...as it was and will be again."

News Media Should Apply Single Standard on Associations With Bigots

Given the above information, journalists should be exploring the

connections between leading Republican politicians and this racist

organization. National media have repeatedly questioned black

politicians deemed too close, to or insufficiently critical of, groups

like the Nation of Islam. Shouldn't national journalists be questioning

Sen. Lott, Rep. Barr and other politicians who associate with

old-fashioned white racist groups?

----------

Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair at fair.org ). We can't reply to everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate documented example of media bias or censorship. All messages to the 'FAIR-L' list will be forwarded to the editor of the list.

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Posted by Ben Markeson, Orlando, FL Local -- the Socialist Party U.S.A.

Approved-By: Dglasner at AOL.COM Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 22:22:07 EST Reply-To: fair-l-request at AMERICAN.EDU Sender: "media analysis, critiques and news reports" <FAIR-L at AMERICAN.EDU> From: Dglasner at AOL.COM Subject: [FAIR-L] UPDATE to December 11 News Advisory-Trent Lott Supported

White-Supremacist Group To: FAIR-L at AMERICAN.EDU

------------------------------------------

FAIR-L

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Media analysis, critiques and news reports

------------------------------------------

UPDATE to December 11 News Advisory-attached below

Trent Lott Supported White-Supremacist Group-

Senator's Spokesperson Misled Journalists

Emerging evidence shows Trent Lott addressed a white supremacist group

at least twice in the 1990's and is on record praising the group,

contradicting statements the Senator's spokesperson made to reporters

this past weekend.

When charges surfaced that Senator Trent Lott supported a racist

organization, the Senate leader's spokesperson misled the media and the

country, telling reporters Lott's only link to the Council of

Conservative Citizens (CCC) amounted to a single speech to the group ten

years ago. (See attached "News Advisory" for record of CCC racism.)

After interviewing Lott's representative, the Los Angeles Times reported

on December 13th:

According to John S. Cwartacki, Lott's spokesman, the

senator only vaguely remembers that, while serving in the House of

Representatives, he was invited to an event in his Gulf Coast district

by two acquaintances who, it turned out, had ties to the group. "That

was over a decade ago," Cwartacki said. "His recollection isn't that

straightforward."

Lott's office told a similar version of the story to several media

outlets reporting the story on Saturday and Sunday. But the following

facts contradict the story circulated by the Majority Leader's office:

* Trent Lott addressed the CCC's national conference in Greenwood,

Mississippi on April 11, 1992-as a Senator, not while a member of the

House and not ten years ago, as his spokesperson claimed-according to

the CCC's newsletter, Citizens Informer, which published pictures and a

report on the event in its Spring 1992 edition.

After urging those at the gathering to increase their recruiting efforts

for the "conservative" cause, Lott concluded his address praising CCC

members: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the

right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction and our children

will be the beneficiaries!"

* Senator Lott also addressed an event sponsored by the Carrol

County (Miss.) chapter of the CCC and the Black Hawk Bus Association on

July 22, 1995, according to a story (with photos) in the Summer 1995

edition of Citizens Informer.

* Lott's column is regularly featured in Citizens Informer

Trent Lott is one of the country's most powerful elected figures. He is

also one of the leading political figures promoting the Neo-Confederate

cause-a movement rife with racism and other forms of bigotry and which

claims membership in the tens of thousands. In the past Lott led the

fight for tax breaks for Bob Jones University and other whites-only

schools and he was the leading advocate for the successful drive to

reinstate the citizenship of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Journalists owe it to the public to report on the political associations

of elected officials, especially those as powerful as the Senate

Majority Leader.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------

Original Release:

Contact: Steven Rendall

December 11, 1998

(212) 633-6700 x 307

News Advisory: National Media Should Cover Racist Links of Prominent

Elected Officials Like Rep. Bob Barr and Sen. Trent Lott

During the Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings on Dec. 1, Rep.

Bob Barr (R-Ga.) clashed with Prof. Alan Dershowitz after Dershowitz

accused the lawmaker of using rhetoric laced with "bigotry" and

"racism."

Barr had stated: "There really are, I think, two Americas. And there is

a real America out there. And I think our military witnesses understand

that.... And now some on this panel may argue that the president is not

in a position of public trust.... And here again, the American public,

the real America out there understands that there ought to be a very

high standard for our public officials."

Dershowitz said: "Whenever I hear the word 'real Americans' that sounds

to me like a code word for bigotry, a code word for racism, and a code

word for anti-Semitism."

Barr responded by saying: "That's absurd, you ought to be ashamed. That

is the silliest thing I have ever heard."

"A Call to White Americans"

While a few news outlets noted the clash, it's remarkable how little

follow-up has been done on the charges of racism made against Barr. A

little research would have discovered that not only

Rep. Barr, but Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and other prominent

elected officials have been closely linked with the Council of

Conservative Citizens (CCC), a "Southern traditionalist" organization

which is the successor to the notorious White Citizens'

Councils-referred to during the civil rights era as the "uptown Klan."

One exception among media outlets was the Jay Diamond Show, aired on New

York City's WEVD-AM. Diamond's December 7 radio talk show featured a

discussion including Alan Dershowitz and Mark Potok, an expert on racist

and militia groups from the Southern Poverty Law Center, on which Potok

confirmed Rep. Barr's and Sen. Lott's support for the Council. Potok

pointed to the group's influence with other elected officials-including

Governors Kirk Fordice (R-Miss.) and Guy Hunt (R-Ala.).

Barr was the keynote speaker at the Council's national conference last

June, and was pictured in the group's newsletter, Citizens Informer,

addressing the Council's board and posing with several CCC leaders. The

Washington Times and Village Voice have both reported that Sen. Lott is

a longtime member and supporter of the organization.

What does the Council of Conservative Citizens stand for?

* The Council's website (http://www.cofcc.org) features an essay

titled "A Call to White Americans," which urges "fellow white Americans"

to "look at the faces around you: Find the faces like yours, and see

them as your brothers and sisters. Find the fair-skinned babies, and see

them as your children." The website also features a tract called "Our

War!" with a section titled "The Values of the Traditional White South

That Have Been Targeted for Destruction."

* The edition of Citizen's Informer featuring Rep. Barr's

appearance before the CCC also includes a column written by Robert

Patterson, founder of the Mississippi's White Citizens Council,

describing how interracial marriage degrades white civilization. An

article by Sen. Lott also appears in the issue.

* The CCC's web site boasts of a trip by its leaders to France for

a meeting with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the neo-fascist National

Front . The article expresses hope the groups will work together in the

future. CCC's web site is now linked to Le Pen's.

* According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, David Duke

addressed a CCC fundraiser at Clemson University in South Carolina. The

Greensboro News & Record reports that CCC has ties to the Ku Klux Klan

and that its local leader supported Duke for president in 1988. The

Austin American Statesman claims that William Carter was booted from the

South Carolina Buchanan for President steering committee in 1996 when

the press began inquiring into Carter's role as Duke's 1988 South

Carolina campaign chair. Carter chairs the South Carolina chapter of the

CCC.

* According to the Village Voice, Kirk Lyons, a well-known white

supremacist attorney and member of the White Patriot Party, was a

featured guest at a 1994 Winston-Salem event sponsored by the CCC.

* One prominent spokesperson for the CCC is Jared Taylor, the

founder and director of American Renaissance, a white-separatist group

that organizes conferences featuring "scholars" espousing the doctrine

of black intellectual inferiority. Taylor represented the CCC on a

recent Fox News Channel broadcast.

* A 1997 column in the Greensboro News & Record pointed out that

the CCC named the late governor of Georgia and unreconstructed racist

Lester Maddox its "Patriot of the Century," and that the Council is

critical of the Promise Keepers "because PK kisses up to Catholics and

grovels to blacks."

* Like Rep. Barr's language, the Council's rhetoric deploys terms

like "real Americans." The Citizens Informer, for example, recently

declared: "The Confederate Flag signifies the real American way of

life...as it was and will be again."

News Media Should Apply Single Standard on Associations With Bigots

Given the above information, journalists should be exploring the

connections between leading Republican politicians and this racist

organization. National media have repeatedly questioned black

politicians deemed too close, to or insufficiently critical of, groups

like the Nation of Islam. Shouldn't national journalists be questioning

Sen. Lott, Rep. Barr and other politicians who associate with

old-fashioned white racist groups?

----------

Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair at fair.org ). We can't reply to everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate documented example of media bias or censorship. All messages to the 'FAIR-L' list will be forwarded to the editor of the list.

Also, please send copies of email correspondence, including any responses, to us at: fair at fair.org .

Feel free to spread this message around. Put it on conferences where it is appropriate. We depend on word of mouth to get our message out, so please let others know about FAIR and this mailing list.

Don't miss a single email from FAIR-L. To subscribe to FAIR-L send a "subscribe FAIR-L enter your full name" command to LISTSERV at AMERICAN.EDU.

The subscriber list is kept confidential, so no need to worry about spammers.

You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF FAIR-L" command to LISTSERV at AMERICAN.EDU.

Please support FAIR by becoming a member. You will receive FAIR's magazine, EXTRA! and its newsletter, EXTRA! Update. You can become a member by calling 1-800-847-3993 from 9 to 5 Eastern Time (be sure to tell them you got the information on-line) or by sending $19 with your name and address to:

FAIR/EXTRA! Subscription Service

P.O. Box 170

Congers, NY 10920-9930

FAIR

(212) 633-6700

http://www.fair.org/

E-mail: fair at fair.org

list administrators: FAIR-L-request at american.edu

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