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| “ | God is the author of racism. God is the One who divided mankind into different types. Mixing the races is rebelliousness against God. | „ |
| ~ Excerpt from the CCC's website, 2001. |
The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC or CCC) is an American white supremacist organization. Founded in 1985, it advocates in support of white nationalism, and supports causes that are often considered paleoconservative and far-right. In the organizations statement of principles, it states that they "oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind". They have strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan, as many Klansman were and are also members of the CofCC, and also have cultivated an alliance with the League of the South.
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, as of 2015, the group's president is Earl Holt; Jared Taylor is the group's spokesman, and Paul Fromm is its international director.
They are considered apart of the broader Alt-Right movement.
Background edit
The CofCC traces its provenance to the segregationist Citizens' Councils of America, which was founded in 1954, but had slipped to obscurity by 1973. The original CofCC mailing list came from the Citizen's Council, as did several members of the CofCC Board of Directors.
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. They have criticized Martin Luther King, Jr., who is considered by the organization as a left-wing agitator of Black American communities with notable ties to communism, and holding personal sexual morals unworthy of a person deserving national recognition. 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.
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). 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.”
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."
The CofCC publishes the Citizens Informer newspaper quarterly. Previous editors include Samuel T. Francis.
Various critics describe the organization as a hate group. Most conservatives do not consider it to be conservative, and believe that the organization added the word conservative to their name in order to hide their true ideology. The New York Times called it a white separatist group with a thinly veiled white supremacist agenda. The Anti-Defamation League said "Although the group claims not to be racist, its leaders traffic with other white supremacist groups". The CofCC is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to be part of the "neo-confederate movement," and organizations such as the NAACP, League of United Latin American Citizens and the Anti-Defamation League consider it a threat. Max Blumenthal has called it America's premier racist organization and elementally dangerous to America.
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. Coulter and Pat Buchanan are listed as being recommended columnists on the organization's official website.
Mass murderer Dylann Roof searched the Internet for information on "black on White crime", and the first website he found was the CofCC website. He cited its portrayal of "black on White murders" as something that radically changed him ("I have never been the same since that day"). 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 black-on-white violent crime". In the days following Roof's arrest and subsequent investigation it was revealed that Holt had made campaign contributions to several conservative politicians including 2016 Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker and Rand Paul, as well as Tom Cotton and Mia Love; all subsequently announced that they would return Holt's contributions or donate them to a fund for the families of Roof's victims.