Sen. Lydia Chassaniol’s enthusiastic participation in the recent annual conference of the Council of Conservative Citizens calls attention to a problem that is much bigger, and much more dangerous, than one state senator.

Earlier today, three experienced activists asked me why I was singling out Sen. Chassaniol when so many white legislators, of both parties, sympathize with the Council’s ideology. One of my mentors, to whom I dedicated my recent book, went so far as to say that nobody who had ever spent time working at the Capitol could be truly surprised by what this one senator did.

These activists have a point. Even if Sen. Chassaniol were to apologize and resign her committee chairmanship in shame right now, this morning, it would not solve the more fundamental problem of racism in Mississippi politics. It is real, it is thriving, and it is fundamental to voting patterns in our state.

But it’s also quiet. And I’ve noticed something about quiet movements, Chairman White: they wither on the vine.  I am not as experienced as some activists, but I have seen how weak a movement can be when it’s silent and marginalized from mainstream politics, and I have seen how powerful a movement can suddenly become when people raise their voices and get some support from mainstream politicians.

The Council of Conservative Citizens, created from the pathetic ashes of the old White Citizen’s Council, used to be a force in Mississippi politics. The periodic Blackhawk event, held in Sen. Chassaniol’s own Carroll County, was emceed by the CCC’s infamous Bill Lord and raised money for seg academies in the area. For a long time, gubernatorial candidates of both parties spoke there and had to speak there.

But something happened to the Council: ten years ago, Senator Trent Lott called it “racist and white supremacist” and RNC Chair Jim Nicholson asked all Republican politicians to disassociate themselves from it. Since then, it has dwindled and lost influence, slowly drifting toward political oblivion.

It doesn’t deserve a second act.

Regardless of what you say or don’t say to Sen. Chassaniol, the Council deserves the condemnation of the Mississippi Republican Party. More importantly, the Mississippi Republican Party deserves to stand for something better than secondhand Dixiecrat frustration. If you allow the Mississippi Republican Party to come across as the organization that segregationists flee to when the Democrats don’t want them anymore, you are only undoing the hard work that so many Republicans, white and black, have put into making the Republican Party an institution that bona fide conservative Mississippians of all races can support.

The danger posed by Sen. Chassaniol’s participation in the Council’s national conference is that it might inspire other public officials to openly support the CCC. This is not in the best interests of either party, and it is not in the best interests of our state.

Please make a public statement against the Council and its execrable agenda, and ask that Republican candidates and elected officials avoid the white separatist movement like the plague that all Mississippians of good will know it to be.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,

Tom Head
Jackson, MS

Sen. Chassaniol has refused to disavow the organization, praising it as a group of “lone voices crying in the wilderness” during her keynote and stating that its presence “gives [her] hope.”  When she was later asked about her membership in the group, she replied that “a person’s membership in any organization is a private matter.”

Why should we care?  Several reasons:

1. Sen. Chassaniol chairs the Mississippi Senate Tourism Committee, and arguably wields more power than any other legislator to shape how Mississippi is perceived by non-residents.
2. Sen. Chassaniol is one of the most visible Republicans in the state, even independently of her role on the tourism committee.  She is a popular speaker at conservative events, and has her own blog on the Clarion-Ledger web site.  Watching her sacrifice her credibility to support this unworthy organization is tragic.
3. The last mainstream Republican politician to openly support the Council of Conservative Citizens was Governor Kirk Fordice in the 1990s.  Former RNC Chair Jim Nicholson, Governor Haley Barbour, Senator Trent Lott (who condemned the group as “white supremacist and racist”), and former Jackson City Council President Ben Allen have all spoken out against the organization–Republican politicians, in other words, at every level of government.  Sen. Chassaniol’s participation in the annual CofCC convention gives them the undeserved opportunity to reenter the mainstream of Republican politics in Mississippi.

Mississippians need Sen. Chassaniol to admit that she seriously misjudged the organization.

Action Items

• Leave a message for Sen. Lydia Chassaniol at (601) 359 3226 politely but firmly asking her to cancel her membership with the Council of Conservative Citizens and publicly apologize for speaking at their convention.
• Leave a message for Mississippi RNC Chair Brad White at (601) 948 5191 requesting that he reaffirm former RNC Chair Jim Nicholson’s rejection of the Council of Conservative Citizens, so that no statewide politicians get the wrong idea from Sen. Chassaniol’s participation in the event (given her high level of visibility in the Mississippi Republican Party).  The party of James Meredith and Charles Evers does not need to be associated with segregationist ideology.

For Further Reading

• Surviving a Weekend with America’s Premier “Pro-White” Activist Group (AlterNet)
• History and Profile of the Council of Conservative Citizens (Anti-Defamation League)
• The Council of Conservative Citizens: Chronology of a Scandal (Anti-Defamation League)
• Guess Who’s Coming to Jackson (Jackson Free Press)
• Winona Senator Was “Surprise” CofCC Speaker (Jackson Free Press)
• Mississippi Pol Said to Be Governor’s Ally Speaks to Racist Group (Southern Poverty Law Center)
• Sharks in the Mainstream (Southern Poverty Law Center)