Letter To DNC Co-Chairs About Democrats and the Council Of Conservative Citizens (CCC)

January 27, 1999

The Honorable Roy Romer, General Chair
Mr. Joe Andrew, National Chair-elect
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol Street
Washington, DC 20003

Dear Chairmen Romer and Andrew:

I am sure that you are aware of recent newspaper reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times linking two important and high profile members of the Republican Party with a white supremacist and anti-semitic group, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). Representative Bob Barr of Georgia, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the thirteen managers in the impeachment trial, and the Republican Majority Leader, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, were the two named in the various articles. Their linkage to white supremacist and anti-semitic groups in 1999, and their weak denials, are of great concern to all Members of Congress and the American people.

Undoubtedly, groups that are exclusionary, anti-Black and anti-semitic are essentially anti-American. The identification of these high profile Republican leaders with the CCC -- and the CCC's identification with them -- means an identification with the Republican Party generally. The Republican Party does not need an identification with a new CCC that is reminiscent of an old KKK. That not only represents a danger for the Republican Party, it represents a danger and moral affront to America.

Democrats need to be concerned about the CCC as well. One of the articles reported that the leadership of the CCC claimed that 34 of their members were also members of the Mississippi state legislature -- most of them Democrats. We need to make sure that no members of the Democratic Party are associated with the CCC and take a strong position against any Democratic elected official, party official or party members, at any level, in any way, being associated with the CCC or any similar group.

As the General Chair of the Democratic National Committee, I am looking to you for leadership and direction. Thus, I urge you to insure that the National Democratic Party, its elected and party leaders, clearly and publicly distance themselves from the CCC and any other white supremacist, anti-semitic or hate groups.

Sincerely,

Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
Member of Congress, 2nd District of Illinois