Letter to Democratic Caucus Chairman About the Council of Conservative Citizens

January 28, 1999

The Honorable Martin Frost, Chairman
House Democratic Caucus
U.S. House of Representatives
2256 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Frost:

We are 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 is a moral affront to America.

Democrats too need to be concerned about the CCC. 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 House Democratic Caucus are associated with the CCC and appeal together to the DNC to 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 recently elected Chairman of the Democratic Conference, your colleagues and the nation look to you for leadership and direction. Thus, we urge you to insure that the Democratic Party, its leaders and all of its members clearly and publicly distance themselves from the CCC and any other white supremacist, anti-semitic or hate groups.

Sincerely,

Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
Gregory Meeks (D-NY)
William Clay (D-MO)
Eva Clayton (D-NC)
Major Owens (D-NY)
Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH)