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Subscribe to RSSAfter coming under fire yesterday for his remarks about the civil rights movement, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has issued a statement to clarify his recollections of "Citizens Council" groups and segregation in the South.
Barbour said that the council groups were "indefensible" and called segregation "a difficult and painful era for Mississippi."
Here's Barbour's full statement:
“When asked why my hometown in Mississippi did not suffer the same racial violence when I was a young man that accompanied other towns’ integration efforts, I accurately said the community leadership wouldn’t tolerate it and helped prevent violence there. My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either. Their vehicle, called the ‘Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segregation. It was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi, the rest of the country, and especially African Americans who were persecuted in that time.”
In the article in the Weekly Standard released yesterday, Barbour described a distinction in his hometown between the "Citizens Council" organization and the Klu Klux Klan. "Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders," he said. "In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan would get their ass run out of town. If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”
Speaking about the height of the civil rights movement in the piece, Barbour said, "I just don’t remember it as being that bad."
The comments drew skewering from historians, who noted that the Citizens Councils were anti-integration entities founded in opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
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The name was not "Citizens Council". It was "White Citizens Council". Truly. Does Barbour really not remember their whole name? What they were all about was maintaining the "Southern way of life." My Father just referred to them as the white collar KKK.
Haley, can't hide the bigotry anymore? Even when you try to dampen it; it ozooes out of you.
Give these bigoted repubs long enough and they'll stick one foot in their mouth and the other up their arse.
Why is it the right wingers are only willing to hold Democrats accountable? Barbour has a history of racism - he's made racist comments in many forums. His state is as racist as it comes - despite any movement to improve. If the right wingers want credibilty they will hold their own accountable.
Please post his past racist comments.
Ben, he was defending the White Citizens Council in Yazoo City. You already know that.
Here's from Wikipedia about the White Citizens Council. I know you guys hate Wikipedia but read it anyway. It is educational.
I'm sure that from the viewpoint of a 16 year old over privileged boy they didn't seem all that bad. I'd love to hear from a black person that lived there during this time and hear what they have to say about it.
I don't know what's more disturbing. That stupid, racist things Barbour said or the fact that the conservatives on this vine are defending and excusing him. I think there is something systemic wrong with a party that would defend this type of crap. There is absolutely no place in modern society for this and the Republicans/Tea Party had better recognize it.
BTW, when somebody calls out an obvious, proven racist as being just that, a bigot and racist, calling the person saying that a bigot and racist for saying it is just STUPID. I would think people would know better then that. But then again, we are dealing with conservatives who when they can't defend their actions say you're one too. Get a brain people. You don't fool anybody.
Can you defend these racist democrats and their statements?
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Democrat icon and orchestrator of Japanese Internment
- Ex-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, former affiliate of a St. Louis area racist group
- Ex-Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd, former Ku Klux Klansman known for making bigoted slurs on national television
- Rev. Jesse Jackson, Democrat keynote speaker and race hustler known for making anti-Semitic slurs
- Rev. Al Sharpton, Democrat activist and perennial candidate and race hustler known inciting anti-Semitic violence in New York City
- Sen. Ernest Hollings, leading Democrat Senator known for use of racial slurs against several minority groups
- Lee P. Brown, former Clinton cabinet official and Democrat mayor of Houston who won reelection using racial intimidation against Hispanic voters
- Andrew Cuomo, former Clinton cabinet official and Democrat candidate for NY Governor who made racist statements about a black opponent.
- Dan Rather, Democrat CBS news anchor and editorialist known for using anti-black racial epithets on a national radio broadcast
- Donna Brazile, former Gore campaign manager known for making anti-white racial attacks. Brazile has also worked for Jackson, Gephardt, and Michael Dukakis
And they've been called on it at every turn. What's you peoples excuse? They were wrong, does that make Barbour right and his actions excusable? It doesn't make what he said any more excusable. Get a grip Ben. How can you apologize for that creep?
The man was talking about what happened in his town of Yahzoo City when he was a child. It did not apply to the rest of the state. Have you ever apologized for Robert KKK Byrd or any of the other democrats that have said and did much worse in racial statements and actions. Were the 60 percent of democrats in Congress who voted against the civil rights act creeps. Do you call them that? You and everyone else need to get a grip on trying to make racial statements out of absolutely nothing.
Ben, it doesn't matter what they were, said or did...IT"S NOT OK!!! It's really quite simple.
What specifically did Barbour say that was wrong?
.....And where is he gonna put his racist brother? President Obama could ditch his pastor, however the Barbour family legacy of bigotry and racism doesn't belong in the White House or any House of Government...His brother Jeppie Barbour's statement: ""Maybe five years ago," he said, "you could've appointed a colored man yourself. Now you simply can't get away with it. They're goin' to have to pick their own leaders. You could've gotten on radio five years ago using these very words, 'George Collins is this ni**er we've appointed,' and could've gotten away with it. I guess they're just goin' through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin' to white people like they used to."...We know he won't get rid of all his racist relatives!!!
Did I mention that Haley was a staunch supporter and campaigner for his brother Jeppie for Mayor which he won btw. At one point Jeppie was upset about African-American residents of Yazoo boycotting local white-owned businesses and taking charge of their own affairs during the civil rights era. This caused many white owned businesses to fold when Blacks boycotted. I say hooray for them.! Why give economic empowerment to a store that can't stand people like you, but just love your money! I could go on & discuss the many instances of him blocking any and all progressives for minorities. He openly said so and blocked white students who rented an old building to form a coffehouse group which would be integrated...Should I continue?
You can pick your nose -- which is obviously what you are doing -- but you can't pick your relatives. He'd probably do the same thing Jimmy Carter did with brother Billy -- nothing. Did your research come up whether Jeppie was an R or a D.
Ben, what does it matter, wrong is still wrong. R, D who cares, it's still wrong. Why do you keep wanting to give this guy a pass?
I'm sorry, I don't get it.
Ok how can I say this, I use to be a zebra but now I'm a Jackass. Way to go Barbour. Have you heard that old saying " Loose Lips Sinks Ships and Down goes Frazier". Haley you can pick up your sheets from the laundry mat. Everybody knows you don't used them on your bed. Those were the " good ole days "
I am always amazed and cringe when the North East and West dump on the South and vilify the Southerner.I grew up in small NJ city with 60% white40% black we knew from which family a person came just by looks,even though we students sat side by side the change came when students were directed to college prep,gen educ,bus in junior high,the mutual racism was quiet,cold and unchallenged as we were the liberal progressive Easterners! We lived completely separate parrellel lives.Complacent assured in our superior tolerance, we Yankees and BiCoasties looked down on all those racist people way down there in Dixie. Then I moved to New Orleans where black and white live within the one block,a checkerboard of being intertwined in school,work and private life... I realized the superior,cold,detached "tolerant" separate but equal racism of the NorthEast is more deadly that the elbow to elbow just living with each other here in the deep South. So give Gov Barbour a pass,it is we Yankees and BiCoasties that practice absolutely separate but equal in our detached and self aggrandizing sightless framework of quiet,cold,fixed racism.
Janet,
Some Democrats AND some Republicans battled against the Civil Rights Act. It is not correct to say "Democrats in the 60' s battled civil rights" and leave it at that. JFK and LBJ (both Democrats) pushed the legislation. The majority of both parties voted for the legislation. If you want to say the most vociferous opponents of the legislation were Southern Democrats... then say so, but don't make statements that are not true in fact. Everyone commenting on sites such as these need to stop getting caught up in the moment and saying things that are either not true or used misleadingly to support their argument.
Barbour is a latent racist, bigoted, homophobe. I live in Alabama and know them when I see them.
Interesting how someone running for POTUS can say or do one thing wrong and all of a sudden they're a bum. Howard Dean got excited about winning a state primary and yelled "Yeeeaaaaahhhhhh" and that did him in. Gary Hart caught with a broad on his lap on a boat in Bimini.
Then there was Don Imus knocked off his radio talk show for calling a black girls basketball team "nappy-headed hoes".
I know nothing about Mr. Barbour but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and get to know him better before making judgement on him. I didn't think we could do any worse than "Dubyah", then along came Barack Obama. Nuff said.
"None of the critiques, however, matched the more philosophical pushback offered by Mississippi Governor Hailey Barbour, who objected to the idea of forcing BP to invest money for the purpose of paying out claims when the company could simply use that money to expand offshore drilling so that they could make money to pay out claims."
Barbour has repeatedly made light of race relations when he grew up. Saw him on Larry King and another show. He implied that his high school was desegregated, but he would have graduated ~1965 or two years before. At the U. of Mississippi there was never more than a handful of negroes allowed in. When he returned to Yazoo to raise a family, he elected to put his children in a segregated academy rather than the integrated schools. To this day it is apparent in his statements that he does not understand what the problem was then or is now.
BTW: I went to the courthouse to check out the covenants on the first house that I bought after moving to NC. The document was written in 1940. It stated that I could sell the house only to a Caucasian Christian. According to Rand Paul, that clause should be enforceable today. Fortunately, it is not.
Barbour is just another Boss Hogg-type goober, pining for the antebellum South to rise again.
He and the idiots in Texas, SC, and Virginia oughtta clear the snot outta their Confederate state of (No)mind! Since Obama became POTUS, the wingnut nation just can't control their train of thought. Ya know what I mean?
I'm glad I don't respect the traitorous Rebel rag (not flag).
2010 sounds alot like 1960. Hate, indifference, inequality, ill advised wars, civil rights issues, class warfare, racism, unemployment... I guess the Republicans/Tea baggers are getting their wish of taking our country back...wards!
Change we can believe in: - s1wdetroit
Place a Black light on the top of the mountain, the very top, and in that black Light a racist will glow
Many references have been made about the racist southern Democrats opposing the Civil Rights Act in the 60's. What is conveniently left out of the conversation is that most of those democrats left the party in disgust and were welcomed with open arms into the Republican party. It was what the souhtern strategy was all about.
Hey, emro... Shhhh! Not so loud! The wingnut crowd loves being ignorant to facts like that. And when you tell them truths, they either change the subject, or act like you said nothing.
Typical!
Think how they love saying ..."We are the Party of Lincoln!" (circa 1861, not 1964) Duhh!
Gov. Haley Barbour is a racist old "boss hog" type scumbag that exemplifies the genotype and phenotype of The Republican Party. The only positive thing that I can state in his behalf is that his old fat butt is better dressed than Newt Gingrich. I.E., unlike "Brother Newt," who wears dirty old scrody white sheets for his Klan uniform, "The sheets that Gov. Barber wears are sparkling white and crisp, albeit, "California King" size to accomodate his large "satchel azz" Southern "puss gut."
Yeah, he ought to run for President against Obama on the same GOP ticket as Mitt Romney.
I remember sitting in Jackson, Ms, watching LSU play Ole Miss. I think during the half-time festivies Ole Miss brought out this huge, 20 to 20 yard line Stars and Bars, the Confederate Battle Flag of choice,while the band played Dixie and the student waves small rebels flags. This happened in late 60's. Yep, Haley the South had really solved their problem. "Separate but unequal".
It was 50 years ago! It was a different era. There's now a black President. Let it go...
Idaho Dragon writes:
"Most of you ranting against Barbour make me laugh.
You don't even know the man, yet you call him a racist and make deragatory comments about what he said.
You might want to take into consideration the fact that the man was only a teenager in the 60s, so his memory of the time is obviously a little fuzzy after 40+ years. I would imagine that your memories of 40+ years ago are just as fuzzy, if you were even alive back then.
You might also want to take into consideration that the man was talking about violence in his town back then. He was not referring to the Civil Rights movement as a whole. At least that is the impression I got from the article. He was specifically referring to his hometown of Yazoo City and that he didn't remember there being much violence there in relation to the Civil Rights movement.
Since none of you even know the man, you might want to put your obvious hatred towards people you disagree with back wherever it came from. It serves no purpose but to make you look childish and ill-mannered."
...And you just "exposed" yourself as nothing more than a "typical" ultra-right wing dumb-ass who's willing to run to the "defense" of one of "your" beloved Republican douche-bags no matter what...
You freaks will literally try and defend "anything" these people say or do just as long as means you don't have to "FACE" the reality of what it is "you" actually represent by continuously supporting these GOP pricks no matter "what" they say or do...
Hey, if everyone buys into "your" scenario that somehow Barbour's "memory" is that f.u.c.k.e.d up then how do "you" know he didn't actually participate in "lynching" people and other atrocities and just doesn't "remember" doing it? ...You know, the "same" way most of the Republican Party members don't seem to "ever" remember f.u.c.k.i.n.g things up doing stupid $hit.
Admittedly a "ridiculous" example on my part of course, but it's no more ridiculous or "pathetic" than some dip$hit-this means YOU!-sighting a "fuzzy" memory of one of the most incendiary periods in the is country's "history" as "your" excuse to "blindly" justify the "unjustifiable" like " f.u.c.k.i.n.g Carbon Dating" is required to look back 40 years...The "difference" here though is I actually "realize" how absurdly "moronic" I sound making such a silly statement is on this...
Why the Hell don't you?
Cheers
Idaho dragon is right on the money!
the kkk in miss a history by micheal newton read it if you really would like to know the history of yazoo city miss civil rights and the kkk
the kkk in miss a history by micheal newton read it if you really would like to know the history of yazoo city miss civil rights and the kkk