White Nationalist Group Defends Dylann Roof’s “Legitimate Grievances”

“We utterly condemn Roof’s despicable killings, but they do not detract from the legitimacy of some of the positions he has expressed.”

Members of the South Carolina Council of Conservative Citizens protesting in 1999. Kim Truett/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization with white supremacist leanings, has issued a statement defending the “legitimate grievances” expressed by Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof. Roof made reference to the council in his manifesto, saying he used its site to learn about “black on White crime.”

In the statement, the council condemns “Roof’s murderous actions” but goes on to warn that “our society’s silence about [such] crimesdespite enormous amounts of attention to ‘racially tinged’ acts by whites—only increase the anger of people like Dylann Roof. This double standard *only makes acts of murderous frustration more likely* [emphasis by the council]. In his manifesto, Roof outlines other grievances felt by many whites. Again, we utterly condemn Roof’s despicable killings, but they do not detract in the slightest from the legitimacy of some of the positions he has expressed.”

The council’s site also has a statement from the organization’s president, Earl Holt III, saying, “The CofCC is hardly responsible for the actions of this deranged individual merely because he gleaned accurate information from our website.” The Guardian reported Sunday that in recent years Holt has given to a number of GOP politicians, including Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Rand Paul. A spokesperson from Cruz’s presidential campaign told the Guardian that the campaign plans to return the money.

As my colleagues Clara Jeffery and James West explain in their post decoding the racist references in Roof’s manifesto, the council “was founded by members of Citizens’ Councils of America, also known as White Citizens Councils, a confederation of segregationist groups active until the 1970s. In more recent years, the Council of Conservative Citizens has made news when it was revealed that former US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had given speeches to the group. It was also extremely active in demonstrations to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over the state capitol of South Carolina.”

The statement lists a phone number for the council’s spokesman, Jared Taylor, that is not in service. Calls and emails to the council’s office were not immediately returned; we’ll update this post if they are.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate