According to Fox News:
- The Cruz campaign said in a statement obtained by Fox News that it
was returning money donated by Earl Holt III, the head of the Council of
Conservative Citizens. The donations were first reported by The Guardian.
"Senator Cruz believes that there is no place for racism in society,"
the statement read. "Upon learning about Mr. Holt's background and his
contributions to the campaign, he immediately instructed that all of
those donations be returned." The Guardian and The New York Times reported that Holt's donations to Cruz amounted to $8,500 since 2012, though that amount was not confirmed by the campaign.
The Guardian also reported that Holt had donated to the campaigns of
Sen. Rand Paul and former Sen. Rick Santorum. The paper reports that
Holt contributed $1,750 and $1,500 to those campaigns, respectively.
If you remember back in 2010, Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour was connected to the CCC. However, Barbour did not distance himself form the group, but rather, embraced it:
-
Then there’s Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who recently entered
into the GOP racist comment Hall of Fame when during an interview with
the Weekly Standard, he remarked about being a teenager during
the Civil Rights movement, “I just don’t remember it as being that
bad.” I guess he forgot all the blacks who were killed and lynched or
maybe if Haley had been black, he would have had a different memory.
And his racially insensitive comments continued in response to the
reporter’s question of how his hometown of Yazoo City, MS was able to
integrate schools, Barbour credited the white Citizens Council. “You
heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK.
Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders.”
Organized in 1954 after the Supreme Court decision to end school
segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education, the Citizens Council, was a
white supremacist group that used economic pressure rather than
violence to maintain segregation. There were chapters across the nation.
Today the group is called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), which states on it’s website “The CofCC is the only serious nationwide activist group that sticks up for white rights!” cofcc.org
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the white supremacist group has
chapters in Chapter Sites in CA, IL, IN, LA, MS, MO, NC, SC and TN. --Conservative Black Chick Dec 2010
