Haley Barbour

Barbour's Brother, While Yazoo City Mayor: Blacks 'Not Listenin To White People Like They Used To'

Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2010, 12:10PM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), when defending the Citizens Council in his hometown of Yazoo City, painted himself as oblivious to politics and the civil rights movement as a teenager. When Martin Luther King Jr. came to town, he said, he and his friends paid more attention to the girls than the reverend.

But Barbour's older brother, Jeppie Barbour, was very aware of politics and the civil rights movement, as he was mayor for several years starting in 1968. As the Weekly Standard profile noted, that meant Jeppie Barbour was in office during the court-ordered but extremely peaceful integration of the city's schools, an integration the elder Barbour saw as inevitable.

It was a question about that non-violent integration that prompted Haley Barbour's controversial comments, as he credited the segregationist Citizens Councils for that peacefulness. Barbour today issued a statement backing up a bit, saying it was the town leadership that kept integration peaceful but that "their vehicle, called the 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible."

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Council of Conservative Citizens

Barbour Has History With Modern Incarnation Of Segregationist Group He Praised

Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2010, 10:59AM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Today we'll be looking at putting together some context for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's defense of the pro-segregationist Citizens Councils of the 1950s and '60s South.

Dave Weigel over at Slate points out that Barbour has a history with the Council of Conservative Citizens, a descendant group of the Citizens Councils. In 2003 Barbour went to the "Black Hawk Barbecue" to court the group while running for Mississippi governor.

We did a little more digging, and, turns out, it caused some controversy at the time. People called for Barbour to have his photo removed from the group's web site. Barbour refused.

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Bennie Thompson

Top Homeland Security Dem: Muslim 'Radicalization' Hearings Could 'Chill' Muslim Relations

Rachel Slajda | December 17, 2010, 3:50PM

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

A planned Republican-led inquiry into the "radicalization" of Muslim-Americans could "chill" relations between the U.S. government and its Muslim citizens, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee told TPM today.

As we reported earlier, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), the soon-to-be chairman of the committee is planning hearings on Muslim-Americans and terrorism next year.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the current chairman who will be ranking member once Republicans take over in January, thinks that might not be a great idea.

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Homeland Security Committee

House GOP To Hold Hearings On 'Radicalization' Of American Muslims

Rachel Slajda | December 17, 2010, 1:03PM

Rep. Pete King (R-NY)

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is planning to hold hearings on the "radicalization" of American Muslims when he takes over the chair of the Homeland Security Committee next year, the New York Times reports.

King told the Times he's concerned that Muslim-American leaders are increasingly reluctant to help out with the government's terror investigations.

"When I meet with law enforcement, they are constantly telling me how little cooperation they get from Muslim leaders," King said.

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New Black Panthers

DOJ Action In Philly Bullying Case At Odds With Right-Wing Meme

Ryan J. Reilly | December 16, 2010, 8:45AM

Fueling conservative outrage over the Justice Department's handling of the New Black Panther Party case is the suggestion that the Obama administration refuses to pursue civil rights charges if the defendants are African-American. DOJ officials have said their decision not to pursue charges against some of the defendants originally named in a voter intimidation case filed in the final days of the Bush administration was based on the merits of the case and not the skin color of the defendants.

Now here's the latest indication that no such policy exists: DOJ's Civil Rights Division announced Wednesday they'd reached a settlement agreement with Philadelphia's school district to protect Asian students at a South Philly high school from harassment by bullies who the students say are predominately African-American.

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Race

Man Charged With Hate Crime For Allegedly Punching Turban-Wearing Store Clerk

Rachel Slajda | August 31, 2010, 5:18PM

A 35-year-old Seattle man has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly punching a 7-11 clerk in the head.

Police say Brock Stainbrook walked into the 7-11 just after midnight Aug. 24, approached a clerk wearing a turban, threw change on the floor and then punched the clerk in the side of the head.

"You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country," he then said, according to police.

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Pigford settlement

Senate Strips Funding For Legal Settlement To Black Farmers From War Bill

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 10:27AM

Members of the National Black Farmers Association march outside the USDA in 2002.

Five months after President Obama announced a $1.25 billion settlement for black farmers who faced overt discrimination by the USDA in the eighties and nineties -- and several days after the Sherrod case brought the issue up again -- Congress again refused to authorize the money.

On Thursday, the Senate quietly stripped the funding for the Pigford II settlement and several other programs from a supplemental war funding bill. Senators then unanimously passed their version of the bill, which will go back to the House.

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Andrew Breitbart

Breitbart: I Was Targeting The NAACP. Honest!

Rachel Slajda | July 23, 2010, 9:19AM

Andrew Breitbart

After we reported yesterday that the Shirley Sherrod scandal came the same week as the Senate may vote on authorizing $1.15 billion in restitution for black farmers, Andrew Breitbart wrote us that that had nothing to do with it.

"No. Seriously. On everything I hold dear," Breitbart swore in an email to TPMmuckraker. As he has since the full-length video of Sherrod's speech came out, sparking a backlash against him, Breitbart reiterated that none of this was ever about Sherrod personally.

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Race

Conservatives Try To Bash USDA Anti-Racism Suit, Shirley Sherrod

Rachel Slajda | July 22, 2010, 8:51AM

Members of the National Black Farmers Association march outside the USDA in 2002.

In defending his decision to fire Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack explained multiple times that his department has a "sordid" and "checkered" history of both overt and institutionalized racism. But with the term "racism" being tossed around rather a lot recently, it is important to understand both what he meant -- and what role that acknowledged racism played in Shirley Sherrod's life.

It's also important to understand that Andrew Breitbart's timing of the release of the grossly distorted video of Sherrod, which he admits having had for weeks, may not be entirely random. Congress will soon vote on whether to fund part of a settlement between the USDA and African-American farmers who faced acknowledged discrimination -- farmers like Sherrod and her husband used to be. It's a tiny piece of the upcoming war supplemental bill.

The USDA settlements with African-American farmers are a longtime bête noire of the right, which they deem a giveaway to a core Democratic constituency. It's not clear whether Brietbart's release of the video was specifically intended to hurt the chances of other African-America farmers to receive recompense from decades of discrimination that caused them to lose their farms, but conservatives immediately used the video to attack the settlement. The discrimination claims, known globally as the Pigford settlement, is the elephant in the room, so here's the background.

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Shirley Sherrod

Sherrod Says Her Father Was Killed By A White Farmer

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 6:52PM

In one of her interviews with CNN today, Shirley Sherrod said that 45 years ago, her father was killed by a white farmer.

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Shirley Sherrod

Breitbart On Sherrod's NAACP Speech: 'I Did Not Edit This Thing'

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 3:58PM

Andrew Breitbart

The crux of the Shirley Sherrod controversy is what she said outside of the two-minute video clip posted by Big Government -- whether she was, as she claims, telling a story about how she overcame racial prejudice while helping poor farmers in Georgia, or whether the clip is a good encapsulation of her views. So we asked Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Big Government, why he hasn't posted the full video.

"I don't have it," Breitbart told TPMmuckraker in an interview. Breitbart said his source sent him just the edited clips at first, but is in the process of sending the full video.

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USDA

Agriculture Secretary Stands By Asking For Sherrod's Resignation

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 3:48PM

Dep. of Agriculture Sec. Thomas Vilsack

The USDA just released a statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defending his decision to demand the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the Georgia director of rural development, over a video posted on Big Government.

The statement:

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NAACP

NAACP Now 'Conducting Investigation' Into Sherrod Video

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 2:08PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

The NAACP, which originally condemned USDA appointee Shirley Sherrod, is now saying it is conducting an investigation of her story and will issue a new statement.

"The NAACP is conducting an investigation into the recent revelations about the situation with Ms. Shirley Sherrod, including attempting to speak with Ms. Sherrod, the farmer in question and viewing the full video," the NAACP said in a statement to CNN. "Following a full and comprehensive process, we will issue an updated statement."

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Race

USDA Appointee Forced To Resign After Edited Speech Released By Breitbart (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | July 20, 2010, 1:03PM

Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod, an appointee to the USDA, was forced to resign yesterday after Big Government posted a video of a speech Sherrod gave in March. In the video, Sherrod, who is black, recounts how, 24 years ago, she didn't help a white farmer as much as she could.

In the speech, given to a local Georgia chapter of the NAACP, Sherrod recounts a time when, while she was working for a land assistance fund, a white farmer came and asked her for help.

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Mark Williams

Tea Party Leader: Allah Is 'Monkey God'

Zachary Roth | May 18, 2010, 5:35PM

Mark Williams

A top Tea Party leader, enraged by a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero, has referred to the Islamic deity as a "monkey-god" and to Muslims as "the animals of allah." His Tea Party group, meanwhile, tells TPMmuckraker it's not concerned about the rhetoric.

Mark Williams, the conservative talk radio host who is listed as chairman of the Tea Party Express and acts as a frequent spokesman for the group, wrote on his blog Friday:

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Michael Steele

Touchy Subject: Steele Slammed For Criticizing GOP's Southern Strategy

Zachary Roth | April 23, 2010, 1:16PM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Michael Steele's charge this week that the GOP's southern strategy has "alienated" minority voters may not have provoked as many headlines as a trip by young Republicans to a lesbian bondage club. But in the long run it could cause just as much trouble for him.

During a speech at DePaul University, Steele declared:

For the last 40-plus years we had a "Southern Strategy" that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, "Bubba" went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.

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