Mississippi Pol Said to Be an Ally of Gov. Haley Barbour Addresses Infamous Racist Group

By Heidi Beirich, SPLC's Hate Watch. Posted July 7, 2009.

Barbour had his own encounter with the CCC in 2003. As a gubernatorial candidate, he attended that year’s Black Hawk Barbecue in Carroll County, sponsored by the CCC to raise money for private academy school buses, where he was photographed with Bill Lord, the emcee for this past weekend’s event. Although he decried the group’s segregationist views as “indefensible” after that photo was posted on the CCC’s website, Barbour declined to ask to have it taken down. It was a matter of principle, Barbour explained. “Once you start down the slippery slope of saying, ‘That person can’t be for me,’ then where do you stop?” he asked. “Old segregationists? Former Ku Klux Klan?”

For her part, Chassaniol gave a rabble-rousing speech on “Cultural Heritage in Mississippi.” In a brief history of the state since 1540, Chassaniol complained that the U.S. was in decline, as evidenced by tributes to Michael Jackson, a “pedophile who’s being celebrated.” She indicated that the government wants to “take from those who have and give to those who don’t want to work for it.” And she worried that the 2010 national census might hand over government “to the radical left.”

A sponsor of two harsh anti-immigrant bills, Chassaniol encouraged CCC members to take part in upcoming anti-tax “Tea Parties,” which she praised in a recent editorial in her local Winona, Miss., newspaper. CCC members have crashed these events in the past.

Chassaniol ended her talk by encouraging her listeners to embrace their southern heritage. Describing the CCC as “lone voices crying in the wilderness,” Chassaniol ended on a positive note, “Seeing all of you here today gives me hope.”

Janet Smith contributed to this report.

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