Barbour Spokesman: Mississippi Gov. Is Not Racist

Haley Barbour Responds to Racial-Tension Criticism, Calls Segregation 'Indefensible'
Conceding that the Civil Rights movement "was a difficult and painful era for Mississippi," Gov. Haley Barbour responded Tuesday to criticism of comments he made that appeared to downplay the racial tensions of the 1960s and praise segregationist groups in his home state. The Republican's latest remarks don't quite amount to an Apology, but offer some clarification about his defense of the all-white organizations called Citizens Councils, whose actions he now says are "totally indefensible." In ...

Discussing Civil Rights Era, a Governor Is Criticized
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR NYT WASHINGTON — In an interview that set off a new round of debate on Monday about racial attitudes and politics, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, recalled the 1960s Civil Rights struggle in his hometown, Yazoo City, saying, “I just don’t remember it as being that bad.” In a profile published Monday in The Weekly Standard, Mr. Barbour also talked about the White Citizens’ Councils of the late 1960s, which o

Haley Barbour Defends Racist Group
Boss Hogg in the Weekly Standard: "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. 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." TPM's Eric Kleefeld has more about the Citizens Councils: ...

Barbour walks back comments on civil rights era
After 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. “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. M...

Haley Barbour
Another proud native son of Disneyssippi. From the New York Times: Discussing Civil Rights Era, a Governor Is Criticized By MICHAEL D. SHEAR WASHINGTON — In an interview that set off a new round of debate on Monday about racial attitudes and politics, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, recalled the 1960s civil rights struggle in his hometown, Yazoo City, saying, “I just don’t remember it as being that bad.” In a profile pu...

Haley Barbour: I Am Not A Racist; Peter King: Im Willing To Be Called A Bigot
Mississippi Governor and possible Presidential Candidate Haley Barbour praised the anti-integration Citizens Councils of his hometown in a profile in the conservative Weekly Standard. “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. 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

Barbour defends school integration account...
WASHINGTON -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, rebutted critics Monday who said he is sugar-coating his state's history of racial integration. At issue is the January 1970 integration of Public Schools in Barbour's home town of Yazoo City, when he was 20. Historical accounts confirm the schools integrated peacefully, as Barbour stated in a recent profile in the Weekly Standard magazine. Some liberal groups, however, said his comments skimmed over th...

2012: Barbour Backtracks
By now, you’ve probably picked up on the story over the weekend that’s caused quite a stir regarding current Mississippi Gov. and would-be 2012 GOP presidential contender Haley Barbour. In a wide-ranging profile, the conservative Weekly Standard interviewer brings up the topic of Race Relations in Barbour’s hometown of Yazoo City, MS during the late 1950s/early 1960s, which led to either a terribly ignorant or purposely overlooked de...

Barbour Clarifies Comments on Integration
By Danny Yadron Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, an oft-mentioned presidential hopeful, today offered what he called a clarification of statements on race and integration he made to the Weekly Standard. Mr. Barbour caught a lot of flack for his comments to the magazine about growing up in the South during the Civil Rights era. His clarification walks back from some of those comments and calls citizens’ councils, local groups used to block integration, “totally indefensible.”  In the ..

Haley Barbour Walks Back Remarks On Segregationist Citizens Council
WASHINGTON -- After facing intense criticism Monday over his comments about civil rights and the White Citizens Council, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has released a follow-up statement condemning the segregationist group. 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...

RE: Barbour's Baggage
As Adam notes, if Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour decides to run for president, he'll come with a lot of baggage. Some of it will be of his own making. A few Barbour's comments in the story Adam cites - a profile of Barbour in the Weekly Standard by Andrew Ferguson - are coming back to bite him. Both Mr. Mott and Mr. Kelly had told me that Yazoo City was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that managed to integrate the schools without violence. I asked Haley Barbour why h...

Gov. Barbour explains civil rights remarks
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) on Tuesday sought to tamp down criticism of his comments on growing up during the Civil Rights era. In a lengthy profile published Monday, Barbour was quoted as saying he doesn't remember the Civil Rights era being "that bad" and praised a Controversial "Citizens Council" in his hometown of Yazoo City, Miss., that he said helped keep away the Ku Klux Klan.  Liberal blogs and the Democratic National Committee ripped Barbour, a potential 2012 presidential can...

Haley Barbour Calls Segregationist Citizens' Councils "Totally Indefensible"
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, right, accompanied by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., speaks before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling on response following the BP spill, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010, in Washington. (Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is walking back his praise of "Citizens' Councils," segregationist groups that resisted integration through economic and political pressure. Controversy erupted following a "...

Barbour: Citizens councils 'indefensible'
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, facing a storm of criticism, on Tuesday clarified remarks that he made about integration in a recent magazine article, saying that white Citizens Councils in the South were "totally indefensible, as is segregation." Barbour, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, was alluding to a rose-tinted recollection he had offered about the role of one such group in his hometown of Yazoo City. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 In an inte...

Haley Barbour Responds
Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. 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 "Citiz...

Barbour explains remarks about desegregation
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, said Tuesday he was not trying to downplay the pain that many endured during the South's segregation era when he defended his home town's 1970 Public School integration process. Barbour spoke out a day after several liberal Activists criticized his published comments about school Desegregation in Yazoo City, which occurred when he was 20. Historical accounts confirm the schools integrated peacefully, as Barbour stated...

Ouch, that is going to leave a Mark..
Okay, who left the stupid door open again?!?!? Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, has an interesting perspective on the tumults of the Civil Rights era that swept through his Deep South state. As Barbour recalls it in a new profile in The Weekly Standard, things weren’t so bad in his hometown of Yazoo City, which took until 1970 to integrate its schools (though the final event itself is said to have gone on peacefully). For example, Barbour says that ...

Barbour defends Miss. school integration account
WASHINGTON—Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential Republican Presidential Candidate, rebutted critics Monday who said he is sugar-coating his state's history of racial integration. At issue is the January 1970 integration of Public Schools in Barbour's home town of Yazoo City, when he was 20. Historical accounts confirm the schools integrated peacefully, as Barbour stated in a recent profile in the Weekly Standard magazine. Some liberal groups, however, said his comments skimmed over...

Barbour Spokesman Stands By Barbours Praise of White Supremacist Organization
Speaking to a Weekly Standard reporter recently, Haley Barbour said things had gone pretty smoothly in Yazoo City, Mississippi thanks to the strong influence of a moderate white supremacist organization: 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 . 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 ...

Barbour's Racial Myopia.
It's a strange day at TAP when I find myself agreeing with Jim Geraghty : I stand by my earlier point that the bar for accusations of Racism has gotten dangerously low, and that Monday afternoon we saw a disturbing conveyor belt in which Barbour was compared to the worst villains of American history over a lone comment that suggests historical inaccuracy and gauzy hometown sentimentalism, not a deep-rooted hatred or a belief in one group of Americans’ inferiority. Neither inaccuracy nor oblivi...

Quote of the Day
"You're trying to paint the Governor as a Racist. And nothing could be further from the truth."—Dan Turner, spokesperson for Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Acist), who recently waxed nostalgic for the Citizens' Councils which were "the respectable face of white supremacist political Activism" preceding and during the Civil Rights Era, which Barbour recalls as a time that wasn't "that bad." So nothing is further from the truth than "Haley Barbour is a racist"? Cool! Let's think of some things that a...

Haley Barbour accused of praising 'racist organisation'
Haley Barbour, the Governor of Mississippi and a potential Republican Presidential Candidate in 2012, has been accused of praising a Racist organisation....

Why Barbour's Civil Rights Remarks May Not Kill a White House Run
Haley Barbour is in hot water for saying nice things about a pro-segregation group he knew in his hometown in the 1960s. The Citizens Council wasn't as bad as the Ku Klux Klan, Barbour said, apparently not adding that it was very bad because it was anti-black. (Barbour has since called the council and segregation "indefensible.") What the Mississippi Governor said is damaging, but it's not disqualifying for a potential presidential bid. The Scandal is missing four elements that help kill politi...

Barbour addresses furor over civil rights comments
Washington (CNN) - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour responded Tuesday to an avalanche of criticism over remarks he made to The Weekly Standard about the Civil Rights movement. In a statement issued through his office, Barbour stressed that the Civil Rights era in Mississippi was "a difficult and painful era." He also withdrew accolades for a local branch of the all-white, pro-segregation Citizens Councils, which he had credited with preventing racial strife in his hometown of Yazoo City. Liberal w...

Gov. Haley Barbour Realizes He Made a Big Mistake
From the “Saw This Coming” department: Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is desperately trying to walk back his statements defending the segregationist White Citizens’ Councils: Barbour clarifies: Citizens councils ‘indefensible’. 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 he...