The Good King of White Supremacy.

The Barbour Files
In the Weekly Standard piece that came out today, Gov. Barbour said ... 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 the interview our reporter just did with Barbour's spokesperson Dan Turner, Turner insisted that ... "Gov. Barbour did not comment on the Citizens Council movement's history," Turner responded. "He commented on the business community in Yazoo City, Mississippi." That doesn't seem to sq...

Haley Barbour and the KKK in Yazoo City
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is out with a statement today walking back his friendly comments about the White Citizens Councils of the 1960s. Here it is via Politico:  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 cons...

Gov. Haley Barbour Praises White Supremacist Group
The meltdown of the Republican Party into a stinky puddle of Racist goo is accelerating. In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) actually praised the Civil Rights era white supremacist group known as the “White Citizens’ Council.” 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 gon...

Anyone Who Praises The Pre-1947 Yankees Is Racist
1947 was the year in which the color barrier was broken in Major League Baseball. Prior to Jackie Robinson taking the field, MLB (or whatever it was called at the time) was segregated. Actually, it was more than segregated, it excluded blacks completely. Using the logic of Matthew Yglesias of Think Progress, who is having his 15 minutes of Race Card fame, anyone who expresses any measure of praise for the pre-1947 Yankees necessarily would be "expressing affection for a White Supremacist" organ...

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...

Today's 2 Minutes Of Liberal Hate: Haley Barbour Loves Racists Or Something
The Weekly Standard has a lengthy and positive profile of Mississippi Governor and possible GOP Presidential Candidate Haley Barbour. It seems some on the left, led by Matt Yglesias and followed by the usual suspects at TPM, The Atlantic and Politico, Time and MSNBC, are outrageously outraged by this passage dealing with Barbour's recollection of his hometown's integration efforts. Both Mr. Mott and Mr. Kelly had told me that Yazoo City was perhaps the only municipality in Mississippi that man...

Blog Buzz: The Barbour backlash
Ali Weinberg writes: Bloggers on the left and right responded to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s statement today walking back his comments on the Civil Rights era. But the racial sensitivity at Barbour headquarters was suggested by an exchange between the Candidate and an aide who complained that there would be ''coons'' at a campaign stop at the State Fair. Embarrassed that a reporter heard this, Mr. Barbour warned that if the aide persisted in Racist remarks, he would be reincarnated as...

Barbour defends comments on race, but is the damage done to his potential 2012 bid? (The Ticket)
Could Haley Barbour's comments on race doom his potential 2012 GOP presidential run before it even starts? On Tuesday, the Mississippi Governor sought to clarify his remarks to the Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson about growing up at the height of the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi. "I just don't remember it as being that bad," Barbour had told Ferguson, noting that his hometown, Yazoo City, Miss., wasn't at the flash point of racial tensions at the time. The Governor went on to credit ...

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...

Couple of Thoughts on Haley Barbour and Watermelons
1. I've never gotten how "Watermelon" and "friend chicken" began to get treated as high-level Racial Slurs. Yes, they are slurs, as they stereotype and demean (and that is the point, and why I discourage their use here), but come on, they're not big-time capital-R Racist slurs. I categorize them in the same class as calling an Italian a spaghetti-bender or ravioli roller, well, a bit higher in offense than that because Italians aren't discriminated against that much and there is a greater allow...

Segregation Best Practices
This won't come as a surprise to those familiar with the history of the late Jim Crow Era or the White Citizens Council movement. But as author John Dittmer explains, the decision of the Yazoo City Citizens Council to try to keep out the KKK wasn't a matter of disagreeing with their objectives. They just thought their methods would be more effective in preserving Jim Crow and that it was better to have White Supremacist forces concentrated in a single organization. As the Yazoo City Citizens C...

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....

No More Mister Nice Blog
THAT NICE WHITE CITIZENS' COUNCIL IN Yazoo City David Ha;berstam, "The White Citizens Councils," Commentary, October 1956 (via Atrios): But the main and most effective weapon of the WCC has been economic pressure. For a Militant organization which sees itself as law-abiding and which is...

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...

Why this will sink Haley Barbour in 2012
There is a school of thought that Haley Barbour's comments about life in the Civil Rights-era South and Yazoo City chapter of the White Citizens Council represent some kind of cunning, premeditated political strategy -- that the Mississippi Governor, in provoking the wrath of liberal commentators, is now poised to win over sympathetic Conservatives for a potential 2012 White House bid. As the New Republic's Jonathan Chait puts it: His past is not Racist enough to disqualify him, but it is murky ...

Haley Barbour: 'The 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible, as is segregation.'
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour issues a statement about the recent Controversy: Dec. 21, 2010 GOV. BARBOUR’S STATEMENT REGARDING Weekly Standard ARTICLE “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 shoul...

Haley Barbour clarifies comments on civil rights era
Too late? 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 ‘Citizens Council,’ is totally indefensible, as is segrega

Barbour Doesnt Recall Civil Rights Era Being That Bad
The Hill reports: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says he doesn’t remember the Civil Rights era being “that bad,” citing his attendance at a Martin Luther King Jr. rally nearly 50 years ago. “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,” Barbour (R), 63, told the conservative Weekly Standard, which did a lengthy profile on the Governor. “I remember Martin Luther King came to town, in ’62. He spoke out at the old fairground and it was full of people, black ...

Why Haley Barbour whitewashes history
Who'd have figured that the first major blow to Haley Barbour's 2012 White House hopes would be delivered by ... the Weekly Standard? Bill Kristol's magazine is out today with a profile of the Mississippi Governor, written by Andrew Ferguson, in which Barbour downplays the upheaval of the Civil Rights movement and characterizes the notorious White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s as a force for good. Asked about coming of age in Yazoo City, Miss., during the Civil Rights "revolution...

Now All Racists Are Violent?
Oh, brother - Matt Yglesias takes it upon himself to teach a bit of Mississipi history to Haley Barbour, whose family has been in Mississipi for a mere five generations. In a Weekly Standard profile Mr. Barbour credited the local Citizens Council with keeping things cool when the Yazoo City schools were finally desegregated in 1970: 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 ...

Gov. Barbour On Segregated South: It Wasn't "That Bad"
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) loves to rewrite the history of segregation in the South when talking to Journalists. In a lengthy new Weekly Standard profile, though, Barbour really outdid himself: In interviews Barbour doesn't have much to say about growing up in the midst of the Civil Rights revolution. "I just don't remember it as being that bad," he said. "I remember Martin Luther King came to town, in '62. He spoke out at the old fairground and it was full of people, black and white." D...

A note to conservative commenters | Michael Tomasky
Friends, trust me on this. You are doing yourselves no credit trying to explain Haley Barbour's comments away. I say this as your friend who is grateful for your participation in our conversation. You look ridiculous. The Citizens Councils were Racist outfits. Haley Barbour is defending them. They may not have burned crosses and bombed churches, but they did exist to support and help enforce segregation and prevent, as they would have put it, "mongrelization." Why defend this? Why defend someon...

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...

Haley Barbour Wisely Decides to Temper His Appreciation of White Supremacist Group
Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Slow news week or not, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's praise for his hometown's segregationist Citizens' Council in a Weekly Standard article released yesterday was bound to blow up in his face like a Fourth of July Fireworks mishap. Barbour, a prospective 2012 Presidential Candidate, has a history of racial tactlessness: He recalled the integration of his Alma Mater, Ole Miss, as a "very pleasant experience," while a Verna Bailey — a black classm...

Haley Barbour's race blinders
Despite his just-released statement of contrition, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) has a blind spot the size of the Confederate Flag when it comes to race. I'm not saying that this son of the South is a Racist. I am saying that, for the second time this year, Barbour has displayed a stunning lack of insight, knowledge or even sensitivity to the role race played and continues to play in his own backyard. Note that I said this year. Greg Sargent yesterday pointed to some of Barbour's race missteps fr...