State Sen. Lydia Chassaniol’s decision to speak at the annual conference of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens last week drew disapproval from her constituents, as well as a defense from her state party chairman. As reported first by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog, Chassaniol, R-Winona, spoke to the racist, anti-Semitic group about “Cultural Heritage in Mississippi."
Alonzo Lewis, a black minister from Coila, is trying to organize a chapter of the NAACP in Carroll County, which is located in Chassaniol’s district.
“I wouldn’t associate myself with any hate group,” Lewis said. “For someone to do that sends a message to me that they somewhat or totally agree with their agenda.”
For Chassaniol, that would mean agreeing with the CofCC’s opposition to interracial marriage and “race-mixing” and the claim that black people are “genetically inferior.” Columnists in the CofCC’s newsletter have hyperventilated that non-white immigration to the U.S. was transforming the country into a “slimy brown mass of glop.”
In an e-mail response to Heidi Beirich of the SPLC, Chassaniol described her speech as promotion for the state of Mississippi.
“As chair of the tourism committee in the Mississippi Senate, I felt it was appropriate to invite the members of a national organization to visit our state’s tourist attractions,” Chassaniol wrote. “I do not consider myself racist, have never before been accused of such, and believe that a person’s membership in any organization is a private matter.”
Lewis said that he was not surprised, however, to hear that Chassaniol had direct ties to a racist organization. “The politics in Carroll County are such that they want everything to remain just like it was,” Lewis said.
“They don’t want to move forward. If Senator Chassaniol would align herself with those groups, then, of course, she would never get my vote. I would love to hear the tape. I would love to hear what she had to say.”
Heidi Beirich of the SPLC called it “amazing” that a state senator even spoke to the group. In 1998, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee Jim Nicholson openly condemned the group’s racist ideology.
“It’s not as though I’m speaking from some kind of left-wing radical perspective calling the group racist; that’s the position of the Republican Party as well,” Beirich said. “I’m sure they represent some votes. I hate to think that a modern politician would want to troll for votes there.”
The senator added in the e-mail that she has spoken at the all-black Greenwood Voter’s League, which some could consider racist for lacking white members: “I do not abide by labels such as this, and I hope you will forgive me for taking exception to the insinuation that I am racist, because I choose to belong to a conservative organization. Conservative is a term which also applies to fiscal matters.”
Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White admitted that he would not have attended. “I wouldn’t have went,” White said. “Seeing the turmoil that it’s caused and some of the bad light that it’s put on her—I think unjustly and unfortunately—I wish that circumstances would have been different.”
Whatever Chassaniol’s intentions, White defended her against charges of racism: “I happen to know Lydia Chassianiol personally. They would never convince me that Lydia is racist or anything like that.”
White stopped short of criticizing her judgment, too. “I’m not going to get in the business of critiquing every little trip that our elected officials take,” he said.
