Group That May Have Influenced Charleston Killer: He Had Some ‘Legitimate Grievances’

A white nationalist group that may have influenced the suspected gunman in last week’s massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina said Sunday in a statement that it believes he had “legitimate grievances” against black people.

The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) is a group that has long been tied to prominent Republican politicians in the American South and counts opposition to “all efforts to mix the races of mankind” among its stated principles. A spokesman for the group condemned the Charleston shooting while suggesting that the suspected gunman’s motives were still legitimate.

“The C of CC unequivocally condemns [Dylann] Roof’s murderous actions,” the spokesman, Jared Taylor (pictured), said in the statement posted on the group’s website. “However, the council stands unshakably behind the facts on its website, and points out the dangers of denying the extent of black-on-white crime.”

In a manifesto that surfaced Saturday and appeared to be written by Dylann Roof, the white, 21-year-old man who killed nine people Wednesday night at Emanuel AME in downtown Charleston, the Council of Conservative Citizens was credited with opening the author’s eyes to black-on-white crime in the wake of the 2012 Trayvon Martin shooting.

“The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens,” the manifesto read. “There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?”

The manifesto goes on to defend segregation and lament that white people are faulted for slavery and other “bad” acts that race has committed throughout history. In his statement, Taylor said the manifesto outlined “legitimate grievances” without specifying what those grievances were.

“In his manifesto, Roof outlines other grievances felt by many whites,” Taylor said. “Again, we utterly condemn Roof’s despicable killings, but they do not detract in the slightest from the legitimacy of some of the positions he has expressed. *Ignoring legitimate grievances is dangerous*.”

The president of the group, Earl Holt III, also issued a statement that disavowed Roof’s crime while asserting that the information Roof got from his organization was “accurate.”

Read both statements below in full:

Spokesman for Council of Conservative Citizens Available to Speak to Media about Dylann Roof and Charleston church killings.

In a manifesto widely attributed to Dylann Roof, he cites the Council of Conservative Citizens ( C of CC) as the organization that first drew his attention to black-on-white crime.

C of CC spokesman, Jared Taylor, welcomes media inquiries about the council’s positions and how they relate to Dylann Roof.

The C of CC unequivocally condemns Roof’s murderous actions.

However, the council stands unshakably behind the facts on its website, and points out the dangers of denying the extent of black-on-white crime.

Every year, there are about 500,000 violent, interracial crimes. Of these, about 85 percent are committed by blacks against whites.

Every year, there are some 20,000 rapes of white women by blacks, but rapes by white men of black women are so unusual, they scarcely appear in crime statistics.

If these figures were reversed—if there were wide-spread white-on-black rape and violence—it would be constant national news. Instead, the true nature of interracial violence is ignored.

This is dangerous. Our society’s silence about these crimes—despite enormous amounts of attention to “racially tinged” acts by whites—only increase the anger of people like Dylann Roof. This double standard *only makes acts of murderous frustration more likely*.

In his manifesto, Roof outlines other grievances felt by many whites. Again, we utterly condemn Roof’s despicable killings, but they do not detract in the slightest from the legitimacy of some of the positions he has expressed. *Ignoring legitimate grievances is dangerous*.

For further commentary on Roof, please contact Jared Taylor at 703-716-0900. Taylor is a former board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, and frequent speaker at council conferences.

Message from the CofCC President:

It has been brought to the attention of the Council of Conservative Citizens that Dylann Roof — the alleged perpetrator of mass murder in Charleston this week — credits the CofCC website for his knowledge of black-on-white violent crime.

This is not surprising: The CofCC is one of perhaps three websites in the world that accurately and honestly report black-on-white violent crime, and in particular, the seemingly endless incidents involving black-on-white murder.

The CofCC website exists because media either “spike” such stories, or intentionally obscure the race of black offenders. Indeed, at its national convention some years ago, the Society of Professional Journalists adopted this tactic as a formal policy.

The CofCC is hardly responsible for the actions of this deranged individual merely because he gleaned accurate information from our website.

We are no more responsible for the actions of this sad young man, than the Olin Corporation was for manufacturing the ammo misused by Colin Ferguson to murder six whites on the Long Island Railroad in 1993.

The CofCC does not advocate illegal activities of any kind, and never has. I would gladly compare the honesty and law-abiding nature of our membership against that of any other group.

Earl Holt III, President, CofCC