NAACP President Defends Decision to Condemn Tea Party as Racist, Now Claims David Duke, Stormfront Lead the Movement…

NAACP President Defends Decision to Condemn Tea Party as Racist, Now Claims David Duke, Stormfront Lead the Movement…

(CNN)- Benjamin Todd Jealous is president and CEO of the NAACP, the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization.

This week at the NAACP annual convention, we passed over 75 resolutions. They addressed critical issues from education equity, to fixing our broken criminal justice and immigration systems, to our top priority: jobs, jobs, jobs.

One resolution, which was highlighted in my convention speech, created media frenzy: The unanimously passed resolution demanded that the leadership of the Tea Party repudiate its racist elements and make it clear that there is no space in the organization for bigotry.

It is unfortunate that at a time when our nation is reeling in the midst of one of the most devastating downturns in our economy since the Great Depression, the NAACP is compelled to deal with a disturbing, corrosive attack from the Tea Party.

Instead of joining us to repudiate racism, Tea Party leaders have attempted a tit for tat and demanded that we condemn the New Black Panther Party for reported hate speech. It is a false argument. Of course we condemn hate speech from anyone and any organization, including the New Black Panther Party. But that party is a mere flea compared to the influence and size of the Tea Party. And the New Black Panther Party is not a member of the NAACP. What we are asking the Tea Party to eschew is not the racism of some outside organization, but the bigotry within.

After my speech, I was approached by a man named Chris, who asked that his last name not be used. He’s a member of both the Tea Party and the NAACP. He thanked me for denouncing the racist elements of a party to which he is loyal. He explained that he felt increasingly uncomfortable within the Tea Party. We want Chris to live in a world where he can feel comfortable in both organizations.

Over 2000 delegates voted. The resolution was proposed by our Missouri State Conference, from the home state of the Council of Conservative Citizens, widely recognized as the linear descendant of the White Citizens Council. Their fealty to racism is not obscured.

Like Stormfront.org, a website founded by former KKK leader Don Black, the Council celebrates its allegiance to and influence in the Tea Party. The avowed racist David Duke notes that thousands of Tea Party activists have urged him to run for president. When the Tea Party marches by, Duke thinks it’s his fiesta.