NAACP Approves Resolution Calling Tea Party 'Racist'

The NAACP adopted a resolution Tuesday condemning the Tea Party movement as racist, despite claims from Tea Partiers that the measure is just a political ploy.

Hilary Shelton, senior vice president of advocacy and policy for the NAACP, said the group has serious concerns about Tea Party behavior. He referenced an incident in March when Tea Party protesters allegedly hurled racial epithets at black lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of a health care vote.

"The Tea Party needs to denounce those racist elements within the Tea Party," Shelton told Fox News.

But Tea Party members have challenged claims that their activists accosted black lawmakers in March and no visual evidence has been produced depicting a racist attack. Dallas Tea Party founder Phillip Dennis said "there was no proof" of racist behavior at the event and that the movement welcomes minority members.

"We don't care about the pigment of one's skin," he said. Dennis accused the NAACP of playing the "race card" and called the organization "irrelevant."

The nearby St. Louis Tea Party had an all-hands-on-deck response to the NAACP's plan. The group has drafted a resolution of its own condemning the civil rights group for reducing itself to a "bigoted" and "partisan attack dog organization."

In a matter of hours, the St. Louis group fired off to the NAACP the statement demanding the organization withdraw its "bigoted, false and inflammatory" resolution. The missive accused the NAACP of resorting to political tactics and urged the IRS to reconsider whether it can continue to qualify for tax-exempt status.

St. Louis Tea Party organizer Bill Hennessy wrote on the group's website Tuesday that the Tea Party stands for smaller government and fiscal responsibility, and accused the NAACP of abandoning black America.

"When you look at the crime and poverty and family breakdown of the African-American community ... you see a half-century of failure by the NAACP," he wrote. "None of those persistent problems was caused by the Tea Party movement, yet the principles of the Tea Party are exactly what's needed to wind down the multigenerational destruction in the African-American community.

"The NAACP was once a vital weapon in the war against segregation and oppression. All that's left is a bigoted and malicious shell that does far more harm than good for people who need a break," he wrote.

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