Black members of tea party dispute racist claims

Tea Party Caucus leader Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., center, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – Black members of the tea party movement on Wednesday rejected charges that the group’s activists are racist, saying they oppose President Barack Obama because of his policies not his skin color.

The members gathered at a Washington news conference in the wake of allegations about its rank and file, heightened by the recent split with a Tea Party Express leader who had posted a letter on his blog written from “Colored People” to Abraham Lincoln. The post suggested that black people would choose slavery over having to do real work.

The black members said the racism that has been attributed to the tea party movement came from outsiders who infiltrated the groups to discredit their work and it should be rejected. Philip Elliott, AP Read more.

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