Founded in the mid-1980s, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) bills itself as a "grassroots" organization working on issues of concern to conservatives. It currently has chapters in over 20 states across the nation. The group claims to be fighting the "leftist war" against America’s Christian heritage and civil liberties. It opposes affirmative action, "big" government, gun control and increased immigration.

In fact, the CCC has its roots in the Citizens Councils of America, a racist and anti-Semitic organization formed in the 1950s and dedicated to states rights and preserving segregation in the South. The Citizens Councils, known for intimidating and harassing Blacks involved in the civil rights movement, printed and distributed pamphlets containing inflammatory racist speeches by various segregationists. The pamphlets had titles such as "Segregation and the South," which described Black Americans as "having an inherent deficiency in mental ability," and " a natural indolence," and "The Ugly Truth About the NAACP," which accused the organization of being controlled by Communists intent on destroying America.

Gordon Lee Baum, the current Chief Executive Officer of the CCC was at one time a field director for the Citizens Councils of America. In 1989, the CCC absorbed that organization. In addition, CCC named its newspaper Citizens Informer after the publication of the Citizens Councils. The CCC claims that it does not advocate racism. However, material on its web site and its choice of speakers points to the group’s apparent desire to continue the legacy of its predecessor. The group often invites speakers with extremist views to address its constituents. Various white supremacists and Christian Identity (a doctrine that maintains that Anglo-Saxons are the Biblical "chosen people," that nonwhites are "mud people" on the level of animals, and that Jews are the "children of Satan") preachers have been asked to speak at local and national events.

The CCC’s web site features numerous articles and essays that expose its pro-white, anti-minority stance. In addition, the site contains pieces labeling Martin Luther King, Jr. a Communist, lamenting the South’s loss in the Civil War, and defending the use of the Confederate flag.

• In an essay on the web site, "A Call to White Americans," the author writes, "If we want to live, white Americans must begin today to lay the foundations for our future and our children’s future…Start today, fellow white Americans. Look at the faces around you: find the faces like yours, and see them as your brothers and sisters. Find the fair-skinned babies and see them as your children…"

• Another commentator on the site writes, "There appears to be a growth of a form of racial bigotry in the world today that is hardly noticed because its victims are white. This bigotry is anti-whitism. It is going largely unnoticed by many whites who some will argue have become so race whipped and aracial after 30 plus years of unending anti-white propaganda from the liberal elites that they don’t even think of themselves as a race or as a people."

• In December 1998, the CCC’s web site boasted that the group’s leadership had met with Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, a xenophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic political party in France.

The fact that the CCC in the past invited mainstream politicians such as Mississippi Senator Trent Lott and Georgia Congressman Bob Barr (both of whom have since distanced themselves from the group) to be keynote speakers at its conferences lends the group a false air of legitimacy. However, many speakers who have addressed CCC meetings are unabashedly racist and anti-Semitic.

• Jared Taylor, editor of the racist publication, American Renaissance (AR) has addressed CCC meetings numerous times in 1998. AR describes itself as a "literate, undeceived journal of race, immigration and the decline of civility." In reality, the publication uses pseudo-science to justify racism and white separatism.

• In April 1998, Edward Butler, a Christian Identity preacher who publishes the vehemently anti-Semitic newsletter, "The New World Today," gave a talk to the Georgia chapter of the CCC. A recent issue of Butler’s newsletter reflects his views. He wrote, "…the U.S. government officials elected and appointed, are predominantly vassals of the Zionist New World Order. Jews control the wealth of the world and in turn they control the governments…Will you go on being a vassal of the Zionist slave state?"

• In December 1998, Michael Collins Piper spoke at the meeting of the National Capital Chapter of the CCC in Washington, D.C. Piper is a correspondent for The Spotlight, a newspaper published by Liberty Lobby, the most active anti-Semitic propaganda organization in the United States. At the meeting, Piper made anti-Semitic comments and accused Israel’s Mossad and the Anti-Defamation League of being involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

• In July 1995, David Duke addressed the meeting of the South Carolina chapter of the CCC, held at Clemson University. At the meeting, Duke, who has once again openly embraced his early extremist views, urged followers to fight for their "white genes."

• In April 1994, the Arkansas chapter of the CCC invited lawyer Kirk Lyons to speak to the group. Lyons has been a friend to and has represented numerous extremists in court cases, including white supremacist Louis Beam and James Wickstrom, a Christian Identity preacher and head of the Posse Commitatus, an anti-government group. Lyons has described himself as an "active sympathizer" of his clients’ causes. The spring 1998 newsletter of the CCC mentions that the organization has been working on a case with Southern Legal Resource Center, currently headed by Lyons.