Kyle Rogers: Conservative Christian Council Leader Denies Dylann Roof Connection
Kyle Rogers, an official for the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), says he is not a white supremacist. Rogers’ beliefs allegedly inspired Dylann Roof to commit the Charleston shooting.
“I am not a racist,” Kyle Rogers, 38, said during an interview with the Daily Mail. “I would not marry a black woman as I want my children to look like me.”
Rogers is a businessman who also helps operate the Council of Conservative Citizens website. He is not accepting any of the blame for the Charleston shooting, which has been heaped upon him via social media. Dylann Roof said that he was “never the same” after logging onto the website and seeing “pages upon pages of black on white murders.”
It appears we have our own ISIS, for white Christian conservatives, right here in the South. http://t.co/5VgkSzbdWL
— Lenny (@DimeStoreNinja) June 21, 2015
Roof reportedly spent three years searching the internet and allegedly visited “racist websites” after realizing “something was wrong” due to the CCC website visit.
Kyle Rogers has been accused of having contacts with the KKK, and allegedly once helped them garner access to television broadcasts in his native state of Ohio. The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the 200-member CCC chapter lead by Rogers as a “racist organization.”
The Council of Conservative Citizens was reportedly founded in 1958, and was originally named the White Citizens Council. The group was based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Before passing away in March, CCC (or CofCC) founder Gordon Baum named Rogers, a tech engineer, his successor.
Rogers reportedly publishes news and commentary pieces on the CCC website on a daily basis.
The following is an excerpt from a CCC report about the alleged Charleston shooting suspect being captured.
“It is a relief that the perpetrator has been caught. However, the loss of nine lives is devastating. It could also have severe consequences in terms of race relations in the US in general, and South Carolina in particular. The attack was similar to when ISIS bombs Shiite mosques. It is to incite the other side to retaliate and create a situation where the violence between the two sides spirals out of control. We pray, for the sake of all Americans, that there will not be an escalation of racial tension.”
Rogers also reportedly runs the Patriotic Flags website. The website store sells a variety of flags, including the Confederate Flag.
The CofCC leader has stated that the organization had no direct or online contact with Dylann Storm Roof.
“The CCC have searched all its data bases and he never contacted the group. He has never contacted me and the fact that he mentioned the website is just a fluke,” Rogers said. “He is not part of the group, nobody knows him.”
When asked if he helped Roof write the manifesto the FBI is currently reviewing and investigating, he said no.
“I think I am being unfairly linked. Part of this is because I live in close proximity to where it happened. There is all this media camped out in Charleston and they are looking for someone. Three close friends of the shooter say he literally told them he was going to do something like this and none of them saw fit to warn the authorities,” the CCC leader added.
“I have never said it is wrong with black people being in this country. The problem I have is the way the media tries to antagonize racial tensions between black and whites against each other. I have always attacked the media and not the blacks. I don’t have a hatred against anybody,” Rogers said.
Rogers said that a white supremacist feels that whites have power over blacks and that is not part of his belief system. The CofCC leader also stated that Dylann Roof “had a thing” about both the KKK and skinheads and he personally has “denounced” that notion his entire life.
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