Overrun by "racist homophobes," the S.C. Secessionist Party is breaking up, leader says

"Blatant and racist homophobes"

Posted by Sam Spence on Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 12:53 PM

The leader of a group that led public demonstrations of the Confederate flag across South Carolina says the group has become so dominated by racists and homophobes that he can no longer be associated with it.

The Anderson Independent Mail reported Friday that James Bessenger, leader of the S.C. Secessionist Party, said, "The organization was taking a turn I didn't want it to take."

"The people genuinely interested in the history are less in number than people who are blatant and racist homophobes," Bessenger told the Independent Mail. "I don't want to be associated with an organization or movement riddled with those types of people."

The group's Facebook page has reportedly been deleted.

For anyone unfamiliar with the S.C. Secessionist Party: The group is not actually an organized political party, but rather mobilizes around general individual liberty issues, including prominently flying the Confederate flag in public places.

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Leader says South Carolina Secessionist Party is disbanding

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ANDERSON, S.C. — Jan 28, 2019, 6:36 AM ET

The chairman of the South Carolina Secessionist Party says the group is dissolving.

The Anderson Independent Mail reported Friday that chairman James Bessenger says "the organization was taking a turn I didn't want it to take." More specifically, he says that the people genuinely interested in history were being outnumbered by "blatant and racist homophobes."

The group is responsible for at least two Confederate flag displays in Clemson since September. But he says the membership fractured before the move of a Confederate flag to the state Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum this month.

A senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, Keegan Hankes, says the group was relatively minor in the larger Confederate movement.