Members of Congress critical of a grand jury decision that cleared Police Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown are fanning the flames of racial discord, says Michael Meyers, president and executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.
"Members of the Congressional Black Chorus, as I call them, they are so bad. They are such an embarrassment," Meyers said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"They ought to know better that it's racial rhetoric, but they are in love with their own voice and racial hysteria. What they do, is they feed and fan the flames of racial division and they ought to be more responsible."
He zeroed in on Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, who last month declared that if an indictment was not handed down against Wilson, the nation would see "massive, nonviolent protests all over America," not unlike the 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Alabama.
"[Lewis is] an icon in the civil rights history. His problem is his memory and his reputation is really based in the past," Meyers said of the 74-year-old lawmaker — the last living "Big Six" leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.
"This is no longer the Jim Crow South, but he said before the St. Louis grand jury came out with their decision … if they don't indict the cop, there's going to be mass nonviolent demonstrations across the country.
"He forgot the presumption of innocence, he forgot the rule of law and he forgot due process of law."
He said the Rev. Jesse Jackson's comparison of the Brown case to that of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen killed by George Zimmerman, and Emmett Till, shot dead in Mississippi in 1955 for reportedly flirting with a white woman, is wrong.
"These people are lunatics. What can I tell you? They identify with racial rhetoric and with racial militants and hustlers like [the Rev.] Al Sharpton," he said.
Meyers also criticized outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, who he accused of turning the Justice Department into a "Justice Department of double standards."
"He identifies with racial militants … They invite the racial hustlers. Holder and Obama are twin sisters. They're twin sisters. They believe in this racial rhetoric," he said.
"Obama campaigned 'we don't have a black nation, there's no black U.S. and there's no white America. We're only the United States of America.' Now, everything comes back to black, [like when he said], if he had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin … It's a racist statement."
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