Don Davis For NC Senate Seat 12 Lee County, Harnett County and Johnston County

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sanford, North Carolina, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 1, 2012 -- “Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity the degree these two have diminished is in direct proportion to the corruption and fall of the nation. Every problem that has arisen (sic) can be directly traced back to our departure from God’s Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.“ – State Rep. Don Davis (R-NC), emailed to every member of the North Carolina House and Senate, and reported by the Fayetteville Observer, 08-22-01.

N.C. Black Caucus Angered By White State Rep. Forwarding Racist E-mail

Members of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus are incensed over a White supremacist e-mail that was circulated by a White member of the state legislature.

The e-mail read: "Two things made this country great: White men and Christianity. Every problem that has arisen can be directly traced back to our departure from God's law and the disenfranchisement of White men."

Rep. Don Davis, a White Republican, received the letter and forwarded it to every member of the state House and Senate. He said he didn't consider the e-mail racist.

"I just put it out for information. People can read into it whatever they want to," Davis said.

"There's a lot of it that's truth, the way I see it," confessed Davis. "Who came to this country first--the White man, didn't he? That's who made this country great," he said.

Criticizing Davis' racial insensitivity in forwarding the inflammatory message, Rep. William Wainwright, vice chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, argued the e-mail "absolutely destroys the racial harmony that we are trying to foster in this state and this country." An angry Ron Sutton, the only American Indian in the General Assembly, said he had no use for such sentiments in the Statehouse. "It just shows his White Supremacist, Gestapo mentality," Sutton stated.

Bill Peaslee, political director for the North Carolina Republican Party, called Davis' decision to send the e-mail "regrettable."

"Needless to say, Rep. Davis does not speak for the North Carolina Republican party," said Peaslee.
Rep. Don Davis (R-Harnett County), forwarded the message to all of his colleagues in the legislature after receiving it from an internet site called "God's Order Affirmed in Love." The message read in part, "Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity. Every problem that has arrisen (sic) can be traced back to our departure from God's Law and the disenfranchisement of White men."

Another part of the message criticized Catholicism, accusing it of deviating from the Bible.

Faced with an outcry from other law-makers, Davis at first refused to back down. "There's a lot of it that's truth, the way I see it," Davis said. "Who came to this country first - the white man, didn't he? That's who made this country great."

Asked by a reporter if the message was racist, Davis snapped, "Listen, there's nothing racist about it. And don't give me that mess."

Republican Party leaders ordered Davis to apologize, and he did - sort of. "I humbly want to apologize if the e-mail forwarded from my office on Monday night was offensive or disrespectful to any one in this General Assembly, state or nation," Davis wrote. He claimed he had forwarded the message only "to show the type of messages that come across the Internet" and said the message "was not intended to be indicative of my personal views."

Davis also said he hadn't read the entire message and forwarded it only because it appeared to support his position on posting the Ten Commandments in schools.

A few weeks later, however, Davis issued another racist e-mail. This one attacked Hispanics, asserting, "These Mexicans and all these other Hispanics have not done one thing for this country except suck us dry. Every day I see them in our grocery stores using food stamps, and guess who's paying the taxes for that." Davis said the message had been sent to him by someone in the city of Fuquay-Varina and that he was just passing it on.

"I apologize for nothing," he told the Associated Press. "The First Amendment ... gives me just as much right to express myself as they have."

The Raleigh News and Observer called Davis a "follower of the flat earth faction" and noted that in 1998 he unsuccessfully tried to block North Carolina from receiving federal education funds.

The newspaper noted that in 1997, the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, using data compiled from fellow lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the press corps, rated Davis 118th out of 120 in terms of effectiveness. In 1999, he was dead last.

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