The Tea Party movement has extensive links to white supremacist groups, a report published by the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights today has alleged.
The report lists incidents, individuals and websites it claims demonstrate the links, and also expresses concern that Tea Party meetings are used as recruiting grounds for racist groups. The movement has repeatedly denied it is racist.
In the foreword to the report, Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), said: "We know the majority of Tea Party supporters are sincere, principled people of good will."
But he added that the report "exposes the links between certain Tea Party factions and acknowledged racist hate groups in the United States. These links should give all patriotic Americans pause".
He called on the leadership and members of the Tea Party movement to take more steps "to distance themselves from those Tea Party leaders who espouse racist ideas, advocate violence or are formally affiliated with white supremacist organisations."
The NAACP and other organisations such as La Raza, which represents Latinos in the US, were present for the report's launch.
The document comes after the NAACP national convention, in July, passed a resolution condemning what it said were outspoken racist elements within the Tea Party.
One of the concerns in the report is the portrayal of Barack Obama as non-American. "Consider, for example, the incessant depiction of President Obama as a non-American," it says.
"The permutations go on from there: Islamic terrorist, socialist, African witch doctor, lying African etc. If he is not properly American, then he becomes the 'other' that is not 'us.'"
Prominent Tea Party organisers said the report was a politically-motivated distortion of the truth.
Sal Russo, a Sacramento-based Republican political consultant who created the Tea Party Express, described the report "patently ridiculous".
He said the Tea Party had brought millions of people into the political process because of their worries about what was happening economically to the US.
"The claim of racism is so stupid it defies response. The movement has nothing to do with race whatsoever," he added.
Russo was travelling on the Tea Party Express bus in Nevada, where Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, is fighting for his political life against the Tea Party-backed Sharron Angle.
"We are not opposing Harry Reid because he's black, but because he's wrong," Russo said.
On the specific accusation in the report that posts and comments on Tea Party Express partner websites were racist, he added: "What websites? People claim affiliations that don't really exist."
The report also cites racist comments about Obama's family on the Free Republic website. A photograph of Michelle Obama had the caption: "To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds."
Gary Dunn, a contributor to the Free Republic website, said it had a policy of always removing racist comments as quickly as possible.
It uses up to eight moderators to filter offensive posts, and repeat offenders were had their access withdrawn, he said.
