WASHINGTON -- Civil rights groups are causing more headaches for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) after last month's revelation that he was once a guest speaker at a white supremacist conference.
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, a national racial justice organization with more than 50,000 members, is planning a Tuesday protest outside a Scalise fundraiser on Capitol Hill. The group posted its plans on its Facebook page.
"Speaker Boehner and GOP donors have an important choice to make: they can disavow white supremacy, strip Steve Scalise of his leadership role and stand up to David Duke; or they can leave Scalise in power and confirm that Republicans are unwilling to confront racism in their own party," reads the group's post.
"Join us on Tuesday January 13th at 2:30pm at the Capital Hill Club in Washington DC, and demand accountability for his actions, and removal from his leadership role."
A Scalise spokeswoman declined comment.
A request for comment from Million Hoodies Movement for Justice on how many people they expect at the event was not immediately returned.
The protest comes a week after two prominent civil rights groups asked Scalise to meet with them to explain his 2002 appearance before the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, or EURO, a group formed by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Scalise has said he regrets speaking to the group but says he didn't know whom he was talking to at the time.
In their letter to Scalise, the National Urban League and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights call that explanation "implausible."
A spokesman for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said Monday that the group hasn't heard back from Scalise about a possible meeting, but "we haven't stopped pursuing it."
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