CPAC attendee defends slavery because slave owners provided 'food and shelter'

A white attendee at the Conservative Political Action Committee defended slavery by saying that slave owners provided food and shelter for African-Americans on Friday, Think Progress reported.

An attendee, 30-year-old Scott Terry of North Carolina asked the panelist that Republicans were reaching out to southern minority voters "at the expense of" young white male voters. "Why can't we be more like Booker T. Washington?"

K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans replied, "They call Booker T. Washington the second Frederick Douglass."

"what about unity and diversity?" Terry asked.

"What about it?" Smith responded. "Here's an example: When Douglass escaped from slavery, I think 10 years or 20 years after he escaped, he writes a letter to his former slave master and said, 'I forgive you for all the things you did to me.'"

"For giving him shelter and food and all that?" Terry asked.

"No!" Smith said.

Think Progress reported that they asked Terry if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites.

Terry told them, “I’d be fine with that.”

He also told Think Progress that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa” and that he supported Rick Santorum for president in 2012.

Think Progress also reported that Terry, who claimed to be a direct descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis told a fellow female attendee when she responded to one of his remarks, "I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”

Watch the video, taken by Think Progress and uploaded to YouTube on March 15.