Black leader's slur against Lieberman: 'Jews are into money'

A member of the biggest organisation of black Americans was accused of racism yesterday after he questioned the nomination of Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, as the Democrats' candidate for vice-president.

A member of the biggest organisation of black Americans was accused of racism yesterday after he questioned the nomination of Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, as the Democrats' candidate for vice-president.

Lee Alcorn, a spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), expressed misgivings in openly racist terms about the nomination of a Jewish candidate.

"I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level," Mr Alcorn said on a radio talk show, "because we know that their interest primarily has to do with, you know, money and these kinds of things."

The civil rights campaigner's remarks triggered a very public exchange that exposed potentially destructive tensions in the black community over the inclusion of the first Jew on a US presidential ticket as Kweisi Mfume, the president of the NAACP, accused him of anti-Semitism, and denounced his comments as "repulsive, anti-Semitic, anti-NAACP and anti-American".

Mr Alcorn also criticised the hierarchy of the Democratic Party, saying that he was "sick of the Democratic Party taking the African-American vote for granted".

But Mr Mfume said Mr Alcorn "did not speak for the NAACP, its board, its staff or its membership", and would face suspension from the organisation. Mr Alcorn replied that his comments had been taken out of context; he had meant to imply only that the Democrats should have selected a black as Vice-President Al Gore's running mate.

The spat appeared to confirm the fears of some in the Democratic Party who worried that the nomination of an Orthodox Jew could lose the party a section of the black vote. It was in part to pre-empt that risk that Mr Gore and Mr Lieberman planned to visit the city of Atlanta today - their third stop on a tour that started in their respective home towns.

As well as campaigning in the majority-black city of Atlanta, they are expected to pay their respects at the tomb of the late civil rights leader, Martin Luther King.