An Alabama GOP county chair apologizes for posting an elephant logo with KKK imagery. The local NAACP wants him off the school board
By Chuck Johnston, CNN
A county NAACP chapter in northern Alabama is calling for the resignation of a school board member and local Republican Party chairman, who says his sharing on social media of a GOP elephant logo that included KKK imagery was unintended.
The Facebook page of the Lawrence County Republican Party had included in one of its posts an image that shows a representation of a GOP elephant with three Klansmen with hoods symbolized in the legs of the logo. The image originally appeared in a Mother Jones article from 2020 entitled, “The Republican Party is Racist and Soulless.”
Shanon Terry, the new chairman of the county party who said he authored the post, is a member of the county school board. The Lawrence County NAACP said in a statement that his credibility on the board “has been tainted” following the post.
“We come here today to ask Shanon Terry, we are demanding your resignation,” Lawrence County NAACP President J.E. Turnbore said at a press conference on Friday. “We do not want you to govern over our children.”
The county party called the sharing of the image a mistake and apologized on Facebook in a post apparently signed by Terry, according to media reports.
“I would like to offer a deep and sincere apology for a picture that temporarily appeared on this page last night. A Google search picture of a GOP elephant was used and later found to have hidden images that do not represent the views or beliefs of the Lawrence County Republican Party,” the post said.
The Facebook page for the group is currently inactive. CNN has reached out to Terry for comment.
Terry told CNN affiliate WAFF on Thursday that he does not intend to resign from his school board position.
“I regret the mistake that was made, and it was just that- an unintended mistake. The image posted by me on a political Facebook page was not done with any malicious or harmful intent. Once made aware of the negative portion of the picture I immediately replaced it and followed up with an apology/explanation the next day,” Terry said in a statement.
“My error was rushing to post a thank you note to the outgoing chairperson, in doing so I did not properly review a cut and paste image used in that post from an internet search for a ‘GOP elephant’. I do not support or agree with any hate group agenda and certainly would not try to further their cause,” he said.
The NAACP chapter said the incident should not be ignored.
“We know that the KKK in its history has been a notorious terrorist organization against African Americans and every other minority in this country,” Turnbore said Friday. “We do not want any type of KKK influence in our school system anywhere in our county government.”
CNN has reached out to the Lawrence County School Board for comment.
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