‘I will not be resigning’: Lawrence Co. GOP Chair will not resign from school board

LAWRENCE Co., Ala. (WAFF) - The Lawrence County Republican Party is facing scrutiny from the Alabama House minority leader and the NAACP after posting an image of the GOP elephant that had Ku Klux Klan symbolism in it. The party’s chairman said he has no plans to step down from his role on the county’s school board.

Lawrence County GOP Chairman Shanon Terry said in a Thursday statement:

I will not be resigning from my elected office on the Lawrence County School Board. The voters of District Four elected me to represent them and I am proud of the accomplishments of this administration over the past six years. I look forward to continuing to strive to give every student in Lawrence County the best opportunity to be successful.

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. 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.

I strive to be an open and honest person who works to be a positive influence in my community. I feel I am being incorrectly portrayed by some over this unfortunate issue. I have apologized, taken responsibility for the post, corrected the image, and posted an explanation. I know that these actions to address this regretful error may not satisfy everyone, but I believe they demonstrate the sincerity of my feelings on this matter.

On Sunday evening, the Lawrence County GOP posted on Facebook thanking its county party chairman. In the post, the party included an image of the Republican Party elephant. However, the elephant in the original post had three images that resembled Ku Klux Klan hoods in between the elephant’s legs.

The post was taken down and reposted with the more traditional Republican Party elephant image. The Lawrence County Republican Party also issued an apology on Monday afternoon on Facebook stating:

“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 picture was then immediately replaced. As chairman I take full responsibility for the error- Shanon Terry.”

The Alabama House minority leader, Anthony Daniels, posted on Twitter expressing his disappointment for the Facebook post.

Lawrence County president of the NAACP, Jan Turnbore, said despite an apology from the Lawrence County GOP, the post should have never been made.

”The Republican Party needs to reach out, not only to retract this, not only to apologize but make sure that this mindset of superiority does not have any kind of foothold in Lawrence County,” Turnbore said.

The Lawrence County NAACP held a news conference on Friday calling for the resignation of Terry.

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