Alabama County Republicans Apologize for Accidentally Posting GOP Elephant Image With ‘Hidden’ KKK Symbols

Lawrence County Republican Party on Facebook

An Alabama county’s Republican party issued an apology this week for posting a graphic with Ku Klux Klan imagery on its Facebook page in error.

The image was taken from a 2020 piece in the progressive magazine Mother Jones headlined “The Republican Party Is Racist and Soulless.” The featured image portrayed the GOP elephant with eyes added in the white space between the elephants legs to depict Klansmen in hoods. It was obviously intended to be critical of Republicans.

After the graphic was used in a Facebook post thanking outgoing Lawrence County Republican Party Chairman Daniel Stover for his service, the imagery was of course quickly noticed by everyone but whoever posted it.

Alabama Democrat Anthony Daniels, the state House minority leader, blasted the Lawrence GOP for the ‘disgusting image,” and included a screenshot of the original post, which has since been updated.

Shame on the Lawrence County Republican Party for this disgusting image. @TheDaleJackson pic.twitter.com/sf5j4QvneY

— Anthony Daniels (@AnthonyDaniels) August 17, 2022

Incoming Lawrence Republican party chair Shanon Terry posted an apology on the party’s Facebook page, saying that they simply used Google image search for a graphic and missed the “hidden images” in it, which “do not represent” the Lawrence GOP.

“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,” she posted on the group’s Facebook page.

Terry is also on the school board in the county, and in a statement to local CBS affiliate News 19 said he will not be resigning from that seat.

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.

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