After deleting their Facebook page in an attempt to cover up their “mistake,” a local GOP group in Alabama is apologizing after claiming it accidentally posted racist imagery on Tuesday. The imagery depicted a GOP elephant resembling the Ku Klux Klan. After posting the image, the Lawerence County Republican party claimed they intended to post a GOP elephant—not the one with legs drawn to resemble hooded Klansmen.
Fact-checking and thinking before posting on social media seem to be commonly neglected actions by members of the GOP. And, worse, forgetting that what you post online stays there forever, despite how fast you think you can delete it—but I guess one can try.
“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,” Shannon Terry wrote in a Facebook post apologizing for the use of the image.
“As chairman I take full responsibility for the error,” Terry added.
According to CBS News affiliate WHNT, Terry is a member of the Lawrence County School Board. He said he will not resign from his position, despite calls for him to do so after the image was posted. The image was posted as an announcement of Terry’s new position as county chairman. A statement from Terry released to News 19 reads in part:
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.
According to the Associated Press, the post sparked outrage from both local constituents and state leaders.
The image was allegedly used after being found via a Google image search of GOP elephants. Of course, instead of taking the time to both look at the image and see where it came from, the group chose to just post it.
The KKK imagery is formed by adding black eyeholes between the legs of the elephant, which creates the illusion of white hoods in the negative space.
Worse, the text attached to the post in question reads, In part: “[Daniel Stover] has put countless hours into leading the local GOP to represent your conservative values.” Paired with the Klan imagery, this can only be described as “a bad look.”
The image was created by illustrator Woody Harrington and originally used in a 2020 Mother Jones article titled, "The Republican Party is Racist and Soulless. Just Ask This Veteran GOP Strategist."
Harrington shared the image on Instagram Wednesday, with the caption: "2 years ago I created this image for a piece in [Mother Jones] about the hate, bigotry, and racism hidden within Trump's GOP. It now come to my attention that the Hate Elephant has been given new life (without permission or credit, of course)."
Alabama’s state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, a Democratic lawmaker from Huntsville, Alabama, criticized the use of the image, tweeting on Tuesday, “Shame on the Lawrence County Republican Party for this disgusting image.”
According to CBS News, the group's Facebook page, which had been active since 2009, was deleted as of 6 PM EDT Thursday.