Following posting a photo of the GOP elephant with Ku Klux Klan symbolism on it, the Lawrence County Republican Party is facing stark criticisms and scrutiny by the Alabama House minority leader and the NAACP. Amidst the controversy, party chairman Shanon Terry said that while he regrets the ‘unintended’ mistakes, he will not be resigning from his role on the county’s school board.

The controversy began when the Lawrence Country GOP posted a photo on Facebook on Sunday evening, thanking the party chairman. The photo included the Republican Party elephant, which had three images in the original post, resembling Ku Klux Klan hoods between its legs.

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The photo was soon deleted from Facebook and was later posted again with another image of the Republican Party elephant. The county Republican Party also issued an apology on Monday for posting the photo.

However, the earlier post was met with widespread protests and criticisms and demanded the resignation of party chairman Shanon Terry from the Lawrence County school board.

“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,” Terry said in a statement on Thursday.

The county Republican Party chairman added that he is looking forward to providing every student in the school with the opportunity to become successful. Terry also termed the post as an ‘unintended mistake’ and stressed that it was not done with any malicious intent.

“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,” he said.

“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 added.

Shanon Terry also said that he feels he is being portrayed incorrectly for which he has already apologized.

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Anthony Daniels, the Alabama House minority leader, expressed disappointment for the said Facebook post on his Twitter account. Lawrence Country NAACP president Jan Turnbore also followed suit, saying the photo should not have been posted.

”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 will also hold a press conference on Friday to demand the resignation of Shanon Terry.