A mayor in Alabama resigned after making derogatory comments about the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team for his support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Carbon Hill Mayor Mark Chambers submitted a resignation letter Saturday to the city clerk that said, “I resigned as mayor on June 27 at 4:30 pm,” the city attorney said Tuesday. Steven Thomas to NBC News.
Carbon Hill is a city of less than 2,000 people, most of them white, according to the most recent census data. The city is about 60 miles northwest of Birmingham.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Chambers wrote: “I have several pictures of Alabama for sale,” adding that, in his opinion, Crimson Tide and his coach, Nick Saban, “are over,” according to The Daily Mountain newspaper, who said he received screenshots of the comments.
After a person commented on this post, “I think they may be right, they haven’t looked so good in recent years,” Chambers replied that he would not get rid of the photos due to the team’s performance, the newspaper reported. “They regret it … political opinions are the reason they leave my house,” he wrote.
Chambers added: “When you put black lives before all lives, they can kiss me a …”.
The post seemed to respond to a two-minute video the team released Thursday with players and Saban reading an essay by Crimson Tide’s offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood, which closed with the words: “All lives can’t matter until black lives matter. ” “
“At this point in history, we cannot be silent,” said the tweet that accompanied the video.
Chambers could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. When he arrived Saturday by text message from the Daily Mountain Eagle, he declined to comment, telling the newspaper: “Make it good, Ed, you’ve done a good job so far.” He also asked not to be contacted anymore.
Chambers apologized last June for a Facebook post suggesting that gays, abortion rights advocates and others should be killed.
Greg Anderson has been named pro-temporary mayor of the city. The Carbon Hill City Council is slated to meet on Wednesday night to discuss plans to appoint a new mayor for the remainder of the term, which ends in November, the city attorney said.
